and it’s about time, i realize, to post more scotland photos.
to recap:
day one of biking: not that hard until we got lost. no rain while we biked. A circular route from Callander then back again.
day two of biking: much harder, more hilly, gravelly bike trail. hard rain on and off. from Callander to Loch Katrine and back. very beautiful.
day three of biking: from Callander to Killin. Lots of rain for the first hour or so but not so hilly, then VERY HILLY and a beautiful day and beautiful country side. utterly exhausted by the end of the day partly because didn’t eat enough during the ride.
day four: from killin to aberfeldy. lots of rain initially, plus cold, then a leisurely lunch at the oldest inn in scotland, and we took a shortcut to get to aberfeldy! plus a tour of a whiskey distillery.
day five: Aberfeldy to Pitlochry, the final little town on our bike tour. Thursday, July 16th.
we left aberfeldy and it was sunny…no loch on this day, but we rode alongside the river tay.
it felt good to ride, and we realized that it was just so nice to ride in sunshine instead of rain. plus it wasn’t as hilly as the previous days.
there weren’t a lot of houses on this small road, but eventually we came across a big fancy house.
…and there was a helicopter parked out front. there was also a big tennis court on the property.
on this day we had the option of taking the short route, only 16 miles, right to Pitlochry, or the longer one where we’d go down to the town of Dunkeld, an old town. i’d read that across the river from Dunkeld was Birnham, where the Birhnam Wood was, the place where the witches in “macbeth” gathered. There was also a Beatrix Potter garden there.
as we rode to Dunkeld crossed a big bridge then rode down the bike path alongside the river. we were on the path which then became a nice paved road – there was some fancy Hilton complex hidden along the road, and this guy in a boat sitting alongside. we stopped here because i realized my back brake wasn’t working right…because i’d done a lot of biking two days before on our four-mile descent into Killin, plus all the braking i did whenever we went down steep hills, i’d worn out my brake. luckily kevin could fix it.
his brakes, of course, were fine. i’d felt like i was being more and more bold about NOT braking when going downhill, but of course i wasn’t as brave as i thought i was.
deer with antlers.
we got to dunkeld and it was, of course, very old and quaint…but also crowded with parked cars and tourists everywhere. we headed right over the bridge to Birnham. this is Mr. Fox in Beatrix P’s garden.
adjacent to the garden was a big Birnham building called the birnham institute with a gift shop and a little cafe. we sat outside and had a very delicious lunch. i had hummus and kevin had beans and cheese on toast. the beans and cheese on toast was VERY VERY DELICIOUS. i just had a bite, but wished i’d ordered that instead of my healthy hummus salad.
as we sat there eating oustide and enjoying the beautiful day we kept a close eye out on the sky. dark threatening clouds were rolling in really fast. not more rain? please, no more rain. we were going to hang around in Birnham and try to find birnham wood but decided instead to head off for Pitlochry because we didn’t want to ride in the rain.
riding out of town was hilly, and a huge logging truck drove right by me. i didn’t see it till it was past me, and was glad that i hadn’t because it was so very big.
we rode and rode, and pretty soon were alongside a highway but were on a nice bike path and it was all pretty flat and still the rain didn’t come. even though this was one of the longer mileage days, it wasn’t bad because we were more used to the hills and because there weren’t quite as many really stepp hills, and because it didn’t rain.
we passed over the highway and there was only about four more miles to Pitlochry. but then…rain. it wasn’t so bad, though, and we rode on the sidewalk next to a road and then turned up the bike path…and suddenly it was a really big hill. and then more and more hilly all the way to pitlochry. but at least this was the end of the ride.
i wanted to get a close-up photo of sheep but when we stopped and i tried to take a picture most of them ran away. luckily this one didn’t mind the paparazzi.
here’s kevin, so close to the town yet just a few more hills…
we finally got into town and Pitlochry is also another very touristy place. we started down the main street and it was clogged with tourists wandering around and tour buses and we realized we were going the wrong direction. we turned around and found our b&b, a very charming place.
we settled in and headed out for dinner. by this time most of the tourists had left so the place wasn’t so bad. we celebrated our successful fifth day with cider, of course.
this is little park right down the street from our b&b.
day five of biking, very good. day six was going to be a choice – 14 mile roundtrip ride to Blair Castle, 30 mi. roundtrip to loch tummel, or five short miles round trip to the edradour distillery. decisions, decisions…
ok then,
grace