Wednesday 3rd August 2022
Today was a slightly complicated day logistically so; please concentrate! We would drive to Achahoish Church and leave my bike there and then drive on to Achahoish school where we finished last night (we walked an extra four miles yesterday). We would then walk to the bike at Achahoish Church and I would cycle back to Achahoish school to the car and bring the car and bike to Ellary where I would leave the bike and drive back to Achahoish Church. We would then walk to Ellary where the road ends and follow an estate track to Balimore, where the public road running down the west side of the peninsula beside Loch Sween, starts (or finishes). We would then turn back to retrace our steps to Ellary, I would cycle back to Achahoish Church to get the car returning to Ellary to pick Jill up and the rucksacks before returning to our hotel. I hope you have followed and understood that. I am not going to repeat myself but you can re-read it.
We awoke to wind and rain and the prospects did not look good. We drove to Achahoish Church, locked the bike to a tree and drove on to Achahoish school two miles away. We started off; Jill chose to carry her rucksack but I left mine in the car so Jill suggested that I might as well walk on ahead of her to the bike so I could return to get the car all the sooner. This I did. As I cycled past her, Jill she said that she might as well just keep walking on past Achahoish Church towards Ellary and I could catch up with her in my own time. So I pedalled my way to the school, put the bike on the back of the car and started to drive to Ellary. It then occurred to me that, if I could find a space to park the car near Ellary, I could cycle the bike back to Achahoish Church and start walking again to catch up with Jill and the car would be at the end of the walk. I could still leave my rucksack in the car as we would rendezvous there for coffee. I passed Jill and paused to explain the change to the Grand Plan. I drove on to Ellary where I managed to squeeze the car well off the road and I started my ride back to Achahoish Church to re-padlock the bike to its tree. When I started back from there on foot I was was probably 2-3 miles behind Jill but, as agreed, she would wait for me at the car.
It all worked well. We set off from the car for the second time at about 11.30. We were going to walk through to Balimore on the other side of the peninsula where the public road starts/ends. Tomorrow we can then drive to the road end at Balimore to resume our walk.
There is a gate across the track and it had a rather amateur sign saying “Road Closed.” We were not dismayed because we were only walking through (such signs are of course to deter motor vehicles) and continued on our way.
The path ascends in a zig-zag up the hill side. It is a fairly easy path being twin-tarmac strips obviously laid many years ago. Partway up there was memorial bench to a couple who holidayed there often. Further on there was a picnic bench overlooking Loch Meadhonach.
Another mile on, and we could hear a digger; as we got closer we could see barriers on the track and a second digger. As we approached, we could see that an old bridge was being replaced and at the moment there appeared to be just a cattle grid supported on two girders across the void.
We reached the new grid and waited until the digger driver on the opposite side stopped and got out of his cab and we asked if we might cross. He indicated that we could go ahead. I crossed first. The cattle grid had flat topped rungs with perpendicular ties between alternate rungs. I found crossing not too bad but the rungs were quite widely spaced and inevitably watching my feet meant that I could see through to the river rushing through the gorge three metres below me.
The metal grid was wet from the rain and my shoes did not grip well. There was no parapet or handrail. Jill followed but after one step onto the grid, she baulked. Jill does not have a good sense of balance and hates stepping stones and crossing streams. Encouragement was not going get Jill across but she spotted a sheet of chipboard (it had probably been used for shuttering) on the bank beside me and and asked if we could lay that across the cattle grid. It was not long enough to span the entire grid but it was just enough that Jill only need take a single step on the cattle grid each end of the piece of wood.
The workman looked on with some amusement and when we said that we would be returning this way, he explained that after lunch he would be laying concrete right across the approach to the cattle grid which would probably make it impassable. We explained that we had about 1½ miles to get to the road end where we would turn around and return immediately and so we would be back within the hour.
We walked on fast to reach the road at Balimore and turned round immediately and headed back. En route the workman passed us on a quad bike and so we guessed he was going off for his lunch and had not started concreting yet.
On the return trip we repeated the process with the piece of shuttering and got Jill across safely. If she had not felt able to cross then we would have had to walk the mile and a half each way from the road end at the start of tomorrow’s walk but this was one of very few obstacles that really had nearly “stopped us in our tracks”.
We then walked about a mile to the picnic bench and settled in for lunch over-looking Loch Meadhonach which looks like a lily pond. Then it was just a twenty minute stroll back to the car.
Just Coasting 
I entirely lost track of your logisitcs for this one! I did it by parking in Lochgilphead and taking a bus to Achnamara in the morning (I think it only went this way 2 or 3 days a week) and then the once per day bus from Achahoish back to Lochgilphead at the end.
I think I did this walk a month or two before you (I did it in July). Then that road also had a closed sign but the old bridge was still in place (but blocked off for vehicles with a barrier held up by a couple of calor gas bottles, just as in your photo). It looked like an “over weight” vehicle had gone over it because it was still in place but sloped down very significantly in the middle. I just tested that it felt like it would hold my weight and went over it. Fortunately no work taking place at the time for me. I was glad to come at it from the way I did because it felt like a private drive through peoples gardens at the other end and if coming from the road at that end I’m not sure I’d have followed it, assuming it to lead to a private house.
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