Quite fancy trying this out but unsure how difficult it is? Thinking of making the Mrs tag along if it’s not too bad.

Taken from the 5 ferry challenge website;

“Welcome to the 5 Ferries Challenge.The challenge consists of 5 ferry trips and 4 cycle legs. The route takes in some breathtaking Argyll scenery from Islands, sea and mountains. The challenge, which is now in it’s 9th year, follows mainly quiet and single track roads covering a total of 52 miles. It’s broken down into 4 cycling stages, the longest one of which is 19 miles. The “challenge” in the “5 Ferry Challenge” is not only about the cycling, but also making sure you don’t miss the ferry at each stage! This is not for the novice cyclist – there’s some challenging hills.”

I had to google it

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2nlGAEIqa4[/video]

I am sure you could to but here you go

5 ferries challenge

looks cool

Have done 5 ferries quite a few times. Always start riding wemyss bay, about 745 for the 945 Arran ferry. Its not a hard ride if you are used to 50 miles on a road bike. Actual total riding is about 70 and lots of breaks. The first section is the most boring, down to Ardrossan. You need to keep the pace up on the 2nd bit, to LochRanza if you want to keep to a decent schedule of ferries. Big hill on Arran and out of tighnabruaich.

Haven’t done as organised event tho

Have done various bits of it, but not all in one go. As the description says there are some hills – I’ve only ridden them loaded with touring bags so maybe they’re not too bad.

Double check the ferry timetables as they’re not the same through the winter (end of Oct until April I think).

This is the Arran bit: http://app.strava.com/activities/129059070

Yeah I was thinking of doing it one weekend early next spring.

Done it a couple of times also. Once was a work day out. A few people were on BSOs and it was their only annual bike ride. We all made it round, just.

Best tip would be to save for a nice day. There is quite a bit of hanging about involved and some of the ferry slipways have no facilities.

here it is last time round a few months back

That’s pretty good going Iain, any other ferry options on that last leg from Rothesay? We stay near Troon so would look at starting and leaving from Ardrossan if possible.

I think the only option is rothesay to wemyss bay. I wouldn’t want to do that section down the coast to ardrossan late afternoon at the end, its a boring section which is best early am when not much traffic or Sunday drivers !

^Totally.

Could drive to Wemyss Bay and start there. 🙂

TBH that’s what I’d do !

based on the link righog posted I think you’ve missed it

TAKE THE CHALLENGE FOR CHARITY – FOR A SUCCESSIVE YEAR, THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS OF WALES HOSPICE ARE RUNNING AN ORGANISED EVENT ON 7 JUNE 2014

looks fun if it runs again next year

Yep. I’ve done it.

You don’t need to worry about the wee ferries they just shuttle And the last ferry from rothesay is actually pretty late.

I did it on a tandem with a terrible stoker and we had plenty time to spare.

Sorry I meant to say it’s the challenge I was looking to do not the actual event on the website. 🙂

I’ve been looking to do this as a fundraiser for our charity with some of my work colleagues. I’ve pretty much exhausted the wellspring of my sponsors this year (well as much as I’m comfortable pushing people for money – which isn’t much) so getting others involved is the next trick. It will have to be in the spring now. There’ll be a few BSOs amongst them but it looks achievable and a cracking day out.

To be honest, I’m half tempted to have a crack myself this weekend. I’ve not been on an island this year.