On my return from the Western Isles trip I had decided to change my bike for one which was more suited to touring so had built ALICE. You can read about that build on “my bikes” page.

The weather was looking as though it was going to improve, following a wet August, so I decided to get away before it changed its mind and returned to seasonal normal. I booked a ferry from Ardrossan to Brodick on Arran, packed up the bike and set off. Another thought I’d had, following my couple of weeks in the tent in the Outer Hebrides, was that I had decided that my age was dictating I needed more headroom in the tent. So on the back of my rack was my new Nordisk Halland tent. (new to me, this was another e-bay purchase). It was roomier than the previous tent but at almost half the weight, certainly an improvement.

I was lucky with the weather and had three days of glorious sunshine and only one night of rain but by that time I was heading for home anyway. I had originally had the idea of crossing over to Kintyre and carrying on to Islay and Jura but those islands will wait for a future trip. Arran was much hillier than I remembered from my previous visit which was nearly 40 years ago so I didn’t get as many miles in as I had thought I would. A more in-depth report will follow on my “trips” page when I get round to typing it up.