Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There were a few sections that deviated through slightly rundown housing estates, but
there was never any threat of danger. Ben did have a slight confrontation with a fly that
flew into his mouth, but they managed to resolve that between themselves.
We arrived in the village of Balloch at about 2pm, during yet another food festival.
The Loch Lomond Food & Drink Festival took place in the car park of the Loch Lomond
Aquarium.
Most of the stalls offered free tastings, which should have suited us perfectly. It was ac-
tually more hassle that it was worth, however, as we had to listen to a tedious sales pitch
about the benefit of Scottish olives over Greek olives, and nod away enthusiastically for
ten minutes in exchange for a single Scottish olive. We then had to endure the same for a
morsel of Scottish cheese, and again for a Scottish chipolata. It was not the best return for
30 minutes effort.
We decided to resort to our tried and tested honest approach. We still had a bit of cheese
and some tomatoes from the previous day, so only needed a little more for lunch.
Ben managed to get a small loaf of bread, and I was given some sun-dried tomato fo-
caccia.
'My god, you are such a middle class blagger. Foccacia? What the fuck?' said Ben.
'Look at you with your peasant bread,' I said. 'I'm embarrassed to even know you.'
Cycling along the shores of Loch Lomond had promised to be one of the highlights of
our journey; 25 miles without a single hill, the sparkling lake on one side and the ragged
mountains on the other. The route book made us salivate at the prospect:
'The A82 north from Balloch is a beautiful road.'
It isn't. In theory it should be, but it's actually a fairly horrendous road. The A82 serves
as the main route linking the lowlands and the western highlands, which means that almost
every person travelling between Glasgow and the north passes along this road.
Wehuggedthevergeclosely,asaconstant stream ofcoaches, cars,caravans andmotor-
bikes growled along the narrow road. As for the view, that probably would have been nice
if we had been able to see it. During the occasional lull in traffic the view was obscured by
a thick barrier of trees that grew along the shore.
Themostfrustratingproblem,however,wastheactualroadsurface.Itwasn'taproblem
withpotholes,assuch.Forsomereason-possiblydeliberate-theentiresurfaceistextured
like a cheese grater. It was absolutely exhausting to cycle along. We should have been able
to cover the distance in no time, as there was no gradient, but it felt like a real effort just to
keep going.
In summary, the A82 should be a beautiful road. All it needs is complete resurfacing, to
be closed of all other traffic, and to have some serious deforestation.
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