A great day’s riding. Weather? Warm and sunny: arms out for the first time this trip. Navigation? Easy: pretty much one road all the way from Oban to the ferry port at Claonaig. Speed? Good: over 20kph average for the day. Hills? Hmmm…

Today was possibly one of the most enjoyable of the trip so far. The way out of Oban was basically another A-road, which we had our reservations about given yesterday’s experience, but it did mean we could save about 30 miles over using the Sustrans route; clearly, it was a no -brainer. However, we needn’t have worried: whilst reasonably busy at first, the traffic soon thinned out, leaving us with an empty, beautifully maintained piece of road to ride on.

The route wound it’s way round the coast, undulating through (yet more) magnificent scenery. In fact, this was by far the hilliest day of the trip so far, but it is testament to the fact that we’re all getting stronger that we took it in our stride and were able to easily conquer climbs that even a few days ago would have proved challenging. Even the Dawg (despite protestations to the contrary) was flying up the inclines. Good work mate!

That was pretty much the story for the day: great roads, big climbs, fast descents and stunning scenery. We did stop a couple of times – once at a National Trust place for great views and ice cream; once at the picturesque Lochgilphead for lunch on the village green – and we did take a (planned) detour via the beautiful Crinan Canal, but other than that we kept up a decent pace as we aimed to get to the ferry in time to get us over to Arran. At one point we were even riding like a pro-cycling team, each taking the lead in turn in order to maintain a fast pace. It’s probably the closest any of us will ever come to feeling like Bradley Wiggins.

We were making such good time that for a while we even entertained the idea of getting the 4.20 ferry rather than the 5.50 one, and pushed on down the West coast. However, with just five miles to go that idea was scuppered by a monster of a hill, one of the biggest of the trip, which slowed our progress to a crawl. Having missed the boat by a matter of minutes, we had to settle for an hour’s downtime on the beach instead. Oh well, at least it afforded us the opportunity to relax and take some more great pics!

Indeed, one thing that has emerged is something of an obsession with taking photos of the bikes (you may have noticed!). My camera roll has (temporarily) gone from being full of photos of the kids to photos of the Genesis. The competitive streak has kicked in and we’re now all competing to see who can take the best, most creative photo, combining both landscape and trusty steed. This is clearly what happens when you spend too much time in one another’s company.

We’re all guilty, but the obsession took on an additional dimension today when Bailey announced he was going to invest in some new bike luggage specifically to enhance the quality of the shots he was taking. Something about “adding to the colour palette”. I’m sure Debbie will be over the moon to hear that, Andrew. Expect the Ortlieb and Brooks websites to be seeing a spike in traffic any day now…