Our 'pre breakfast snack' in the Girvan RNLI crew room this morning included coffee, a pot of porridge each and an entire box of sugar puffs with milk.... This seemed to hit the spot!
Re fuelled and well rested we were soon back on the road and churning through the miles. The scenery for the first part of the day was fairly uninspiring, however this soon changed as we hit the coastal road...
With stunning views along the coast and out to Aisla Craig, and fantastic rolling countryside, things were certainly looking up (following a day on the A75!)
Our route took us through Ayr with it's beautiful Town Centre...
and included a stop at a local bakery for some more hot breakfast baps (not quite as good as Veronica's!) and a pack lunch for later on. Rad also managed to perfect his smile for the camera, producing total consistency....
Our route took us further up the Ayrshire coast past several pretty (and some rather less attractive) seaside villages and towns.
The first stop of the day was Troon Lifeboat Station. As we were running fairly tight on time to make our Ferry later in the day, there was only time for a couple of quick photos before we were back in the saddle...
The sun came out, the terrain was fairly flat, and (apart from Rad's chat), things were looking pretty good....
We made Troon in good time to catch the Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry to Ayre; a well weathered boat which looked like it had seen some severe storms in it's day.....
A quick lunch on the deck in the sun and we were soon pulling into port on the isle of Arran...
A half hour ride south took us southwards across the island to the small village of Lamlash with the Island's only RNLI station. A rare opportunity arose to relax and take it all in (I had found a glitch in Rad's usually seamless, and at times militant organisation, with a two hour wait until the next Ferry!), before heading black across the island for out return trip to the mainland...
From Arran onwards the cycling was some of the best of the trip... The road was smooth, the sun was on our backs and the gentle tailwind pushed us north to our final destination- Largs RNLI.
Dave the LOM of the station welcomed us and kindly showed us around before leaving us to shower, wash kit, dry kit, unpack, set up camp beds and prepare for the next day (a routine we are now well versed in, and which Rad executes with military precision - daily!)
We were then free to head out for a bite to eat in town before bed in preparation for our biggest day of the tour yet....
Sugar puffs!?!?!? Tut tut tut!
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