Too little sleep! Amazing views, long day.

Last nights guest house was really comfortable and a lovely place that we would definitely recommend, and the disturbed night we passed has nothing to do with the accommodation, and everything to do with a light sleeper and a snorer sharing the same room. 

Amanda and I have shared before, and if I had thought about it, I would have brought some ear plugs - for her not for me! I have been told I snore before, but it is one of those things over which you have no control. I tried changing my position, and to stay awake until Amanda was asleep, and then let myself drift off, but unfortunately this combination resulted in a disturbed night for both of us. Amanda being woken up by me and in turn waking me out of my deep sleep to stop the noise I was making. Where I would try to stay awake (probably unsuccessfully) until she was asleep, and then drift off and start snoring again waking her up... Suffice to say neither of us woke up fresh as daisies. 

We feel a bit better after a decent breakfast, and ready to tackle the massive hill we know from the map we have at the start of today's ride. Before we go though we want to stop at a little gift shop we saw on the way to dinner last night. Unfortunately it's closed but I do stop at a pharmacy and buy ear plugs and nose strips to hopefully prevent another sleepless night! 

I had been told by someone at work about a sauna at loch Tay called the Hotbox with great views across Loch Tay. It is about a mile from our accommodation tonight and would be a fab way to end the day if we can make it before it closes at 5pm. 

Climbing out of Aberfoyle  we realise that we have done this before - Dukes pass was one of the roads we cycled over as part of the pedal for Parkinson's ride a few years back. I groan. I had walked up most of it! Although it did give lovely views. Thankfully though instead of carrying on up the road, route 7 turned off into Achray forest. And within a minute we find ourselves confronted with a beautiful forest waterfall. Amanda tells me there is a sign saying we might see monkeys in the trees here. As she is taking pictures of the falls, a movement above makes me look up. Do you think the monkeys could be people on the go ape zipline? I ask her pointing up. She looks at me and then laughs as she realised what I mean.

Carrying on through lush green forest surrounded by greenery redolent with rich earth smells and various types of trees we continue climbing, and catch sight of more Go Ape obstacles, although no other 'monkeys'. We are on and off the bikes as necessary. It is still drizzly and Amanda comments that our surroundings wouldn't be like this without the amount of rain we get. This is true, and here as well as the verdant plant life around us we frequently hear forest  streams gurgling and gushing through the undergrowth.

Eventually, we reach the heights and views open out around us - over the tree tops we see a bank of mist blocking anything else! It is still beautiful though. The land opens out a little as we curve around the top of the hill before the path starts to descend again.  We are soon back on the road and find ourselves alternating between tunnels of trees above us, opening out to views across Loch Drunkie, shrouded in mist. The descent to Callandar is gradual, undulating terrain on a mix of gravel and hard packed forest trails and quiet roads. With a lovely off road section along the banks of Loch Venachar. Then it is back on the road through managed camping sites where several loch side cabins seem to be being built before we reach Callandar. 

We stop here for a coffee and a bite to eat as well as a quick look in some gift shops. We are afraid to buy anything though, as trying to keep it intact over the next few days would be a challenge! Leaving Callandar, we get our feet absolutely drenched as the path is flooded to the point where our feet were in the water while pedalling. Ah well only 40miles still to go... we concentrate on the 24 to Killin. We know at this point we are not going to make the hot box sauna, but I suggest we could do it the next morning instead to warm us up before we get going. 

The route on leaving Callandar is a quiet country lane and then an off road path along the edge of Loch Lubnaig with some fun ups and downs. We catch glimpses of the loch through the trees and occasionally the view opens out - but as the drizzly cloudy misty weather continues the range is limited. Fairly soon we pass by Strathyre, and not long after we are back out in the open country. Although it was only 2 days ago (I am writing this later than I would like) I am struggling to remember much about the section between Strathyre and Killin in any detail. The rain was drenching us from head to toe and we just kept on pedalling.

The route doesn't go into Killin proper, instead curving away towards Loch Tay from the Falls of Dochart. Another fabulous stretch of water gushing over rocks, it is a wide, shallow fall and with all the rain is especially impressive. If it had been nicer we might have been tempted to pause here for refreshment watching the water, and be refreshed for our last 15miles or so. but it is still raining and we decide to push on and get to our accommodation for the night. We have about 15 miles still to cover before we reach Acharn, just a mile or 2 from Kenmore at the other end of Loch Tay. 

The road here is pretty quiet with not too much traffic, but climbs up and down constantly undulating and following Loch Tay. While I try and appreciate the views across the Loch when I can, we find this section really tough after what has already been a challenging day for us. we pause and Amanda checks the distance left to go. Still 11 miles! They feel more like 20 as we push on, on tired legs. I get into a kind of zone pushing fast on the downs to get as much momentum as possible to take me up the next section, slowing right down and pushing on up the next slope....an energy gel provided for us by Amanda's boyfriend keeps me going and eventually we pull into Acharn and find our accommodation not long after 5pm. 

We are staying at the air bnb property of Charlotte and Adam. They make us a coffee and tell us the hot water is switched on and will be heated up in 20 minutes or so for a hot shower, we change out of our wet clothes and I try to make some conversation while we wait - Amanda is quiet, energy drained from the long day. 53 miles and 2 big climbs. We are both done in. after a warm shower, we begin to feel halfway normal. Charlotte has a meeting in Aberfeldy and offers us a lift into the town for dinner. The alternative being a walk in the still drizzly weather to Kenmore and back we accept gratefully. We don't really see anything of Aberfeldy as it is after 7, food brings on the tiredness and we just want to sleep.

Back at the bnb we go pretty much straight to bed at 9ish. Thankfully the ear plugs do the job and we both get a decent nights sleep! 

Shame about the weather!

I wrote a blog post last night before going to sleep and was just about finished when blogger crashed on me and I lost it all! Very disappointing. So this post might be a bit shorter and less descriptive than it would have been!

When we were putting dates in the diary for this ride we did think about the weather, and hoped that we would be ok at the beginning of September. Quite often well have a wet tail end of August, and then a nice couple of weeks in September. That's either not happening this year or we are too early for it. The forecast for the week is rain. Hoping that this wouldn't affect us too much, we packed oh waterproofs and didn't let it put us off.

We started out yesterday a little bit later than planned. Amanda was staying with some friends and we decided we would be in touch about 9 to decide whether to meet on the nearby cycle path and go to Haymarket together, or to meet at Waverley and get the train from there. Deciding on Haymarket we left half an hour later than planned, and just missed a train at 10.08. Next one was 10.26 the time we had hoped to be in Glasgow! Ah well... it gave us time for a quick photo! Unfortunately it also turned out to be one of the slower ones to Glasgow central, so we finally arrived to start the ride about 11.45, a quick pit stop to buy some food for lunch and we were on our way just after 12!

Getting on to route 7 from central was dead easy, down to the Clyde, then follow route 75 until they joined up with 7. The NCN routes I've followed have generally been very well signposted and this one is no exception. Some fiddly turns through Glasgow were all fine and the route is o. Mostly shared use paths with some bits on quiet roads. Coming out of. Glasgow by bike really gives hi a sense of re industrial heritage of the city. At one point we were rolling along a converted railway track with industrial areas on one side and lovely older tenement flats on the other. There was obviously a school nearby too as we caught the sounds of kids playing. Carrying on we also passed near Glasgow airport. With an Emirates plane seemingly just above our heads as it came in to land.

This first half of our route was mostly flat, at times following the Clyde, and then later a really nice stretch along the Forth and Clyde canal. Where we stopped at Bowling for a snack, despite this we didn't really feel that we had left the city behind as the route goes through built up areas pretty much all the way to Dumbarton. Finally hitting the entry to Loch Lomond we stopped for a well needed coffee break, looking forward to the loch opening out before us. Alas it was not to be - just after hitting the harbour area with a vast array of boats the route turned away from the Loch,and began to climb slightly. We had been planning to stop here for lunch, and coming to some benches in the grounds of what I think was Balloch castle, we stopped to eat our sandwiches. The view was of well kept grounds, sloping down to trees on the banks of the loch backed by mist. This as to be the theme of the day. While it never really properly rained from start to finish it was misty and drizzly. Despite our waterproofs we were soaked through by the end of the day.

It had taken us about 2 and a half hours to get to this point, 'so we should get there about 5' proclaimed Amanda optimistically. 'Hmm, but there is a big hill to climb, so might be more like 6' I reply. Heading on we carry on climbing a little, but its rolling country roads - if this is it I can totally handle it! We were now properly in the country following smooth surprisingly well maintained country lanes and the peace of it sinks in - despite the still mist limited views.

The route finally turns off the road onto a narrow paved track through a tunnel of green trees, which opens out onto a bridge across a small river, utterly charming. The track carried on for another mile or 2, and the route joined the Rob Roy way, where we passed a group of backpackers hiking along. And this is where we hit the real climb. We were back on country lanes, but a little more rough and potholes too. There was nothing for it but to climb. I was off my bike a fair few times along this stretch and Amanda once or twice. One of the things I admire about her is her determination and ability to push herself. Finally reaching the crest the road crossed the top of the hill passing under pylons with moorland to both sides and a  high pond to the left again backed by mist instead of what I think would be stunning views on a clear day. Never mind though, we were being rewarded with the downhill stretch. With Amanda being so much stronger on the hills she was quite a bit ahead of me here, but I am faster going down and I caught up to her along the 4 miles or so of rolling downhill we were rewarded with.

She tells me she is about ready to be done, but we only have 5 miles left to go. One more short climb through a little village who's name I didn't catch and then we had a flat path with brightly coloured painted pictures welcoming us into Aberfoyle. We were glad to get to our bnb - Craigmore guest house, and be welcomed in. In the end we made it for about 5.20.

A hot drink, a hot shower and an hour of relaxing had us feeling much restored. Coming into the town we had spotted a place called the Faerie Tree and immediately decided this should be the where we would eat. Feeling refreshed I. Dry clothes we headed out for dinner. Unfortunately by this point the shops were all closed, but we spotted a couple of places we thought we might want to visit before we left next morning. Although we did want to be on the road pretty early. A mile from our second nights stop is a sauna with views over loch Tay - the catch being that it shuts at 5 on a Tuesday.

We would love to make it in time, but we are aware that we have further to travel, we will see!

The Prep

Those of you who followed my first touring blog (Edinburgh to Dublin slow and scenic) may know that I asked my bestie Amanda if she wanted to join me. She wasn't able to that time but we have discussed doing another one on and off since. As she now lives in Southampton we only get to see each other on holidays and short visits, so I suggested earlier this year that we do a cycle tour this autumn instead of a city break. She was up for it and after some discussion considering various options we settled on NCN Route 7 North -Glasgow to Inverness. A beautiful looking route taking in some of our amazing Scottish scenery.

We decided not to camp as we didn't want to have too much to carry and weren't sure about the weather in September. As we were following an NCN route minimal planning was required. We settled on 5 days cycling around 40 mile each with stops at Aberfoyle, Loch Tay, Blair Atholl and near Aviemore. Amanda would come up a couple of days before to see a few friends and hire a bike.

Now I love Amanda to bits - she has been one of my best friend for years, she supported me in my first cycle over 50miles - Pedal for Parkinson's in Stirling, and trained for it and completed it with me, despite her focus at that time being more on running. But she has always been physically fitter than I am, and much more competitive! So my only concern was that she would be much faster and get frustrated at me trailing behind, however it turns out she feels the same as she says she hasn't been as active recently as she normally is. I'm not sure I believe her and I am sure that she is worrying for nothing but it makes me feel a bit better!

It is also a different experience doing a tour as opposed to a days ride out and home again, carrying your kit and doing the miles several days in a row. We have agreed to just enjoy the ride and walk up the steepest bits if we need to!

In the last week excitement has been rising, both at seeing my friend, doing a tour and putting both those things together. Being able to share something you love to do with someone you love and being confident that they will love it too (as I'm sure she will!)  is an exciting prospect.

Packing the panniers now - Can't wait to get started!