Sunday 17th May
After about 4 hours sleep thanks to noisy Glaswegians outside the Eurohostel, I was looking forward to a nice fry-up which didn’t happen so I had to make do with cereal and toast. Lucy and I were supposed to be staying at the Eurohostel again at the end of the trip but Lucy's friend Esther had offered us a floor to sleep on and after a night like we had just had we decided to take her up on the offer.
We got in the car and drove to the Ardrossan ferryport where we found somewhere safe (I hope) to leave the car and then we met the rest of the group who had gone there by train.

The gang at the start, from left to right Matt, Paul, Ced, Jilly, Lucy and Fred

We all bought our Island Rover tickets which covered us for any ferry for the rest of the trip and then boarded the ferry to Arran.

On Ferry number one to Arran

We landed on Arran at 10.30 knowing we had to catch the 3.45 Kintyre ferry from the town of Lochranza on the north tip of the island. Lucy and I decided to take the long way round the outskirts of the island, Fred went across the middle then up and the rest of the group just headed north. The weather was a bit dull and the road surface was the worst I had ever ridden on – potholes everywhere.

Holy Island in the distance

Lucy on one of the few pothole-free sections

42 miles later we arrived at Lochranza where we all met up and got on the ferry to the town of Claonaig on Kintyre. We then had a 7 mile ride to the B&B at Kennacraig which was really nice (it even had a bath). Matt and Ced were planning to camp that night so they disappeared off in search of a tent pitch, we dumped our panniers and then headed into the town of Tarbert for something to eat. It was now drizzling steadily and by the time we left the restaurant it was chucking it down. We all felt really sorry for Matt and Ced having to camp out in it, honest we did. The evening ended with Jilly teaching Fred and I how to play rummikub.