This video on how to unpeel a banana the correct way (the method used by monkeys) has popped up on a number of atheist-inclined websites (for the explanation, see PZ Myers' blog at Pharyngula). I can confirm that the method works, even when steering a tandem.
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJV56WUDng 425x344]
On another fair day, we began by traversing the Black Isle, first through mixed arable farmland, and then mixed woodland. This involved a surprising amount of climbing. We eventually picked up cycle route 1 (for Inverness) at Munlochy.
This proved to be quite a circuitous route, and eventually led us under the A9 to cross the Kessock Bridge on a path alongside the northbound carriageway! Unfortunately, this deposited us in a huge industrial estate, among huge articulated lorries. We extricated oursleves by ignoring any cycle route signs, unfortunately, this led us to take cycle paths which required us to cross busy dual carriageways.
We spent just about all of today on Cycle Route 7. We had a few light showers between Aviemore and Kingussie, but really the day was dry with many sunny spells.
Setting out from Aviemore, we chose not to ride initally on route 7, as this would have added 4 or 5 miles - instead we chose a more direct B road. Kingussie looks more like a "real Scottish town than does Aviemore - it has a main street lined with older stone-built properties. Route 7 works pretty well as far as Dalwhinnie (notable mostly it seems to me for an elegant distillery building - and presumably the distillery within!).
Today's ride was on home turf, practically, as we were riding roads we frequented when we lived in Dundee for a decade. We returned to Dundee via Caputh, Coupar Angus, Newtyle and Muirhead, followed by a frantic ride through Dundee to the Tay Bridge. Because we reached Dundee around mid-day, the traffic was reasonably light, and we had no real issues.
35.64 miles; 10.7 mph ave; 27.2 mph max; 3:18:04; total distance 523.33 miles
This year's cycle tour was partly blogged as I went (only slightly successful, as internet access with my Vodafone modem was patchy and 2G at best). For this writeup of the tour, I've updated the blog articles, and linked them to this article.
Day 1 - Tayport to Aberfeldy In which we meet old friends, both expected and unexpected.
Each year before taking the tandem away for our annual cycle tour, it always seems prudent to give it the once-over and to replace various parts. So far (and for the tour starting in about a week), I have done the following:
I know that doesn't sound too much thus far, but today's schedule includes:
This is the likely itinerary for our 2009 Scottish tour. It's still not written in stone, as we need to contact various people we want to meet up with en route. I'm planning to update this blog as we go (Vodafone 3G access permitting!).
Day 1 - Tayport to Aberfeldy or Kenmore. Hoping to stop off an visit an old friend near Dunkeld.
I am planning on posting updates to this website while on cycle tour, in which I will describe our progress around Scotland. In a classic Baldrick style, I have a cunning plan. This plan entails taking my little OQO handheld WinXP device (left). Of course this is a pretty creaky little machine, and the keyboard won't lend itself to particularly lengthy write-ups, but still, I should be able to keep updated with our progress round the planned itinerary. Ideally I'll be able to upload images as well.
This all depends crucially on whether I can get the Vodafone mobile broadband USB stick to behave (and indeed on finding a reasonably quick connection in the wilderness). You can see the truly Baldrickian nature of this cunning plan emerging, I think...
After excellent hospitality in Tayport, we set off just after 9.00am towards Dundee, in spetacular brilliant sunshine. Crossing the Tay Bridge, the Tay estuary looked particularly beautiful, particularly with the backdrop of the Braes of the Carse behind it.
The bridge itself offers a descent for about 2 miles, and the traffic was comparatively light. Once in Dundee, it's relatively easy to scoot off the bridge and round past the rail station and Discovery Point, then onwards into countryside through Invergowrie to Kingoodie.
The day began and finished with cloudless blue skies - for much of the day, we had puffy white clouds. Unfortunately this didn't lessen the temperature, and part way through today's ride, I had to stop wearing my helmet as a consequnce of the torrents of sweat pouring out of it. We decided to try and reach Oban today, a distance of over 70 miles, much of it on main trunk roads.
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For me, the day began lethargically, and it wasn't until Kenmore that we were rolling effectively. Kenmore lacks B&Bs, though there's a good tearoom (closed when we passed), a hotel, and a number of what looks like holiday cottages. We paused at Kenmore to take a few photographs, in cluding one looking across to the Loch Tay Crannog Centre, featuring a reconstruction of a crannog, a prehistoric settlement built on a platform on stilts over water. From Kenmore, we pressed on via the road on the north side of Loch Tay - this is a fair bit easier the that on the south side, which is a recommended cycle route. There's not much accomodation to be had other than the Lawers Hotel until you get to Killin, where there are plenty of B & Bs. En route to Killin, we passed a Google Streets photography car, though judging from the speed it was doing, we doubt it was active.Along the way,the landscape was excellent, with high mountains to our right (for example Ben Lawers) and the glassy smooth waters of Loch Tay to our left.
After a cream tea in tearoom at Killin, we set forth with an expected 55 miles or so to still to cover (this was at 12.00, with 23 miles already on the clock). Next point was Crianlarich, followed soon after by Tyndrum - neither are particularly interesting, but do offer food and accommodation, mostly aimed at the climbing fraternity. For the rest of the day, we contented ourselves with bananas and snack bars, washed down with warm water from our bottles (vaguely plasticky tasting after two days in the heat). At one point, we paused for Carol to relieve her hot feet in a stream, in order to stave off foot cramps.
We woke to see sun and clouds, and this later cleared to give clear skies and, yes, more hot weather! However this did make for an excellent day of cycling on Mull, an island we'd not visited in about 15 years.
{readmore}On a weekday morning, Oban is mighty busy, and getting to the ferry was a little awkward (and I even made a wrong turn in the 0.75 miles from the B&B to the ferry terminal!). Once there, we bought tickets (one of the 'Island Hopsctoch' tickets) and embarked, along with many others, including 6 coaches - everyone seemed to be heading for Iona.
After breakfast, we rolled the bike down the B&B's extraordinarily steep driveway, and then rode it down the hill into Tobermory and on to the ferry jetty on the harbour. From there, we took the ferry across the Sound of Mull to Kilchoan in Ardnamurchan.
{readmore}We'd decided to nip over to the beach at Sanna before heading to Salen (or possibly Acharacle, depending on how we felt). So we rode over the hills to Sanna Bay, where we were rewarded by a virtually empty beach composed of glorious silver sands - here we had a drum up. On the walk over to the beach we walked past former crofting fields, with streams populated with a variety of small wildlife, and with butterworts growing around the banks. We were also rewarded with spectacular views of some of the Inner Hebrides (Coll etc).
Our sojourn at the excellent Salen Hotel ended with the finest breakfast of the trip. Everything about it exuded quality - bacon, scrambled eggs (on a potato scone), mushrooms, sausage (their own recipe) and Stornoway black pudding set me up famously. But before that, I'd been out to sort the gears - turned out the indexing was way out of whack.
The weather this morning was glorious - sunshine and clouds, but a bit cooler than of late. The road over to Lochailort features quite a bit of climbing (before the biggest climb, over to Loch Ailort, we were hailed by a bunch of sea kayakers) but the roads were splendid, leading us through fabulous woodland. As we approached Lochailort, we spotted a steam train heading for Mallaig, emitting vast clouds of smoke.
The Grumpy tandem will be making its usual Scottish expedition this summer - the usual pattern is to be away for a fortnight and be cycling for about 10 days. We typically tour in Scotland as that allows us to keep in contact with friends there. You can read about some of our previous tours via the Cycling menu on the left of this web page (click on "Cycle Tours").
With our 2009 tour only a couple of weeks away, the grumpy tandem reckons it's about time we firmed up our plans (we often deal with this only days before we go). So far the plan looks like this:
Today dawned gloriously sunny, so Mrs Grumpy and I decided to cycle over to Brill on the Longstaff tandem. This tandem is a bit lighter and more sprightly than the Dawes touring tandem we use for commuting and cycle touring. Brill is most famous for its old windmill, of a type known as a "pin mill": the entire superstructure pivots into the wind on a pin.
This is a picture of the mill - it's not been used for milling since about 1902, and is a bit decrepit (it dates from the 17th century). However, after climbing the hill, it provides a pleasant backdeop to some splendid views. Unfortunately today the mill was shrouded in scaffolding and plastic sheeting for restoration by English heritage.
The morning dawned and it was a bright and sunny morning, and ideal for tandeming over to Ivinghoe for a cream tea. It also meant a chance to try out the new GPS data logger.
I thought it would be nice to ride the Longstaff tandem, as it's a bit more sprightly than the Dawes touring tandem. We set off via the Brickhills and out to Stewkley. I think this tandem is quicker because the gear ratios are a bit closer - the downside of course is that we don't have quite such a range of gears, so climbing can be a bit of a trial. The ride out was pretty uneventful, and we saw quite a few cyclists out enjoying the spring sunshine. There was another tandem at the cafe when we got there, with a Dawes Galaxy Twin. From the rear window of the cafe, we could see a pin windmill in the distance. Apparently it is Britains oldest mill (it looks to be in a bit better nick than a similar one at Brill), though it hasn't worked since a storm in 1904!
This year, Team Grumpy made a fifth visit to the Duo Normand time trial, and of course Carol and I were keen to make a holiday of it. We stayed in a house south of St Lo. We took our trusty Dawes tandem to explore the surrounding countryside. In the descriptions below, each day has it's own photo gallery: click on the thumbnail to see the full image; click on the large image to advance to the next in the series.
The report on the Duo Normand itself is in a separate blog entry.
These photographs were taken during the 2005 trip to Normandy for the Duo Normand. They were taken before and after the race while tandem cycling in the Norman countryside, and during the race as we started in and passing through Marigny (notice the picture where we were going so fast only the edge of my disc wheel is in the photo!). We also visited Mont St Michel.
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Here are some photographs taken during our 2008 cycling holiday in the Outer Hebrides, Skye, and the west coast. To view these images in the context of the narrative, click here.
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Cycle Tour 2008 - The Outer Hebrides, Skye, and Northwest Scotland