Day #7 : into Arrochar — End to End in Ten

65 miles of riding today having taken a more direct route out of Moffat to Larkhall station and taking a train that removed the 35 miles or so circling Glasgow.

The 40 mile ride out of Moffat was quite scenic to begin with, with a hefty climb at the start but then we were on a straight B road for about 2.5 hours past the Clyde wind farm (and into a headwind) which was totally featureless and a bit trying.

Banter exhausted, we went to audio books. Am listening to 'Digging up Mother' - an autobiographical effort by the US comic Doug Stanhope. Not for the faint hearted but it's working for me. I think Tim was on Alan Patridge which I listened to for a short while last night - forgot how funny it was. I must watch Paul and Pauline Calf again soon..

We comfortably made our midday train connection which after just over an hour dropped us West of Glasgow for a great 25 mile leg up the Western shore of Loch Lomond - entirely on a dedicated cycle way. Weather was dry and, remarkably, at times warm and sunny.

We were overtaken by a convoy of what I took to be die-hard Scottish Mods on Vespa scooters with varying degrees of customisation. My personal favourite was a bright orange one with Trojan records and Northern Soul livery and a good dose of extra chrome mirrors. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about I'm sorry (and you should check out a movie called Quadrophenia if you feel like broadening your cultural horizons).

Very annoyingly my Garmin dropped the 25 mile Loch Lomond leg by crashing when I clicked 'Save' - so no Strava or cool Relive video of that (unless I can rip it out of ViewRanger which does have it logged - if only Dave Reid was here - he would find a way).

We are staying at a hotel in Arrochar right by the shores of the Loch - just 3 more days, a bigger one tomorrow with quite a bit of climbing before lunch.

Ride video - part 1 | View ranger track - part 2

scooter mods - originals vs revivalists going on the average age