Day 7 - Peebles to Pitlochry

starting right...

Waking up this morning in your own room with no noise was now an unusual and slightly unsettling experience.  There was the usual rush to pack all of your stuff and get ready for the start of the ride but the banter that has accompanied the trip so far was missed.  

View in Peebles

Now it has to be said that like with most events where a few men are away together a lot of the conversation has reverted to nine year old type mickey taking a lot of which we probably can't publish.   However the sense of team spirit from this can not be underestimated and I for one was put into a slightly odd mood from this which I don't think I recovered from until a few hours after getting to Pitlochry.

First stop 

We made reasonable time for the first ten miles along the A703 and A701 in towards Edinburgh and decided that there really are not many books that are worse than the subsequent movies.  We were also slightly embarrassed at the cafe stop when after two of our team members tried the bathroom door and assumed it was occupied a young mother said "it just sticks a bit" and opened it easily.

We met the van just outside the ring road and said the farewells to Barry and Mike, who were heading back to Wrexham tonight and loaded up our provisions to make way around to the Forth Road Bridge whilst the van went to town to drop them off at the train station.  

Whilst the actual navigation around Edinburgh was reasonably easy, the weather deteriorated and we were soon riding through a fine rain (the type that soaks you through) and a mist.  To put this into context, we rode past Edinburgh airport and at one point could hear a plane that sounded very close.  looking up, the A320 was around 200 feet above the road when it finally came into view on its approach.

The Bridge

Having crossed the bridge in a car on numerous occasions, I was really looking forward to this.  The weather had not helped but after a stop at the garage just short of the bridge and some more Millionaire shortbread (that I think I am becoming addicted to) we rolled around to cross.

Now, the Bridge is a famous landmark and in my own mind this was a part of the ride that probably meant the most to me.  The picture beneath was not what I had in mind.

The famous turrets

The view improved as you crossed the bridge but I couldn't help but be saddened that this was not as I had pictured it in my minds eye.  

Kelty

We then climbed about 500 feet out of the Forth estuary up through Inverkeithing and on the way out to Perth.  We met up with the van for lunch having rang to see where Bob was only to find out he was actually just 100 yds down the road.

We had a nice sandwhich only to find out that the type of cafe we would have preferred was by the van but we had already ordered by that point.  It was turning out to be one of those days.

The Goat

A common theme has arisen over the last seven days.  Richard spent a long time painstakingly plotting the route and Barry (paying less attention it would appear) put these into the Garmin navigation.  

Now aside from just missing the unit telling you to turn or not being able see which road we should turn down most of these changes have resulted in a climb.  Today's example was particularly spectacular.  

Richard had planned a sedate (but slightly longer) route out on the A91 and then into Perth.  Barry translated this into a B road route with around 800 feet of climb and one truly spectacular descent.  This was compounded when Bob told the others about how flat the A91 route is into Perth and what a nice drive it had been.  Thanks Dad.

So it has been decided that in a former life I must have been a goat as given a hill in front of me my natural inclination is to climb it.  I suggest this just means I am probably going to continue cycling :-).

Perth

We have met some great people in the various cafes and restaurants on this trip and the Brig Farm shop would prove to be another example.  If you ever get a chance, the cakes are fantastic!

Sadly due to poor planning on Barry's part the Garmin ran out of battery and due to an unfortunate geographic mix up we didn't meet the van either and so we headed into the city centre with no real instructions as to how to navigate our way around. Which led to the obvious result.

After asking a policeman and passing through a housing estate where everybody was discussing the affairs of the day in their garden we found signs for the A9 where we will spend the next 124 miles.  Five miles onto it we caught up with the Van for refuelling and this was probably a point where the team was at a real low.  

It was 6pm due to our delayed start and couple of early stops, we had 24 miles to Pitlochry which felt like a long way away suddenly.  So we set our sights on riding as far as we could in the next hour and we would stop there and restart from the same spot in the morning.  

It has to be said this motivation re-energised everyone as we were actually stopped about 1mile short of the Pitlochry turn off due to a slightly flat tyre being turned into a destroyed valve whilst trying to fix it.  

We thought this was enough in terms of messages and called the van to come and collect us so that we can recover for tomorrow's trip to Inverness.

Aul Smiddy

Just to confirm Barry's goat tendancies, after a fantastic meal at the above named pub where the mood lightened greatly after a nice stroll from the hotel on the way back the group was directed up a left hand turn by a certain member of the group.

As we started to climb the hill Richard and Mike asked "did we see this co-op earlier?"..,."Oh no!!!  he even gets us lost walking back to the hotel!".

The A9 is the only road we are on tomorrow.  Surely I cant get that wrong?