Friday 12 August 2011

The rough and the smooth

Yer not kidding
Day 4: Pitlochry to Falkirk
I wasn't sure about today when planning the route as there were too many unknowns. The alternatives were either to follow lots of A roads, which makes for good progress but can get tedious if the traffic is busy; or to follow lots of B roads which are slow going in the hills but really get to the best of the scenery. And somehow I had to join up bits of the map which no-one had been on yet - let me explain. I'm using Opencyclemap on my GPS, which is both cheap and detailed. However the map is open source surveyed, that is people like you and me travelling the world and uploading tracks to show where routes exist, and which could be cyclepaths or roads. If no-one has uploaded the track of a cyclepath or road it doesn't show on the map until someone does. More importantly for me it means that you can't plan a GPS route using paths or roads that it knows don't exist. Clear? Me neither.

In the end I plumped for a mix of the A and B roads which is how we came to leave Pitlochry on National Cycle Route 7 and 77 past Beatrix Potter's Garden and along the banks of the Tay, eventually to Bankfoot. Where we then got on the A9 and ripped along in top gear until we got to Perth. That was the smooth. Unfortunately it was also where Colin got confused about 'A9' and 'Perth' whilst 'off the back' and decided to detour into the centre of Perth whilst I stood and waited for him at the Broxden Roundabout (only about a mile since I'd last seen him) for about an hour.

Leaving Broxden still on the A9, we blasted along again until the turn-off to Dunning, and Dunning Common.  Sounds harmless enough, but is actually a wilderness area starting with a 3 mile climb past burns and forces swelled with the recent rain. I would describe the atmosphere at this point to be a thick mist so we were pretty soaked. Just after the top I heard the phone ring, so stopped to chat with Rose. Oh joy, she and Mother in law have just arrived at  the hotel reception to learn that our bookings have been cancelled. I discuss calmly with the receptionist, no make that calm and friendly as I knew Rose would be doing the iron glove treatment. Turns out they had two bookings for the same surname (imagine that) and when one (not us) cancelled, the hotel didn't check properly and cancelled ours not theirs. So we got booked in to another hotel in the same chain further along our route for less money, result.  Who needs it though, in the middle of nowhere in the pouring rain with your lungs much further up your throat than they should be. That'll be the rough then. And eventually the descent to the Yetts O'Muckhart, 5 miles of tarmac singletrack and well worth the visit.

Over the Rumbling Bridge, we stopped at the fabulous Milk Bar cafe in Powmill where they serve the sort of cakes you can only get in Scotland, with a friendly welcome. It was good to thaw out but no chance of drying off. Onward to the Clackmannanshire Bridge (which should have led directly to our original hotel) and a further 5 miles to our overnight stop.

Today: 65 miles, 280 miles cumulative. Max speed (computer is fixed now) 38.5mph.


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