What a difference 2 days makes. So nice to not be whinging about how cold and windy it has been. After some rain overnight while camping at the lovely site at Carnoustie woke to a bright and sunny morning with some heat to go with it (still a definite coolness to the breeze though) - a lovely feeling waking up to the warm inside of the tent. We took advantage of the fact that it was warm and dry to sort through things and make a pile of stuff to post home - including one of my two fleeces (bought a lighter weight zip up one when we were waiting in Aberdeen to sail to the Shetlands as realised just how cold it was going to be...) - too much for the jiffy bag Roger bought the other day, so stopped off at the Spar/Post Office and were able to buy a fold up box (something to than EBay for - the need for cost effective packaging materials to be kept by the post offices) and send a boxful home to the vets surgery in Rawtenstall for them to keep for us till we get home.
A lovely days ride - flat all the way till St Andrews so a bit of a treat. Virtually traffic free most of the day as well, or on very small and empty back roads, so even more of a treat. Cycled past lots of golf courses - all looked very busy, even though a Monday morning. Past a train station called Golf Street, worrying when the signs say you ride at your own risk if hit by a golf ball, especially when
riding past the practice area that was teeming with people and flying golf balls. The 'richest square mile in Europe' (in the Victorian era) area on the outskirts of Dundee was a bit of a disappointment - I was expecting some fantastic Victorian mansions but if there were ay they were hidden behind a park and woodland area- I presume the jute merchants liked to live here so that they could look out over the Tay estuary which the area overlooks and see their vessels arriving back at Dundee, a short distance up the river mouth. An interesting mile cycling through the dock area of Dundee before getting to the road bridge. You had to go through a security gate to access the cycle path, and the same at the the end - but all that separated you from the 'secure' dock area was a low level fence - and that was not for all the distance either. You could have easily gone 'walkabouts' - but presume they probably monitor you at either end to make sureyou come ut again within a reasonable time. Took us a while to work out how to get onto the bridge with the bikes as they are doing building works on the access areas so most of it courdoned off for non vehicular traffic. Found the lift that takes you and your bike up to the level of the road bridge - in the central reservation area that is dedicated for cyclists and walkers. About a mile long or so - and making the joints much weaker than they gradually goes uphill all the way across. Could see the Tay railway bridge further up river that we'd come over on our railway journey north a month ago on our way up to start this trip. The original Tay bridge that collapsed was constructed as by normal methods for the time - when the holes of the different sections didn't line up as well as they should they would heat the rivet up and hammer it into the compromised holes, consequently making the bridge much weaker than it was supposed to be. At the same time as the railway bridge disaster,in Buxton they were using the same construction methods on the huge dome they were building at the hospital there (now part of Buxton university) and had to stop and reconsider how to get the riveting done in a better way.
At the other side of the bridge stopped at a grassy area by the Tay Bridge Kiosk to enjoy the sunshine, the view and are butties. Also I had the first ice cream of the trip - strawberry and very delicious. On the southern side of the Tay estuary we worked our way round past the small harbour and lighthouses of Tayport,a short distance by water away from the jute merchants mansions of Broughty Ferry opposite, to the flat forested spur of Tentsmuir Forest with a 4 mile section around the edge on very pleasant forest tracks. Cycled past a group of kids - one obnoxious little do gooder told both of us that 'We should be riding with our helmets on' - we'd taken them off as we were not on the road. Such a nanny state culture here - in the Netherlands three years ago when we were cycling down the Rhine river we were looked on as very strange by the local kids because we had our cycle hats on - they thought we must be doing some really dangerous sort of off road cycling. Having said that we do wear on helmets most of the time, but if on vehicle free sections of route and it's hot we'll usually take them off and allow somewhere for the sweat to go!! Roger and I have been reading a book by Val McDermid called The`Distant Echo which is based around St Andrews and the area from there to Edinburgh - mentions the forest in the book - as where reports come in on a regular basis of ritual killings of animals going on there..... All we found was an old ice house in the depths of the trees (but the sea not far away) - its where they kept salmon fresh by filling it with ice brought by ships arriving into Dundee and from the surrounding lakes if they froze up. Now a sanctuary for bats that can live up to 2 years and have a wing span of foot or more.
Cycled into St Andrews past the golf course used for the Open - presume it must be soon as they were getting it ready for the big event - with signage and ropeways and grandstand seating areas. Past the Royal and Ancient Golf Club House and the Old Course, where a small road appears to go through the play area - and saw someone cycling along it while shots were being played over her head -with a loud 'fore' being shouted. Lots of tourists and students and golfers sat at the viewpoint nearby enjoying the last of the nice day (had cooled off and gone a bit overcast by now). Eventually found somewhere to buy food from - amazingly for what is quite a large town and full of students - there is only a Tesco Extra near town, and as it was after 5 by now was packed out with students chatting to each other, flirting, making group buying decisions with kitty money etc-made me feel very old and grumpy as they kept being in the way of where you wanted to be!!
The sting in the tail for the day was the fact that the campsite for St Andrews was at the top of a long hill - which we both pushed our bikes up. A large caravan park with mainly holiday home vans on the site - terraced down the hillside towards the St Andrews bay and overlooking the ruined castle and town - would have been a spectacular view from our tent spot if we'd been able to see through the caravans. More like a mini holiday camp type of site with bar and restaurant area, never our favourites - expensive, don't really cater for the needs of a camper - and especially not from a cycle campers point of view. Lovely warm shower this morning though - down to 5 degrees C last night, so my hottie was still used,but for the first night under canvas this trip I wasn't wearing my socks in bed, and also didn't wear my fleece to bed. We wee woken from deep sleeps about 5.30 this morning - a seagull had seized the opportunity of dragging a carrier bag of food out from under the flap of the front vestibule - and it wasn't stuck out in anyway - the little thief had to work at getting it - the seagull and his mates had then managed to get`the cheese slices and baby sweetcorns out and were having a great time with their beaks digging into them by the time Roger got his underpants on and went out to sort it out. Little - sorry BIG - buggers. Had to chop the pecked area of cheese away so something left to go on our butties for today. Those beaks are sharp - they'd gone right through the tough plastic container of the cheese.
A lovely warm day today, the cool breeze just right for cycling without too much sweating - cycled in cutoffs and a teashirt - and no coat or windproof - amazing.... Much more up and down cycling today but lovely countryside and views. Due to a distinct lack of possible places to camp between here and Edinburgh we decided to stop at 2pm whe we arrived at Markinch, near to Glenrothes and north of Kirkcaldy (mentioned in the Val McDermid novel). While I was food shopping in a very low key supermarket Roger was chatted up by an 80 year old waiting for the bus who had been a cyclist. He must have soon sized Roger up because he asked him if he was 'really a car person rather than a bike one?' You have to admire Roger for undertaking this trip with me given his hate relationship with hills and wind when in association with bikes.
Found the campsite very easily and looking forward to having a lazy afternoon lounging in the sun, but drat - it wasn't open as the toilet block was being refurbished and wouldn't open till June. No real plan B at this stage but the builders came up to us and suggested we found ourself a spot in the trees, and told us we could use their loo and showed us where to get water from. So in an idyllic spot all on our own lying in the sun reading and doing the blog. Sun just starting to lose its heat so warm clothes are gradually going on. No access to an electric socket tonight so might be the first hottie free night Should get to the outskirts of Edinburgh tomorrow to a campsite shown on the map - if it's still there of course and open....
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