Today’s itinerary – 55 miles, 3400ft of climbing, and one ferry!

Glen Lonan en route to Oban Glen Lonan en route to Oban Ferry Oban to Mull Oban from the ferry. Loch Peallach, Mull
The route from Kilchrenan to Oban was stunning, quite different scenery from that of the Kintyre peninsula, a series of deserted glens. It was quite a cold morning but as we left Oban on the ferry the sun broke through and very quickly the cloud disappeared.
I’d planned the trip meticulously, creating GPX route files and putting all links to ferries and accommodation in OneNote so we could easily access everything we needed, this was the first time things didn’t go to plan! One iteration of the plan for Mull had been to cycle round the perimeter, but once we had planned where we would stay, when we would get ferries etc we realised that route would be too far and too hilly. Unfortunately I had sent the original GPX file to my Garmin and we ended up doing about a 7 miles detour on that original route. 7 miles doesn’t sound far but I was having a low energy day! John rode on the front to give me a tow and we were soon back on track.
We took a route to Salen and then cut through the middle of Mull to Dervaig. We had thought we’d wild camp on the northern coast but couldn’t find a suitable pitch so decided to carry on to Tobermory where there was a campsite which operated on a first come first served basis. Given it was September we were confident we would be able to get a pitch.
The climbs from Dervaig to Tobermory were extreme, it was only 6 miles but a very difficult 6 miles! I was glad to see there were switch backs from the point of view that this would be easier than a straight up road but the fact that the road required switch backs tells you everything! It would be interesting to know how we would have coped on these climbs without the bags, maybe one day we’ll come back.
Just down the hill to the campsite Tobermory Campsite Tobermory from the hillside
We arrived at the campsite to kind there was lots of space and fantastic facilities. We pitched our tent, had a quite shower and then headed down to Tobermory for dinner, a 1.5 mile very steep walk.
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