We didn't go into the castle but sat outside having a breakfast of sarnies and similar co-op produce. That excitement over we headed of towards Loch Fyne. Unfortunately the weather was not fyne although we didn't get particularly wet in the morning. For the most part it was uneventful as we headed down the A85 at a decent rate. We stopped to chat with a team of 5 older gents who were on their way up to John O'Groats and were currently waiting for their support van to arrive so they could get a brew on. As we left them we passed two people on a tandem doing a LEJOG as well. Didn't really expect this section to be the place where we met all the cyclists doing similar trips, in fact I didn't really expect it at any time as our route was far from standard.
We had been hit by intermittent patterings of the wet stuff but as we entered Inveraray our clothes were fairly dry and hope of arriving at Fyne Ales dry was high. Alas the final 7 miles were to be torrential rain and we were almost blinded by the wall of water that poured down upon us as we struggled along the A83. Sam was in front and landed his front wheel in a couple of nasty potholes, while I sat behind getting a constant spray in my face. Mmmm, great fun.
After 30 minutes of this we rolled into Fyne Ales, right at the top of Loch Fyne, and announced our presence to Jonny Delap who found us some towels and welcomed us to his brewery. The location was pretty spectacular although we would have liked a better day in order to see more of the scenery. The entire afternoon was spent here though as the bar was opened up to us and we joined in with Ayrshire CAMRA in 'sampling' the range of excellent beers. After a great deal of thought on the subject I decided 'Highlander' was my favourite while Sam preferred 'Somerled'. Both enjoyed the 'Avalanche' as well. A fair bit of food was consumed as a free lunch was provided as well. Sam had found heaven without having to die first so he spent the entire afternoon with the world's biggest grin across his face.
We spent a lot of our time at the bar chatting to a fount of information in the form of Fyne Ales' marketing manager (or similar title) who's name I have as usual completely forgotten. A very productive conversation ensued and I am sure we learnt plenty although I can not remember exactly what. We talked to the CAMRA members as well and enjoyed the opportunity to bang on about the beers we had drunk and the breweries we had seen after a bit of a 'dry' period over the past week.
Fyne Ales come highly recommended, as with most of the breweries we visited, and I will certainly be looking out for their beers whenever possible.
Unfortunately we had to leave as we were still 25 or so miles short of our target. The next couple of hours were damp and tiring, but we made it to the campsite at Ardbeg without too much drama. Put up the tent under the usual pressure from small biting insects, showered and hit the pub for a meal. We did stop at the Coylett inn on the way as it came highly recommended by the camra people, but they couldn't accommodate us as a big party was soon to arrive...................... that being the Ayrshire camra of course!
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