Day Seven - Thank you Ferry much

Day Seven - Dreghorn to Inveraray - 76 miles +2327 ft / -2404 ft
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/4656794

The next in my occasional 'you know you have been riding too long when' series is "76 miles is considered a relaxing rest day."

Today should have given a good opportunity for a lie in before setting off, sadly my team mates did not see it like that so we were up and out for an 8:30 start, I have still not really forgiven them for this.  The one thing that did see me perk up (don't worry I don't do this every day) was the hotel breakfast buffet included the following:

I am not talking about the porridge, which is something most hotels offer, rather the bottle of whisky which went rather well with my breakfast haggis.  Once we were all half cut and ready for the day ahead we hit the road heading for our first coffee stop in Largs.  My only knowledge of Largs was my cousin Matt went there on a school trip once and sent me a postcard.  Having been there that remains the case, with the addition of the fact it has an ace ice cream parlour who even let us park our bikes inside:

None of our group entered the place planning on having ice cream, what with it being freezing cold outside and all.  Not one of our group left without having an ice cream what with it looking (and being) delicious.  I had a tablet sundae, for the un-initiated tablet is a Scottish sweet which is a bit like Kendal mint cake, i.e. pure sugar, but tastes a bit like fudge.  Usually a couple of bits of tablet is enough to get you feeling a bit diabetic, the sundae contained about eight........

Energy levels replenished we pushed on up the road where to catch a ferry across the bay.  It was a strange ship, instead of the more traditional warning sounds the horn played a medley of tunes including 1976 hit let's stick together and Slave to Love.  I think it was Brian Ferry.

A 30 mile jaunt then lead us to our next stop of the day which was the brewery at Loch Fyne.  We stopped there for a bit as it was raining and we didn't want to get wet.  So as not to be rude we tried the beer tasting platter.  Very nice it was too and great preparation for the final nine miles.

Final thought today is on the Barrnet funding formula which is used to decide how much of the nation's tax take is spent in Scotland vs. the rest of the union.  The usual argument is that Scotland with its lower population density costs more to run so they should receive more.  On the face of it this does not seem unreasonable.  However, when you cover the 40th mile of racetrack smooth tarmac through the middle of no where and think of the pot holed mess that make up the roads in the South you could be forgiven for thinking the money could perhaps be better spent elsewhere.  Cambridgeshire for instance.

Only three days of riding left.........

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