Total Mileage: 104 miles

Mileage: 45

Disasters: 0 (actually there was one but Sarah says no one will want to read about it ???)

After a hard ride it can be a lottery on getting a good night’s sleep. Last night wasn’t great. Exercise, food and a couple of beers – you’d think it was a recipe for a brilliant night’s sleep but it doesn’t always work that way – anyone understand why ???

Waking early allowed time for planning. All forecasts say heavy rain tomorrow so we decided to hotel in Grivan for the next two nights. This would allow us to spend the rainy day in Girvan. We booked the Westcliffe Hotel over the phone.

We went for breakfast at 7:30am, and what a breakfast it was ! Porridge followed by a full Scottish – eggs, beans, mushrooms, fried bread, haggis, 4 rashes of bacon and 4 sausages ! Lovely breakfast but she could talk – we didn’t get out of breakfast till 9am having heard her entire family history and quite a bit about sheep !

The route from Sanquhar was lovely quiet roads until the section on the A76 which was no fun. We put a detour in as soon as we could just to get off it. Our detour took us the rest of the way to New Crummock where we stopped at a shop for water.

From New Cumnock we followed a quiet but hilly route towards the coast and were blessed with sunshine again. We stopped at a pub in Straiton for a refreshing pint in the Black Bull beer garden.

From Straiton it was only 14 miles to Grivan where we easily found our hotel. We showered and went for a walk around the harbour and seafront in the sunshine.

Fish and chips from Grazianos were massive.

While eating we watched the sun set behind the island of Ailsa Craig.

A little bit of info on Ailsa Craig….

Aisle Craig is an island 10 miles west of Grivan. It is 4 km (2.5 mi) in circumference and rises to a height of 340 m (1,120 ft).

The now uninhabited island is formed from a magmatic pluton which “blue hone” microgranite has long been quarried to make curling stones

Likened by many to a giant currant bun on account of its near-vertical sides and rounded peak, Ailsa Craig (meaning “Fairy Rock” in Gaelic) is a place of history, folklore and legend. It’s also known as Paddy’s Milestone because it lies almost halfway between Belfast and Glasgow, occupying a lonely spot 10 miles to the west of the town of Girvan in the Firth of Clyde that once made it a haven for smugglers who stashed silk, spirits, tobacco and other contraband in the deep caves on its western fringes.