The pleasant Sustrans route north out of Ayr on this sunny morning took me right through a golf course in Troon. A notice (picture) warns you that you may get hit by golf balls. I didn’t know that cyclist-hating golfers had such a good aim.
Following Sustrans’s suggestions to get to Glasgow from Ayr was the usual mixed bag of delightful smooth tarmac railtrails, such as this bit (picture) by Lochwinnoch, and convoluted, four-sides-of-a-square detours round housing estates and light industrial areas.
There was this impressive sculpture just beyond Lochwinnoch. It’s the stuff of car-crushing fantasies when you see someone parked in your cycle lane.
I neatly avoided Glasgow by cycling from Paisley (generally depressing and boarded up, but with a nice bike shop that does coffee) over the Erskine Bridge. A lovely canal-, and then river-, -side traffic-free path took me to Loch Lomond, where a mountain biker I got talking to showed me one of the few places you can wildcamp on the shore (picture).
He then spent two hours trying in vain to light me a camp fire in light drizzle. Thank goodness; I’m not in the mood for a singsong. At last, around eight, I had the entire lake to myself, just the gentle wash of the water, and territorial calls of jet-skiers.
Miles today: 64
Miles since Kirkmaiden: 151
Miles since starting at Penzance: 1069