Warrington Bank Quay station... waiting for the Voyager...
An evening of last minute packing, sandwich preparation and lawnmowing was followed by a 04:40 alarm to boot us out of bed and onto our bikes for the ride down to Bangor railway station. We loaded our bikes onto the early morning Virgin service, changed at Chester and alighted at Warrington where we learned that our connection to Glasgow was 35 minutes late "because of a fault on the train at Birmingham New Street". So we sat on the platform reflecting on the likelihood of good weather during our loop of the Western Isles. Last night, Christine had phoned our friends near Oban from warm and sunny North Wales - up there it was wet and miserable as it had been for most of the summer. Would it improve for us?
Eventually a shiny new Super Voyager drew into the platform and the Virgin staff gazed on as we scanned it for the non-existant bike symbol which would have directed us to the cycle storage area. Finally the Train Manager cottoned on that we'd never loaded bikes onto one of these things before and shouted that it was the end door (coach F). So we all piled on, detached our panniers and hung the bikes from the hooks. The supplied straps didn't prevent them from swaying alarmingly. I slumped into my seat feeling grumpy and sleepy.
Despite the late arrival at Glasgow Central, there was plenty of time to potter round to Queen Street for our final train.
At the Oban terminus we tumbled out of the hot and crowded class 156 unit and spoke to two cyclists from Belfast before making for the Youth Hostel. After dinner we took a short stroll to McCaig's tower, a folly on a hill overlooking the town.