The event may have been survivable had it not been for the fact that we'd settled only for toast and fruit for dinner the previous evening and muesli and toast for breakfast this morning - come mid afternoon our protein starved bodies were well & truly paying for it !
We'd started off well enough bidding farewell to our host James, a walking history encyclopedia, and his own cottage which came complete with a mysterious wood and single standing stone indicating ancient pagan origins.
Much to Monika's chagrin we started the day by backtracking 3kms towards Kilmartin to visit the Temple Wood Stone circle and 5,000 year old burial
chambers that make this area one of the richest concentration of prehistoric areas in Scotland.
I must admit I did give temporary thought to leaving Monika locked in one of the chambers but the odds of me getting away with it weren't that good given the likelihood that another tourist would let her out in a day or two.
We with that thought packed away till the next opportunity, we turned around heading now this time in the right direction on this superbly sunny day although still only around 14 c !
After 10 kms we joined on to the amazing man made Crinan canal, 14 kms long and completed in 1801 allowing boats yachts to sail from thru 15 separate locks and once sailed by Queen Victoria in a boat towed by horses !
We departed the canal at the ocean at Ardrishaig and cycled along a beautiful section of road with stunning sea views. It wasn't long before we reached our B road turn off and started climbing steeply on single track road.
It didn't take " Old Eagle Eyes " long to retort " hey why are we going this way when Taerbert is still 50 kms when the A road we were on indicated Taerbert only 15 kms away" !
I mumbled something about the scenery and continued quickly to cycle the 5km climb to the peak
A magic descent was followed with Monika still cursing until we reached the ocean with stunning views out over the ocean towards Jura. Apart from the constant undulations this was almost as good as it gets !
Our plans had been to make it to the half way point at Kilberry for a much needed lunch but to our disappointment the one and only inn was closed. This now meant we had another 25 foodless kms to cycle before reaching Taerbet.
On low energy reserves and with the hills now kicking in, this was tough going and it wasn't long before my bike parts started looking tantalizingly "edible" with my handlebars starting to resemble licorice all sorts !
Somehow we made in through to the beautiful port of Taerbet, spied a Co-Op supermarket and in almost cave men like frenzy jointly set about devouring anything within reach !
With the feeding frenzy over and our bodies well satiated, we took a lovely 2 km cycle along the waterfront to our stunningly positioned b&b.
A tough day all round !
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