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Travel StoriesAndy's Scottish Expedition
Exploring Arran and The Mull Of Kintyre
By Andy Gray
Day 5: Arran to Port Ban campsite (146 miles)
If I thought it rained a lot the night before last, that was nothing compared to last night. It didn’t stop until 07:30 this morning. Split the tent to separate the soaking outer from the dryish inner so I hope to have less of an issue tonight.
Left the campsite at 09:00 and made my way up the west coast of Arran which reminded me of many places in Norway as you could see the other coast across the water. In places you were up on the cliffs, in others just above water level.
Blackwaterfoot, Isle of Arran
It was a day for wildlife as I saw the first two red squirrels that I’ve ever seen, both ran across the road in front of me within 100 yards of each other. I rode round a bend and saw two peacocks in a field - yes peacocks! Then there were two groups of grey seals sunbathing (well waiting for it) on some rocks, managed to walk down the beach and get some photos without disturbing them.
Waving seal
Once I got south of Lochranza, I could see a ferry heading in from the Kintyre peninsular. Luckily I got there just before it - another cheap one of £8.
Lochranza Claonaig ferry
None of the towns on Arran are very large, the largest is probably Brodick. There was nothing up the west coast more than half a dozen buildings. Lochranza didn’t look very big from the ferry.
This crossing made up for the lack of wildlife yesterday, all the food must be to the north of Arran as there were several pods of dolphins or porpoises. They never came close enough to the ferry to see them properly as I left my binoculars at home!
Leaving the Isle of Arran
My plan was to head down east side of the Kintyre Peninsula & back up the west visiting the town of Southend on the, erm, south end. Just to see how it compared to It’s namesake in Essex - I suspect I know which one I’ll like more!! And to sing Mull of Kintyre by Wings, of course.
The sign coming off of the ferry said single track road with passing places - they weren’t wrong, almost 14 miles of it to Campbeltown. Suppose it’s good practise for the NC500 if I get that far. This was exciting as the road also included several hairpin bends.
I stopped for a very good all day breakfast (2 sausages, 2 bacon, egg, potato scone, black pudding, beans, tomatoes, toast & tea) for lunch at Cafe Bluebell before heading south in the first shower of the day.
The roads to Southend improved and there wasn’t much there apart from a pub & shop. A little out of town was the beach with a campsite behind it. Much less busy & therefore nicer than Southend on Sea, sorry Essex.
Southend and the Mull of Kintyre
Heading back north, the “road” to get to the west coast took me up over the hills through the forests. These were just about classed as roads for the most part, only used for accessing the few farms around there.
The road through the hills and forests
After that it was onto the boring A83 to Tarbert, the only excitement was a traffic incident where the seemingly 15 year old PC explained that a lorry had driven off the road and got stuck. It would take 15 minutes to recover and get us moving again in which time some proper rain arrived and followed me into Tarbert.
In the rain, I wasn’t really looking forward to tonight’s camp and searched booking.com for a hotel but didn’t find anything I fancied. The forecast said it was going to clear up for a couple of hours. 12 more miles of single track road & rain and I got to the Port Ban Holiday Park as the sun came out. The prefab offices, the tarmac tennis court with grass tufts in it and the many green caravans made it seem rather tired, the £12 charge worried me even more. Then again it was meant to be £17.
The owners were sweet and got me a map to show where I can get petrol in the morning as the bike is very low - looks like I should make it with 5 miles to go.
They told me to head down the hill towards the sea, turn right and the camping area was in 1/3 mile. They said I could choose any free pitch as they’re not busy. Only one pitch was in use which left around 20 for me. Chose one next up the sea with an electric point as I need to charge things up!
Rain, what rain?
It’s raining somewhere over there
Dried off the tent fully before setting it back up ready for tonight’s forecast deluge. Then I checked out the toilet/shower block - this place has some proper classy loos & showers. Even the washing up area is posh - not what I was expecting from the initial impression of the place.
Posh washing up area
Posh bathrooms
Posh Showers
After that shock, I headed for a walk down the beach as I could see what looked like a derelict chapel on the headland in the distance. It was about a mile away and turned out to be a tomb to some Campbells - couldn’t see how long ago as it was well worn. At least they had a good view.
The tomb
The view from the tomb
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Reader's Comments
Upt'North said :-
Arrrrr, the West Coast of Wee Bonny Scotland. Takes some beating.
Upt'North.
21/11/2019 17:51:54 UTC
Ren - The Ed¹ said :-
I think I have some kind of self flagellation thing going on too Upt' While I'm not actually whipping myself I appear to be relentlessly tormenting myself by running this blog that gets filled with images of places I'd much rather be. I think I'm going to start a blog about knitting, much safer both physically and emotionally.
22/11/2019 16:34:36 UTC
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Travel StoriesAndy's Scottish Expedition