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!
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