35km: 856m accent: 346m highest point: 2.5 hours ride time: all on road
Punctures 0: Stacks 0
One of the biggest planning obstacles was working out how to return to the car at the end of the trip. We went through four different ideas, before it all fell into place. We left our car at our start point of Sheil Bridge, where two friends who we got a days' insurance for drove it to Glasgow, leaving just a two hour train journey for us to collect it at the end of the ride.
We wild camped the night before the first day in Glen Sheil. The beautiful sunny morning allowed us to empty all our kit onto the ground. Four hours later, after going through everything with a fine tooth comb, having many a discussion over what is really needed and several packing trial and errors, we were ready
After a short warm up of the legs going around Loch Duich, we were faced with a sweaty 346m climb, but what goes up must come down! The weather was unusually warm and sunny, leading to us desiring a dip in the Loch when we reach our end point.
Our accommodation for the night was a little vague. Being on a budget and not wanting to carry camping gear, we were restricted to few sleeping points. B&B's, never mind hostels were in short supply, so a Facebook conversation with Sheena's tea hut in Corran gave us a lead to a caravan. Alls we knew was we could stay in Billy's caravan and it would not cost much. Arriving at Sheena's Tea Hut (well worth a visit), we quickly realised that the caravan was real, that it did have a roof (unlike another we passed) and would have a shower. "Not much money" turned out to be £40 for the night. We took a moment at the tea hut, sat out in the garden with an ice cream and enjoyed what was seeming to be a "casual holiday". This thought continued as we cycled on round to our well equipt loch-side caravan.
The time had come, before leaving the sea tomorrow, we had to do our west coast dip. The water was massively contrasting to the air temperature, it did take three attempts for us all to get our heads under the water and to swim - not that the swimming lasted more than 5 seconds.
As we were drying out on the bench we were greeted by Billy, who came in the nick of time with some additional towels and to show us how to get the hot water working for the shower. Billy was saying how everyone who comes to the caravan always wants to return. Spending the evening looking out the window and comparing mountains to the maps, the possibilities of adventures from this spot are endless - whether they be land or water based.
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