Well, today my hostess took on her hardest cycle yet:

1. north from Corrie,
2. up and over the Boguille to Lochranza,
3. along the north-west coast to Machrie,
4. up and over the String (YouTube video),
5. into Brodick
6. then back to Corrie.

We were hailed on as we started up the Boguille and froze in the wind dropping down to Lochranza. We stopped for a well-earned cup of tea at a small refreshment stand near the ferry terminal, then headed on to Machrie.

Here’s the map. The speed at mile 30 is almost certainly wrong – that’s one of the steep downhill bits.

We had a further stop at Machrie to look at a clothing shop belonging to the sister of one of Elly’s friends. The road soon pulled away from the coast and began to ascend before joining the main cross-island road. The road then ascended hard up to the highest tarmac on the island – it took about 40 minutes. The descent to Brodick took less than 5 – it’s the hardest Lev’s disks hard worked yet.

We stopped for lunch at Eilean Mor – I can’t recommend their rich pasta dishes enough before doing a bit of shopping at the nearby co-op and returning to Corrie.

I’m very pleased that my hostess made this trip and quite pleased that I got up the String staying in the top range of Lev’s gears. I hope to do the String from east to west tomorrow: this is slightly harder and more exposed. I’ve never yet done it without stopping: here’s hoping for this time.