Plans are beginning to take shape here, for a South West Scotland tour.
The whole plan centres around the Ride of the Falling Rain on Islay on Sunday 5th August.
Plan fermenting in my mind at the moment (which is plan B) is
Day 1 - Drive to parents in Kirkby Stephen, Overnight there.
Day 2 - Train to Edinburgh Haymarket, Ride to Ardrossan (158km)
Day 3 - Ferries for Islay, bimble about a bit, overnight Islay
Day 4 - ROTFR (up to 160km), overnight Islay
Day 5 - Ferries back to the mainland, ride to Ayr (40km) or Maybole (60km), overnight Travelodge
Day 6 - Ayr or Maybole to Dumfries (160-180km)
Day 7 - Dumfries - Kirkby Stephen (145km), Overnight Parents
Day 8 - Drive home
Day 9 - Wife goes on holiday
The bit I'm not really sure of is the Edinburgh - Ardrossan section, it's convenient to be on the train line from Penrith, nothing more really. So questions to the panel
1) what's that section of NCN from Edinburgh to Glasgow and onwards like (likely to be on recumbent)
2) if you were to be taking a train to the southern part of Scotland to ride to Ardrossan, where would you take the train to i.e. where would you ride to Ardrossan ferry terminal from?
I've binned the idea of inverness to Oban as the ferries don't really work well for the weekend on Islay, and I may play around with distances and stopping points on days 5/6/7 depending on locations of travel inns/premier inns and the like
Comments / thoughts welcome.