Day Seven

27.03.2008 - Edinburgh - Kingussie

The Castle View Guest House in Edinburgh had just that. The sun was shinning but we could see the locals in the street wrapped up warm so we opted to stick to our layers.

It was a pig of a job navigating out of Edinburgh but we had some small bonuses, like cycling past Murrayfield stadium which Angus pointed out, being the rugby man he is.

Also, it was nice going over the Forth road bridge. There is something nice about bridges.

Our first criminal act of the day - we had been jumping "safe reds" for a while now - led by me (don't really want to drag the rest of them into the much) was to jump a road block only to discover that we were entering a tree felling area. No trees fell on our heads as the workers were on their lunch break - that's how long we took to leave Edinburgh! And we went on our merry way.

Now the shadow of the Grampian mountains lay heavily upon us. Unlike the Cumbrian mountains, which approached us quite quickly in comparison, the mighty Grampians took their time and loomed bigger and bigger.

At the cash point in Kinross, a woman after learning our plight advised me and Angus that "it will be cold up there". Our fish and chips in Perth I think it was were eaten in silence. We knew it would be a late one with lots of climbing on the busy A9. With the massive lorries to make us company.

Still, the after lunch route was very pleasant, on some B roads ending in Pitlochry I think it was, where we had our late afternoon tea break. Thereafter the Grampians hit us hard and we were climbing for a long time. Darkness fell and we were still climbing. When we got to the pass Henry took over with his powerful legs and headlights and pulled us all the way down at high speed. At one point disaster struck and his light went out but after some fidgeting it came to and off we went again. It was wonderful to see the road sign "Kingussie 16 m".

And soon enough we were there, taking the detour through Newtonmore, flying in like a squadron, two abreast, with a strong tailwind.

At the Osprey Hotel big Sue pulled our legs suggesting breakfast was at 4am but Henry pulled her leg right back saying 4.30am would do.

At the Duke of Gordon Hotel, opposite the Osprey we had dinner. The place was packed with OAPs and the portions were compatible with the clientele. We felt big voids in our bellies but the fireplace made up for it, as we sipped our whiskey and dried our feet.