2012 Summer Tour, Day 8 - Mallaig to Strontian (4th June)

The weather forecast didn't bode well for today's ride - it was predicted to become overcast with light rain. In the end, the weather improved as the day went on, and evening in  Strontian saw completely clear blue skies. After another fine breakfast, we rolled out of Mallaig, along the main road. This isn't very busy first thing in the morning, particularly on a bank holiday. Nevertheless, we always get abuse from at least one driver who thinks we should be riding on an entirely inadequate cycle path. This path is about a metre wide and is shared by cyclists and pedestrians in BOTH directions. Anyway, we kept to the road, and soon traversed the ups and downs of the road, reaching Lochailort in quick time. Loch Ailort is a lovely sea loch, and there are numerous opportunities to stop and admire the view (in common with much of the country we cycled through, Loch Ailort is seeing quite a lot of housebuilding). Indeed, we dawdled along until Glenuig, where another of my favourite road signs is to be seen (watch out for elephants). From Glenuig, the road goes up and up, until it descends to Loch Moidart. We stopped beside the road to heat up some lunch. We were much amused by watching seagulls stamping on patches of seaweed, presumably to scare tasty morsels out. From Kinlochmoidart, the road climbs once again - this is the section being worked on and about which we were warned about. Fortunately, no work was going on due to it being a bank holiday. Once over the newly rebuilt road, we descended into Acharacle, where we stopped for ice creams at the village shop, before once again climbing over to Salen and Loch Sunart. The road from there is delightful, with mixed broadleaf woodland, and stunning views. at one point we stopped to look at some seals basking on a rock. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of a whole succession of switchback climbs and descents on singletrack. Eventually, we reached the turnoff for our B&B for the night, Heatherbank. This is a really nice B&B about 2 miles up a lane. Fortunately, there's a Tearoom/restauranf about halfway up the hill: after getting cleaned up, we walked down for dinner (we had venison). Returning to the B&B exposed us to midgies, but walking briskly kept them at bay. As I type this it's hard to believe the weather will turn tomorrow, the last day of the tour!