Day 2 - Sunday 30th April 2000 - 72.2 Km                                                                 

I woke up to a lovely sunny day, breakfast of cereal, bread and jam with coffee and then put yesterday’s damp clothes on. Unpleasant, but it's the quickest way to dry them.

I followed the B8073 road out to Achnadrish and Dervaig; this was inland through steeply rolling moors and past a gleaming loch. I found one of the Model T Fords from yesterday broken down at the side of the road with the owner trying to fix it. We had a chat for five minutes then I left him to it and carried on, he overtook me with a wave about 3km down the road.

The road leads on to the tiny village of Calgary and the stunning beach at Calgary Bay, a fringe of Machair surrounds a perfect semicircular bay of pure white sand. Parts of the Machair were fenced off to prevent erosion but there were tables and paths down to the beach. I had a quick drink of water and something to eat and then got the camera out to take some photographs. Click, Click, end of roll, rewind, new roll.............

I'd bought 15 rolls of high quality film to Scotland with me and left them at the campsite!

A car pulled up and a youngish couple got out, we had a chat about the view and the superb weather. They had come over on the same ferry as me last night and were staying in Tobermory. I mentioned my lack of film and they very kindly gave me a roll. Nice people.

I took some more photos and then got back on the bike. The road now carried on around the coast with superb views of the islands of Coll and Tiree on the horizon. The sun was high in the sky and I could feel my skin starting to burn, time to put some sunblock on.

The road followed the shoreline of Loch na Keal giving wonderful views across to Ben More, the highest mountain on the island. I was stopping every ten minutes or so to take photographs, my camera was in a padded case on my right hip so I didn't need to get off the bike to use it, just unclip from the pedals and put my feet down.

A sign pointed to a ferry going to the Isle of Ulva, of more interest was the fact that there was a cafe on the island. I went down a lane and sat in the sun, waiting for the ferry to come over, a car was waiting as well. A little boat puttered across the loch, the ferryman tied up and began talking to the occupant of the car. Eventually the car drove away and the ferryman asked if I wanted to go to the island, he could take me over but the cafe was closed as it was Sunday!

Hungrily I decided to ride on. A short distance ahead I heard a strange noise coming from my back wheel. A quick check showed that the tyre had split where the sidewall joined the rim. I checked that nothing was rubbing on the tyre and then took the wheel off and changed to my spare tyre, gashing my thumb with a tyre lever in the process.

The road now lead up and over the waist of Mull and down to the village of Salen on the east coast road I had ridden the evening before. The "Coffee Pot" provided coffee, a toasted sandwich and cake. The owner gave me some Swarfega to clean my hands (obviously used to cyclists!), and an American girl gave me a plaster for my thumb (I'd been too lazy to get my First Aid kit out of the saddlebag).

I left the cafe and followed the road back to Tobermory, admiring the view across the Sound of Mull to the mainland. Halfway there I met a cycle tourist from Dundee who stopped for a quick chat, a little further along a fire engine came up behind me on the single-track road. I waved him on and he went past close enough for me to have let his tyres down.

I showered the sweat and grime away at the campsite and then cooked tuna, pasta, tomato and shallots before strolling down to the village, listening to several local bands and drinking far too much beer in the Mishnish pub.

The walk back to the campsite was cold but under a beautiful starry sky.