A Mull 200 - 1st January 2019

Quarter to 7 I left the bunkhouse and headed north for Salen, being passed only by the Coastguard's pickup.
Light started to crack in the sky as I rode up Loch Na Keal and by Kilbrennan there was enough light to see by.

I was surprised by the progress I was making along the coast road as it lumps significantly in places and Calgary came faster than I expected.
The climb to Dervaig where I ate my first pre-prepared roll of the day and then up the hill road before descending to the Mishnish Lochs proved to be nowhere near as hard as I was expecting nor was the last dig over to Tobermory where I encountered my 3rd, 4th and 5th cars of the day as well as the only motorbike.
Thankfully I'd set up the control to be the roundabout (the only one on the island) so with a bottle of water and rolls in my bag I didn't need to descend to the harbour and then drag myself back out.

The climbs from Tobermory to Salen always catch me out a bit but proved not too difficult; the lack of boat traffic was also handy as it meant I could handle passing places properly in most cases.

Rolling through Craignure again I felt that horrible deflated feeling from the back wheel and set about resolving the fairy's work on the ramp out of the village after eating the 2nd roll.
The glen more road was a horrible drag, possibly because I could see it, and I felt like it would never end, though eventually it did and I descended to Pen-Y-Gael as rapidly as the traffic, road and wind conditions allowed.

Hitting the Ross I thought my climbing legs would get a rest but there's some sharp ramps on there and Fionnphort felt like it would never arrive, though the quiet village did eventually arrive and I consumed roll number 3. I also realized that I needed something a bit more rapidly metabolized and scoffed most of a bag of jelly babies.

Back along the Ross seemed to be faster as the light dropped and there was quite a bit of traffic and blinding headlights, but Pen-Y-Gael and the climb of Glen More was soon reached.
Once again the climb seemed to be easier in this direction and no headwind this time, can't think why...
The darkness certainly helped avoid seeing the road climbing the glen, and once at the summit the blast down then through Lochdon and back into Cragnure and the finished off the ride with just enough time to titivate myself before sitting down for Steak Pie with the hiking club mates.