Loch Lomond

Last weekend was a long one, third may was declared a holiday here in Glasgow and we (eight of us) decided to embark on a journey to Loch Lomond. Loch in Scotland means Lake and Loch Lomond is a famous Loch in Scotland situated some 25 miles away from Glasgow. You can reach there either by flight, bus or train. We decided to cycle to Loch Lomond.

Cycles in UK costs something from £200 to £400, my manager has a cycle which costed him £1200 so cycling is not the cheapest mode of transport in UK but since there is a separate traffic free cycle route to almost all places in and around Glasgow, we decided to rent cycles to make up for our journey. The cycles had eight speeds for ascent and five speeds for descent, all were mountain bikes. It cost us £18 per day. It was on a Sunday morning at around 9 AM that we started our journey, the temperature was not conducivesive for cycling as it became windy and cloudy with a overcast prediction. All these couldn't stop eight brave souls.

Aftravelingling for some six miles, we reached the cycle track just outside the city. The distance to Loch from that place as 19.5 miles. We had decided to take breaks so that we could enjoy the journey. The moment we crossed the city limits, the nature unfolded itself, the picture perfscenerynary, the old houses, the canals passing by the roads were so refreshing that we didn't feel the paintravelingling so far. Soon, the first break came by and we stopped at a store away from the city, we Swisswiss rolls and red bull each (a drink with taurine, preferred by athletes and footballers for instant energy). The journey resumed after about thirty minute break, now we felt it difficult to keep up the pace with each other so we formed groups of 2 each traveledlled in our own pace. My cycle puncturedtred and all chipped in by putting the cycle tube in the canal to check punctureutre, it took us 30 minutes to fix it, and we all started again. We reached Loch Lomond at around 3:15 PM aftravelingling for 5 hours. We witnessed a rowing competition in the lake for families and after spending some 2 hours we decided to head back.

Now, the distance took a toll on us. We found it difficult to even pedal for 5 minutes now and I started walking with my friend, who also felt Walking is better than cycling. We enjoyed each and every moment of the journey and reached Glasgow at around 11 PM in night. Someone who said, that the joy is in the journey than destiny was dead right. It was a memorableable journey and experience for me and probably the last one as I might be heading to India next weekend. The only thing that was not good was my "sour butts" (Sorry for the language but nothing could have described it better).

Reach me at hifromsriram at GMAIL.com