(written by Dave)

I’m not sure how it came across in the post but yesterday our ride was epic.  Temperatures of 6 to 10 degrees and rain for 4 plus hours.  So today, we decided to have a sleep in and enjoy a day with the bikes locked in the shed.  It rained hard overnight and was misting this morning when we got up.  By the time we left the hostel at 10AM (it is mandatory that everyone is out between 10AM and 5PM) the mist had stopped and there was almost some sun.  The sun didn’t really last but it was dry throughout the day.  It was basically a very grey Scotland day.

Speaking of grey, some readers may wonder how we end up with so many photos with bluish skies yet we keep talking about rain in Scotland.  You should know that the camera rarely comes out when it is raining.  The camera is not waterproof so we are careful.  On days like yesterday, this means fewer photos.  On days like today we get lots of grey photos.  In fact, today when I downloaded the photos I first thought that I’d messed up the camera and set it to B&W mode.  Almost no blue sky and no sunshine, lots of grey photos.  You can see how people here would get depressed with all the grey and rain.

In the paper today, we saw another article saying that September is forecast to be warmer and dryer than average.  Now we’ve seen this on the TV and in the paper so it must be true.  One of our readers suggested that we slow the pace and only cycle on sunny days.  While an interesting suggestion, I’m afraid it would take many many months for us to make progress with that rule.  Rain and weather are just part of Great Britain.

Speaking of the paper, we got to read a lot of it today.  We had morning tea and an early dinner in the same restaurant in town.  They had nice big tables, great home baked goods, free Wi-Fi and didn’t seem to mind us sitting for a couple long spells.  Fresh scones and coffee and a thick weekend edition paper, no matter the weather, make for an ok way to spend a Saturday.

We didn’t sit all day, managing to walk the entire town, find a wool shop and the post office to send some gifts home and checkout Inveraray Castle.  The castle was quite interesting.  It is the home of the Duke and Duchess Argyll – real royalty.  They live in London most of the time but come up here for breaks.  The castle is not too old, only a couple hundred years but the site has had castles for much longer.  The Duke of Argyll is also the chief of Clan Campbell.  I don’t think that the Campbell Clan and my clan, the Mackenzie Clan, were the best of friends so I kept a low profile.  I managed one covert photo of the armory to share later with my fellow clansmen (insides photos were not allowed) (editor’s note: I think that Dave is taking this clan thing a little too serious.  He’s now taken answering me with “aye” (he sounds like a drunken Irish sailor) and is growing his beard – bring on England where we have no known kin).

The rains have now returned but the forecast for tomorrow is not too bad.  With another day like today, we should be able to make some forward progress.  All our gear is dry now, so at least we’ll start the day dry.  We only have about 40 miles/65k planned so we can afford to ride around showers if they come.  Fingers crossed we’ll make it to Dunoon without getting too wet.

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