Day 75 July 27th

Spent most of the morning surfing (the web that is) to organise getting to London and a place to stay when I get there. After the usual hassles of web sites not working properly, I finally got organised and it was nearly lunchtime. I then assembled the bike again and even spent some time adjusting the brakes to stop them from dragging slightly.

Then it was time for Craig to get home from work and we set out for an evening tour of the Pentland Hills just west of the city. It was a good ride with a bit of everything thrown in, bitumen, a scenic glen with a stream, nice singletrack, fire road climbs and descents and lots of mud. The only thing missing to make it a true Scottish MTB experience was rain. Thank goodness!

DISTANCE TODAY 35km TOTAL DISTANCE 1829km

Day 76 July 28th

I saw the town of Largs on a map and seeing that my mum still lives at Largs North back home and it was where I grew up, I mentioned that I should have tried to get there. Martin (Craig's dad) immediately volunteered to drive me over there as it is south of Glasgow. It took 2 hours to get there and it is quite a big place and was a big beachside resort in its day. There are lots of nice houses, plenty of churches and a bustling main shopping area. The only thing missing was sand. The beach was full of rocks and there was not one bit of sand to be seen. It makes you appreciate our beaches back home.

After lunch over there it was another 2 hours back to Edinburgh and that was pretty much the day done.

DISTANCE TODAY 0km TOTAL DISTANCE 1829km

Day 77 July 29th

Decided today was a good day to cycle out to Falkirk Wheel which is an engineering masterpiece. Craig told me the easiest but not the shortest way out there was to follow the union canal which starts in downtown Edinburgh and goes to the wheel. I did that but had a bit of trouble getting onto the canal path as it wasn't signposted and most streets that looked as though they might go to it were dead ends. Anyway I finally made it onto the path and started the trek out.

The first fascinating thing was when the canal and path went OVER the motorway. It would have been funny driving along the motorway and seeing a boat go overhead. The k's seemed to being very slowly until I realized the markers were miles not kilometers. When I was nearly out there the second fascinating thing was the tunnel that the boats and bikes both go through. It was very quiet and dark in there with only the sound of dripping water and the light at the end off in the distance. I thought it was pretty long so I measured it on the way back and it was 730 metres so it wasn't a small thing.

Eventually I got to the wheel and what an amazing thing it is. See the pictures to get the idea but it basically has 2 containers that the boats float in and then it rotates and lifts/drops the boats 35 metres to line up with the water level both at the top and bottom. Based on Archimedes principal it doesn't matter if there is only one boat because that boat will have displaced the amount of water equal to its weight so the 2 containers will still be in balance. The amount of power required to move it is equal to the power of boiling 3 kettles of water.

I only had time for a quick bite of lunch and to take a few photos and then it was back on the canal trail for the slog back to Edinburgh. I originally didn't realise it was as far as it was but it was a good work out anyway. Had my first riding puncture on the path going back. After all the abuse I had put the bike thru in the past 2.5 months I get a puncture on a bike path!!!

DISTANCE TODAY 121km TOTAL DISTANCE 1950km

Day 78 July 30th

Didn't do a lot today as I was pretty stuffed from yesterday. The stopwatch hand on my watch had fallen off about a week ago and kept getting stuck between the second hand and minute hand and making my watch stop. I took it to a jeweller and he was able to fix it by getting rid of the floating hand and only charged 4 pounds which is hardly a fortune.

Mooched around for the rest of the day and watched a bit of TV until another cousin Kate and her partner George from Glasgow came over for a visit. I have more rellies up here than I ever knew.

DISTANCE TODAY 10km TOTAL DISTANCE 1960km

Day 79 July 31st

Craig had today off so we headed south west to the Dumfries and Galloway region to ride some more of the 7 Stanes MTB trails network. It was nearly a 2 hours drive and we got to the little village of AE at lunchtime, had some lunch and headed out for a ride. It is one big loop that has got a good mix of rough and smooth singletrack, fireroad climbs and some really fun downhill stuff.

The loop was 23km and we finished this reasonably quickly so after a quick look at the map we were able to shortcut the big loop and still do all the fun stuff again. It was even better the second time as we knew what was coming, so it was a good day all round.

Like most of the 7 Stanes, there was a bike hire and cafe so we had some coffee and cake and headed off the Kippford Holiday park to stay in the van overnight. Luckily it started raining heavily just as we were driving an not while we were riding.

DISTANCE TODAY 37km TOTAL DISTANCE 1997km

Day 80 August 1st

It rained most of the night so we weren't too excited about heading out this morning. When we got up though the weather had cleared up pretty well, so it was off to Kirroughtree to try the trails there. The loop we did was a combination of black (severe) and red (difficult) which was pretty accurate although these gradings would apply to average riders.

We started out climbing but the grade was so slight and the trails so nice to ride that we didn't even realize we were climbing. It seemed that there was a lot more downhill than up so it was almost the perfect trail. We had a great time and when we got to the black section there were a few spots that required some concentration but nothing that wasn't rideable. On section was like a trials course and we had to follow bule arrows painted on the rocks to navigate.

All in all this would have to be one of the sweetest loops I have done anywhere and of the 34km we did 75% was singletrack, so it was one sweet ride.

DISTANCE TODAY 34km TOTAL DISTANCE 2031km

Day 81 August 2nd

Last day of riding for the trip and once again the weather held off. It was only a five minute drive to Dalbeattie forest which is another of the 7 Stanes MTB parks, so we had a bit of a touristy look around the area in the morning. There was supposed to be a sailing regatta on so we headed to the village for a look. All we saw was half a dozen yachts so it must have been a small regatta.

A quick lunch and then it was into the trails and once again they were great. A really good variety of fun flowy singletrack that just made you want to go faster as they were then more fun. This area was flatter than the others but it still didn't detract from the riding. There were a few rocky outcrops and they made the most of everyone by having an alternative harder line up and over the rocks to keep things interesting.

Overall the 7 Stanes areas that I have ridden in both trips have been some of the best riding I have done and were easily as good as the best of the Alps. Glentress would be the best I suppose because as well as the big 30k loop there are more extra bits to cater for the huge numbers that ride there. These others are not as popular as they are a 2hr drive from Edinburgh or Glasgow but this helps to keep them in pristine condition and the actual trails are better than Glentress.

This is the last day of bike riding for me, so will be the last distance info at the bottom.

DISTANCE TODAY 32km TOTAL DISTANCE 2063km

Day 82 August 3rd

Not much happening today as it was washing clothes after the weekend, especially the bike clothes as some of those were really muddy after the Kirroughtree ride. The bike had to be dismantled and washed within an inch of its life so that I won't have any problems with the Customs and Agriculture guys when I take it back to Oz. I didn't realize just how dirty it was until I started cleaning it and most of it had to be done twice to get all the bits those guys might find too dirty.