Route available here and below.
After a bad night’s sleep due to the wedding reception immediately below our room we made our displeasure known to the hotel management and got on our way later than normal at 9.45.
We headed towards Edinburgh intending to go into the centre and then pick up a cycle route out to the Forth Road Bridge but, just after we hit the outskirts, we saw “RR” signs for a cyclists’ ring road so followed them. Bikes are not allowed on the cars’ ring road but this was infinitely more pleasurable as it followed a quiet B road for most of the way.
Just before the end we must have missed a sign (or some smart alec had made it disappear) because we ended up at the junction of the by-pass (the one that cyclists are not allowed to use) and the A8, where there were roadworks for the Ednburgh tram system. After just a couple of hundred yards of cycling on the A8 (the 4th single digit A road of the trip with the A9 to come!) the footpath reappeared and we able to “escape” the traffic.
We soon made our way to the cycle route that was part of the original plan and followed that to Queensferry, the southern end of the bridge. After a loo stop we got onto the bridge and were surprised by the number of cyclists and pedestrians using it. There was a good view of the rail bridge.
The weather in the picture looks fantastic, but it didn’t feel like it. It was pretty chilly and there was a very, very strong wind coming from the West, and for the first time we had quite a bit of cycling west around Edinburgh and slightly west afterwards, which made the whole day quite a struggle when it should have been relatively easy.
On the other side of the bridge the road climbed steadily away from the river through Cowdenbeath (which we had heard of in the football scores on the radio and TV but absolutely no idea where it was) and Kinross. It would appear that Jim Baxter came from Cowdenbeath as there was a statue of him beside the road.
We saw signs to St Andrews, which certainly made Christine think she would like to come back some time to watch the golf, while Stephen goes biking perhaps! From Kinross we took the little back roads with some climbing, as ever. Along the way we helped 3 lost Scots find their way to a reservoir for some fishing. They were young, mid-twenties and mighty impressed with us cycling from Land’s End.Finally into Perth, in the Tay valley, and a hunt for the hotel, as the map Christine had downloaded had the hotel marked in the wrong position, but when we got there it was well worth the hunt. Another one to recommend, The Parklands. Not like last night’s, The Craigbieldtie House in Pencuik, definitely one to avoid. Bottom marks so far of all the places we have stayed. The only one so far with nowhere secure for our bikes. Anyway onwards and upwards-to The Highlands tomorrow!
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