Day 10 - Satnav throws a wobbly

Todays cyclists starting at Stranraer calling at Queen of the South (QOS) - Annan Athletic and arriving at B&B at Annan 1700

91 miles done
1 hour & 15 mins less than yesterday
3/4 hills of 400/500 feet
Sunshine & blue sky
A75 most of way
Old School house near CD for lunch

So... breakfast done and on bikes for 0815 but spent the next 15 mins continuously rebooting  satnav to get the fecker to work but no joy. If this had happened yesterday we would have been fooked.

Executive decision - forget satnav and crack on.

A75 to Dumfries quickly found and 10 miles down the road I give the satnav one last reboot and low and behold it kicks into life. (I will be having words with Garmin btw). Today didn't matter so much as most of the route was on the A75. This was the one road in the cycle that I was not looking forward to - in reality it turned out  to be one of the best roads as

(A) it wasn't busy
(B) there was a smooth tarmac outside of main road
(C) some cycle lanes
(D) we made good time

Heads down and nearly 45 miles in food was on our mind - was it Gatehouse of Fleet or not. Not was the answer. Castle Douglas the goal but then the Old School house cafe appeared and we pulled in. I think I faired better than Phil in the amount of soup that was delivered. However Phil made them aware of the portion delivered but no joy. Time to move on.

A few testing hills past CD and we were in Dumfries and pics taken at QOS with Paul Burns who scored in the cup semi final against Aberdeen in 2008.

16 mile flat run to Annan much to Phils delight and mine with the wind behind us was brilliant.

Its funny you can complete over 91 miles in 1 hour and 15 minutes earlier when the weather is better.

So much better getting in an hour earlier...makes such a difference.

so... 91 miles done
over an hour less in the saddle
Still pain in arse
still pain in left knee but ibruprofen doing a job
sunshine :-)
Another 2 clubs done
big push for Berwick tomorrow

Day 9 - Sodden to Stranraer

The intrepid cyclists have now left Seamill calling at Kilmarnock - Ayr Utd and arrived at Stranraer at 1800

After a good nights sleep and excellent breakfast at Carlton Seamill B&B (which has outstanding views of Arran btw) we headed off in a downpour towards Kilmarnock. It was bloody miserable weather. Within minutes everything was wet again. Arrgh!!!!

Feet were sodden, hands/gloves were sodden (lesson - pay extra for waterproof gloves).

Quick stop at Kilmarnock and into wind with driving rain. Backside hurting like hell into the bargain.

By the time we got to Ayr we were worse than drowned rats. Asked local chap where a mickey  Dees was or something similar and he pointed in the direction of Burger King. Told him we were heading for Stranraer - never seen somebody laugh so much.

By the time we got to BK and got inside it took several minutes to regain conciousness and feeling in our hands and feet before we could order anything. Usual folk looking at a couple of hackers on bikes.

Lunch done and back on bikes for long haul to Stranraer with a couple of monster hills with snow hail and sleet chucked in for good measure.

Finally made it with the sun trying to pop out but it was just a teaser.

Another football stadium knocked off and the usual drying session started before heading for dinner.

88 miles done (BTTF)    
3 clubs visited today
Torrential rain    
Utterly soaked
Still sore knee
Still sore arse    
Completely exhausted
But made to Stranraer    
Met a Portsmouth football supporter - great guy and good banter
Looking for rain respite tomorrow

Day 8 - Over the bridge and back again

The cyclists now departing Hamilton calling at Hamilton - Queens Park (Hampden) - Celtic - Partick Thistle - Rangers - St Mirren - Dumbarton - Morton and due to arrive at Seamill at 1815

Big hill straight out of the Service Station of the M74. Many thanks to all the staff at the Days Inn Hotel for looking after us.

A couple of miles down the road and we clocked Hamilton - photo done and off to search for bacon rolls - found an excellent cafe and fuel restored we were off again to Queens Park which uses the National Football stadium at Hampden. 

Cloudy and cold with traffic lights stopping us every 100 yards was monotonous and then the road was clear to Celtic - the staff there were ery friendly and took us and the bikes up the tunnel pitch side to what is quite an impressive stadium.

Photos done and we were off again to Partick Thistle and then winded our way down to Rangers via a bike shop to get some bolts to actually hold Phils bike rack.

Satnav working overtime through the busy streets of Glasgow we arrived at Rangers football club where again we were escorted pitch side via the tunnel by very helpful staff.

Pictures taken and we were heading into dark clouds over St Mirren football club and with the rain pelting down photo taken and then the long cold slog to Dumbarton via the Erskine Bridge.

Found a good cycle path and soon we were at Dumbarton football club  where it turns out they might be on the move again!

Hunger pains kicked in and KFC hit the spot.

The weather was damn right miserable as we headed back over the Erskine Bridge and towards Greenock using the old Greenock road. Not sure Phil was too keen on the rolling hills but the surface was good and the road was quiet.

Arrived at Greenock Morton where again the staff were delighted to see us and took pictures of us on their pitch.

Gave Phil the option of the scenic route or just go direct A78 - he chose A78

Down the coast we went for about 25 miles and into our B&B at Carlton Seamill.

85 miles done
Mostly Cloudy with heavy showers
Biting winds
Knee still causing me grief
But we made it.

View from Carlton Seamill B&B

Day 7 - its Snow joke in central Scotland

Day 7 - Auchterarder to Hamilton

80 miles today, half of it in driving wind and half of it in driving snow - which seemed to wash the factor 50 of me.

Left my cousins house in Auchterarder in cold but beautiful sunshine... satnav took a wee flaky at the start but sorted itself out and off we went.

Craig joined us for the rolling hills of Perthshire for the first 10 miles until we crossed the A9 and headed up and up and up... it seemed to go on forever until we hit about 1,100 feet and levelled out (Phil lost another screw on his rack so his bungee came to the rescue before the drop to Stirling where another cyclist (Peter) kindly showed us the way to Stirling Albion.

Onto Alloa and across the new Kincardine bridge and a pit stop at McDonalds. Then onto Falkirk - Stenhousemuir - East Stirling, where we did a loop of these combined clubs as satnav got confused by this scenario.

Then s big push to Clyde where the snow blizzard started and didn't stop as we continued to Albion Rovers, Airdrie and finally at Motherwell.

It was so so bitterly cold... never cycled in those conditions in our lives before. It was gigantica snowflakia - I was really pleased with the satnav even having to wipe the snow of it every minute. Could hardly read the damn thing because of the steam and snow blocking my vision on my cycle specs.

We cracked on to Motherwell and followed up with a Montpellior (but you have to know us to know what that means)

Another McD's spotted and it was in to defrost with a hot cup of tea and an apple pie while still shaking with hyperthermia.

20 mins later we were down at our hotel for the night - the staff were most welcoming and the long session of drying everything ensued.

Hard hard day on the bikes. Left knee still giving me pain.

80 miles
26 Stadiums done
16 to go
forecast for next few days - sunshine & showers

Stenhousemuir & East Stirlingshire share this stadium.

Day 6 - Comin down the mountain

We left our cabin and headed south again. It was clear but bitterly cold -  time for face mask.

The cycle track basically runs parallel to the A9 but is rough in a few places so you need to be careful.

Although I took Ibruprofen for breakfast my left knee was still giving me jip but I just put a brave face on and pretended I was ok but Im sure Phil could see that me trailing him for most of the way south that something wasn't right.

Spectacular mountainous scenery kept my mind off my dodgy knee and we cracked onto Pitlochry passing what look like a number of Lands End John O'Groats cyclists looking somewhat cold and shattered... they were heading for dark clouds and high terrain where we were heading in a downwards direction to fair skies only to be caught by a short heavy shower just before Pitlochry.

Hot soup and a Toastie and we were off again as the mountains with snow gave way to rolling countryside and our only Football stadium of the day at Perth (St Johnstone).

A quick photo and we were off again heading for Auchterarder. It appears that any road out of Perth means you have at least 1 mile of steady uphill climb.

5 miles short of our destination we were bombarded with hail stones and face mask was duly lifted to the nose position. Actually.... I prefer hailstones to rain as they bounce off you but it was bitterly cold.

A couple of rounds of Thunder were chucked in to keep us on our toes and pedal faster to Auchterarder.

Bottle of wine, box of chocs and a bunch of Flowers to hand we stopped at my cousin and his wife for our overnight stop.

A very kind thank you to Alan & Christine for hosting us - very much appreciated and good fun walking their dogs.

85 miles done and countless clubs to tackle in the central belt tomorrow with our friend Craig joining us - the question is can we keep up with him?

View on Auchterarder Golf course from where our overnight stop was.

Day 5 - ICT (nothing to to with computers)

Day 5 - Dingwall to Newtonmore

Another day another blue sky sort of. Bikes at the ready and we were of again but this time with the wind behind us which was useful as we had a long steep climb out of Dingwall with a slight snow shower chuckef for good measure.

We absolutely horsed it to Inverness - we were that early we even had time for photos on Kessock bridge.

ICT (Inverness Caledonian Thistle) was in sight as we crossed the bridge and popped into the stadium where a nice young lady at reception then took us through the tunnel to pitch side and took a photo of us with one of the stands in the background.

A few minutes later and we were of and running again dodging the traffic through Inverness and up towards Culloden although we didnt actually Go to the site itself as we took a more direct route towards Newtonmore.

However after all the hills of the morning and climbing out of Inverness I could feel a pain in my left knee. This was beginning to slow me down big time which is not good.

We battled onto Carrbridge via a hail storm where Phil is a regular at a cafe here only to find the place full of 30 Japanese tourists having a good main meal and the staff of 3 rushed of their seat. Luckily for us the tourists were finishing up and got a table and filled our boots before we took of again.

We swept down to Aviemore, Kingussie (where Boots supplied me with Ibruprofen) and into Newtonmore where we stopped at another of Phil's local haunts for a well earned drink.

Ever tried cycling loaded with luggage and trying to carry carrier bags full of food and drink? We will tell you - its not easy. However, I went extra for the bag for life which seemed to be a lot easier than the usual pladtic bags they hand out.

A few miles down the road and we were at our Inveralmond wooden lodge which was absolutely fantastic and very different to what we have been staying in for the last few days.

The pain in my knee was not good and I was absolutely shattered with one leg having to do the work of two!

70 miles done and time for bed.

Day 4 - Screw loose

Just like to say a big thank you to the Rosemount Guest House in Buckie for their kind donation. They were marvellous hosts and the breakfast was superb especially the fruit bowl.

So... off we went again or so we thought... Phil's bike was making a scraping noise but we then realised a screw was missing from the metal pannier down near the hub. The first attempt to fix using cable ties was not great as this pulled the frame of the carrier to one side. It was out with my Nail scissors to cut them off.

Phil then had the bright idea of using a screw holding the carrier to the frame. Success. We were off and running again.

Low and behold it was another headwind of 10/15 knots - this cycle would be a lot easier if we were heading in the opposite direction.

On through some quiet back country roads until we hit Elgin. I was so busy trying to use the satnav through road works that I didnt see Elgin City football club in front of me!

However .. photos done and we were off to Nairn for lunch.

The A96 into Inverness is hairy and to be avoided by bikes but we felt we needed route 1 and to get to Dingwall at a reasonable time. 1645 and we had arrived at Ross County's ground and were met by the manger of facilities there who took a picture of us on the pitch. A big thank you to him as he donated a signed football (now deflated for carryi g on bike).

Food and drink consumed at a lovely pub called the Mallard and time for bed.

Another 70 miler tomorrow which a massive hill to get out of Dingwall back to Inverness.