Day 27 - Larne to Lochranza - 80kms

En route to Lochranza

It was a day that took us back into Scotland providing for great scenery and our first encounter with the much talked about Scottish midges - by days end it was Midges 1 Aussies nil!

The day started with an early ferry from Larne Nthn Ireland to Troon Scotland the 2 hour crossing in drizzling rain was uneventful and KH slept through most of it to keep up his fine form.

A 30km ride on a well signed cycle route took us to Ardrossan a poor seaside cousin of Troons with rubbish and rotting seaweed everywhere and dilapidated buildings indicating this was a much nicer resort many years back.

The ferry to Broddick on the Isle of Arran took only 1 hr. The Isle of Arran is often referred to as Scotland in miniature which was little comfort as we climbed out on a ball busting gradient for 3-4kms. The reward though was a great downhill towards the coast on the west side and then a magnificent 30 km ride mainly on the sea front to the speculator situated town of Lochranza a small town on the nth coast with mtns on 3 sides

With the youth hostel found (one of the best to date) a quick survey indicated only 2 eateries in town one of which was the local pub

Evening brought my first up close exposure to the midge - looks like a sand fly and behaves like a mosquito on heat making it nearly impossie to stay outside unless you were running faster than midge speed

Our first exposure to the Scottish Islands has shown what fantastic place this is for cycling with great views and limited traffic in non mainstream areas. As for those midges round 2 is coming up and this time well be better prepared!