Day 16- Perth to Braemar


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Europe » United Kingdom » Scotland » Aberdeenshire » Braemar
May 17th 2014
Published: May 28th 2014
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Before I start writing about this little part of the journey, I remembered something that happened at Kielder hostel that I didn't include earlier. The short of it is the other fellow that I shared my hostel room with (and who I hadn't seen the night before since he was asleep in bed at 8.30pm !!) - I was sure, when I happened to open my eyes in the half dark at 2am, that he was sat bolt upright at the foot of his bed !! This was quite disconcerting since I couldn't work out why he would do this and at that time of the morning all sorts of morbid thoughts race through your head. I tried to stay awake as long as I could but must have fallen asleep and when I woke up 6 hours later at 8am he and all his stuff was gone and there I was all safe and intact !! It turns out he was quite elderly (80 plus) and perhaps he'd got up to give himself a stretch or to make sure he was awake - since he had an early lift to catch- an easy explanation but in the dark everything seems different !!



I also meant to say on that Kielder - Edinburgh leg - I was cycling past a field when I saw a lamb on the wrong side of a fence trying to get back into the rest of the flock I stopped and opened the gate to let it back in of course it was frightened though and ran the other way at which point a Scottish farmer came along so I waved him down and he managed to catch it with a crook he had and put it back in the field - that was my good deed for the day (and his of course) !!



Anyway onto the leg in hand the route from the lowlands up into the Cairngorms and Braemar. First and foremost this turned out to be a good footballing day but more of that later.

We were off nice and early and I think by 9am had done at least 10 miles and were progressing well. The roads were good and traffic light and we reached Blairgowie at about 10am . We ended up staying here for about an hour partly to have breakfast next to a lovely river that has a salmon leap installed (that must be great to see but now wasn't the right season so no salmon a leaping). Anyway Mollie was in a school cup final and I was getting regular updates of how they were doing - for those that know it was a great game and after extra time and penalties the result went Mollies/Noremarsh's way - absolutely brilliant - that spurred me on not only that day but for the few days left of the trip as I kept going back to it. They have had a great season and in this the first year they have won their league and the cup - well done.

I think soon after Blairgowie we started climbing amongst some pretty spectacular scenery - wide open valleys with very few cars around and big mountains or hills leading form the road away on either side. The roads had occasional warning signs saying closed in winter and snow measuring sticks every few 100m - so lord knows what it must be like then. For us though it was all good although gradually the clouds came in and eventually at about 1pm it started raining just as were slowly making up our way up the biggest hill of the day !

This one was very hard work and took ages and ages to get up - but when we were up there (a ski lift was there was for the winter) from then it was about a 5 mile coast down into Braemar and that was brilliant. And as it happens our hostel was just as we entered the town so all good. We were soaked, so after putting some stuff in the drying room I settled into the lounge to watch the Scottish Cup Final and to see if my new favourite Scottish team St Johnstone could end their trophy drought and win the cup - it was a great exciting game and sure enough they did, winning 2-0.

A shower then down to the town of Braemar (the town is just down the road from Balmoral so the Royal family come here to see the Highland games). It is pretty small but quite Scottish and the hotel we went in for food and beer, was covered in tartan and had a roaring fire !! We watched the FA Cup which I found strangely dull after the highpoints of the games earlier in the day.

A little wander round the rest of the town and then I think I was in bed by about 10.30pm. 3 big days coming up.

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