Day 3 : Portree to Tobermory on Mull : Friday 22nd October : 108 miles
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A quick look through the curtains in the morning confirmed that, yep - it was still raining but by now we'd kind of got used to it and had accepted that non-rainy periods were a bonus. We had breakfast (a full cooked of course) and the owner who had kindly offered to try and dry our gloves out in the tumble dryer on low heat produced a pile of clammy leather. While it was a kind thought, waterproof membranes in gloves don't really let them dry out so they'd ended up dry(ish) on the outside and damp inside.- you live and learn (or not as the case may be...).
After packing the bikes, we settled up and set out towards Armadale for the first ferry of the trip, taking us back onto the mainland at Mallaig. Today was only to be short in mileage but with a couple of ferries and some slow, soaking wet single track roads, it was still going to be a decent days ride. In a slight lull in the rain, we stopped for a few photo's and discovered that Jimmy's sprint was low on coolant. With the temperature gauge reading fine he wasn't to concerned but he decided to try and find some at the large petrol station in Broadford. This was the third time I've been to Skye on the bike and I'd like to go back and see more of the island. The last time I was there, it was on a trip with 'other half's' and we had some great weather. I just need to combine more time on the island with good weather...
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After fuelling up (unfortunately, no coolant for Jimmy - he topped up with a bit of water) it wasn't long till we arrived at Armadale for the ferry. The route we were taking was one of the ones that CalMac offer at a discounted rate as a 'hopscotch' if you pay in advance, so we saved about £15 on our first three crossings thanks to Phil having the foresight to find out about it and sort everything out
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As usual, bikes were loaded first
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but they made the non-GS'es park on their own in second class - tough but fair we thought:
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It stopped raining during the crossing but the clouds we could see on the mainland didn't give us much hope for a change in the weather
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Coming off the ferry at Mallaig, we called in at a local white sand beach which we'd come across last time we were there - it was glorious then in the sun - not quite as inviting this time but still well worth a look:
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After a brief stop there we carried on down the superb road which links Mallaig to Lochailort - as it ends at Mallaig, it only really carries ferry traffic and has long sections of freshly resurfaced, sweeping cambered bends.
As we were leaving the ferry, I'd been looking forward to the little roads which thread their way around the west coast alongside the lochs. Over the years I have canoed many of the lochs in this area and I was wondering if I'd remember Ailort, Moidart, Shiel and Sunart as we passed them. I'm happy to say the area was as good as I remembered but with the weather set back to rain we didn't get the best views of the scenery and you always had to have an sharp eye on the single track roads. Phil managed an impromptu bit of off-roading when he glanced at his tank bag map and drove of the edge of the road (a 6" step) but a quick 'clench' and a bit of throttle saw him bounce back up. That said, the roads were still great and you see them in a whole different way on a bike compared to an Astra with a 15' open canoe strapped to the roof! Another place to put on the list for a re-visit.
We stopped for lunch a cafe we remembered at Acharacle on the head of Loch Sunart where we had some excellent fried steak baguettes
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but as they were takeaway only we had to sit in a bus stop to eat them - I've not hung around in a bus stop since I was about 13
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From there, it was fairly short journey alongside Loch Sunart to our next ferry at Kilchoan to take us onto Mull. Again this was a narrow twisty single track road - good fun and livened up when we met a herd of large cattle in the middle of the road. They didn't really seem like they were too concerned about moving and there was a bit of a Mexican stand-off until something made them decide to turn round and amble down the road away from us.
By now the rain was coming down hard and the sky was that flat grey where the cloud seems to meet the ground but I was enjoying it - I was warm and dry and in my own little relaxed bubble, sheltered from the elements as we burbled along. Pretty quickly, we arrived at the Kilchoan ferry terminal, I say 'terminal' as it was one of the most minimal ferry landings I've seen
- basically a big slipway, a little waiting hut and an electronic notice board giving you information about the next sailings (by luck, we'd timed it pretty well as we only had half an hour till the next boat). As we waited at the top of the slipway, we were joined by a single car. They sat in their Merc reading the paper and we hung around doing drowned rat impressions!
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Did I say it was wet?
...
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Soon we saw the masts of a boat above the harbour wall but as the boat came into view I thought "bugger it's not the ferry, it's a fishing boat". Then I saw the 'CalMac' insignia and thought "bloody hell, it is a ferry, but it's tiny!"
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The 'smallest ferry in the world' manoeuvred itself up to the slipway, dropped the bow ramp (which seemed to form a 45 degree, slick steel cliff face) and the crew beckoned us on. Having made it up the ramp we all parked up next to the rails and the car reversed on. This took some doing as due to the angle of the ramp, all he could apparently see was ramp or sky.
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The crew seemed a bit surprised to be confronted with six bikes on a miserable October Friday and they didn't have enough straps for us but we were parked well away from the deck cleats anyway so they just told us to watch out for our bikes as we crossed to Tobermory. I really should have paid attention to that bit...
The ferry backed away from the slip, turned round and set out for Mull and although the weather was fairly poor, the sea was all but flat. I was standing next to Jimmys bike talking to him, when all of a sudden I heard several people go whoa! and I turned round to find Phil holding my bike upright by it's right bar. As with most 1100's it leans a long way over on its side stand and when loaded has a tendency to lift the front wheel. It did just this in the gentle swell. It had caught it's left bar end and clutch lever on the steel side of the ferry - luckily the clutch / instrument assembly wasn't clamped too tightly and it spun on the bar, but it's slightly bent the rubber mounted section at the end of the bar. No real damage done and a lucky escape thanks to my buddies! Suitably chastened, I spent the rest of the twenty minute crossing wedged between my bike and the side of the ferry - if it went over again, I was getting in the way!
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Coo had the right idea:
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Arriving at Tobermory, we negotiated the steel cliff face once more and drove the couple of hundred yards to our next B&B, the 'Carnaburg Guest House'. Having chained the bikes up across the street we went inside once again littering the place with damp waterproofs.
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As divers, we'd all been to Tobermory several times before on dive boats from Oban, so after a shower and a cuppa, we knew to head for the 'Mishnish', an excellent pub on the harbour front:
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A couple of drinks in there...
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and we were ready for some food, which we found at an excellent new Chinese restaurant down the road:
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It turned out to be unlicensed, which caused a moments consternation but we didn't cry and made do with coke...
All in all a great day and I was looking forward to more of the same.
To be continued...
.
) none of us were up for seeing it through till 2 am and we drifted back to the hotel.
