Day 9 Oban to Isle of Islay

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Today we saw a Golden Eagle! It was being bothered by a load of other birds, including crows and a buzzard, as they clearly wanted it to move on. We watched for a couple of minutes whist it tried to keep out of the way, but then it got fed up with being dive-bombed and flew off. This was on a stretch of the A816 which we had followed south from Oban. This was the highlight of the day (week probably).
We had set out a bit earlier than usual as we had to reach our destination, Kennacraig, by 3 pm to catch a ferry over to Islay, with a mere 58 miles and 1000 m of climb in between. So we set out with some intent. The route south of Oban is quite lovely; a series of climbs interspersed with coast-hugging sections with views across to the islands and peninsulas that are characteristic of the west coast. For two of us, we were retracing our JOGLE route from 2014, so memories were being triggered all over the place. We were sad to see the lovely site where we had enjoyed lunch back then was now rather dilapidated. 
None of the hills seemed to have got any easier though! The biggest climb, up and over to Kilmartin, brought us into the Kintyre scenery. As in 2014, we left the main road in Kilmartin to follow the Crinan canal. After lunch by the canal at Lochgilphead, be briefly headed into the town in search of brake blocks for Roy (it’s a very wearing process this riding), but found that the Crinan Bike shop (as used by John C for replacement shorts) had just closed. The next section along the main coast road follows the shores of Loch Fyne; we had anticipated that this would be busy, but it wasn’t and we made good time with views across to Arran to keep us entertained. A quick final up and over and we were following Loch Tarbert down to the ferry. We arrived just after 2:30 pm; John and Tim in support got there 10 mins before us.
The ferry crossing gave us views of the Kintyre peninsula, the Isle of Gigha, Ireland in the distance and then the dramatic Islands of Jura and Islay. Our camping site for the night overlooks the Paps of Jura, spectacular in the evening and the morning light.

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