Wednesday 20th August

It has been an interesting day, having spent the night at Tyndrum where we left the bikes to go down to the festival, we got up early and left in the pouring rain, along the A82 towards Crianlarich and Glasgow. It rained solidly and we were both in full waterproofs, but we were pretty wet through by lunchtime. My shoes were squelching, even our newly bought waterproof socks couldn't take the scottish rain, so we both had swimming poools for shoes. We cycled along Loch Lomond, but didn't really get to see it in all it's glory as the rain and mist clouded most of the loch, but the road was good and pretty flat.

We stopped and chatted to a couple just before Luss, who were really nice, it's fantastic to get support from people you've just met whilst cycling along. We managed to cover 30 miles by lunchtime and we very pleased to be so on track. However 5 miles later, having joined the cycle way, disaster struck, Chris's back tyre popped spectacularly! The back wheel sank to the floor and we pulled over to change the tyre. After wrestling with the tyre for 15 mins and replacing the inner tube, Chris noticed that the wheel wasn't straight and was catching on the break pads. After closer inspection, it turned out that the tyre itself had also been damaged - whatever had punctured the inner tube had also teared a hole in the tyre.

After an hour, some strips of gaffa tape, some glue and two soggy people later, we set off with a patched up tyre and headed towards the nearest town to find a bike shop. We reached Balloch, near Dunbarton, but no bike shop. My knee was starting to hurt and it was about 5pm, so we decided to call it a day.

After discovering that there are no campsites for 30 miles, we checked into a B&B and had a well earned hot shower.

The man running the B&B was slightly wary of us as we stood there covered in mud, oil, all wet and dirty. He made us take off our shoes and socks and our waterproofs before letting us in and insisted that Chris scrub his hands before entering our room! I think he is quite concerned that we are going to make a mess, but hey we are house-trained y'know. The B&B is very nice though and he has been kind enough to wash and dry our waterproofs for us.

So just over 40 miles today, nearly reached Dunbarton, but not quite. A slightly frustrating day, especially for Chris - bust tyre, gf with sore knee, no campsites and being told to scrub his hands. But we had a good day overall, despite the rain and puncture, lets see what tomorrow brings.