Day 8 - Lochmaben to Ayr

It's not ideal, but on this trip we have three types of gear: cycling stuff for each days ride, camping gear for the evenings to cook, sleep and shelter, and hiking gear to take us up each of the three peaks. Every morning, without fail, we have to pack each bit of kit back into three tiny bags and fit these back onto the bike. And usually this occurs in the rain with no tent for protection (it needs packing too). Its a long and tedious process and this morning was no exception. For two and a half hours we packed up, piled everything onto the bikes and left our loch-side campsite, all under grey scottish drizzle.

Today's route with a long steady climb lasting nearly 60km!

The hills began almost immediately as we cut across on back roads from Lochmabin to the main Dumfries to Kilmarnock route which cut through the southern lowlands. Although this route started busily enough in boring agricultural surroundings, it soon turned into a beautiful (and quiet) alpine pass. To our left was a steep ravine cut by a deep, fast flowing river. On our right were steep forested slopes bounded at the top by a train line. The gentle gradient was also almost enough for us to forget that we were climbing into the mountains.



After lunch by the ravine the road levelled off into a more open valley. Wild sheep pastures slowly transformed into narrow fields and we seemed to re-enter civilisation. The shallow gradient was gone, however, replaced by steep rolling hills. The solitude of the mountains had also been replaced by a multitude of impatient car, lorry and tractor drivers. Reluctantly we followed this route for the rest of the day. 

Smooth private roads

In a car, the state of the road surface probably has absolutely no effect on the smoothness of the ride. On two-inch-wide, suspension-less road bike wheels however, a bad road surface is as noticable as the light of day and Scotland seems to have more than its fair share of dodgy road surfaces. Most look like a patchwork quilt of quick-fixes, with each layer of pothole-covering asphalt simply creating a more uneven surface. After an afternoon of continuous ups and downs, as well as a thin drizzle that stopped and started at will, we found a touristy cafe in the grounds of a castle. Remarkably the private road from the castle gate house to the cafe was one of the best road surfaces we'd seen all week. There we researched campsites and found a welcoming caravan park 10km away on the outskirts of Ayr.

A sunny evening for once!

The site was nice enough except for the rabble of kids who, despite apparent free roam of the site, emitted their high pitch shreiks only in the area around our tent (Oh no, ive turned into one of those people). Amazingly the dense white cloud that had hung over our heads all day seemed to melt away and a dim evening sun appeared. With weather warnings in force for tomorrow, however, it is when rather than if the next drenching will occur.

Tomorrow we follow the Ayrshire coast to Gourock and cross the Firth of Clyde by ferry. That means that this time tomorrow we will be in the Highlands! I can smell the whiskey already. Or is that just the rain?

Stats:
Distance: 101km
Total Distance: 595km
Average Speed: 20.0kph