clairedavieswriter

It was a beautiful morning – mist cloaked the lower slopes of Ben Ledi, directly behind my hosts’ house – but another few degrees cooler. Time for the padded gilet and winter gloves. The knees braved the chill again: we’ll see how long that lasts.

I started the day riding north with the sun on my back..

And finished it the same way, but riding east.

In between, it was a day of lochs and autumnal colours, care of the trusty National Cycle Network route 7.

Just like my ride out of Bodmin, three weeks ago, it climbed steadily beside a river along the path of an old railway – this time the line linking Callander to Oban. Moisture dropped out of the trees as the mist condensed.

Within an hour, I reached the lovely Loch Lubnaig, its waters glassy calm in the morning light.

A couple of sharp climbs took me high above it:

And then at Lochearnhead I acquired a brotherly domestique:

We climbed up from the beautiful Loch Earn (you’ll have to use your imagination, or Google, as I failed to get a photo, other than a glimpse of it below), onto the flanks of Glen Ogle…

Over the viaduct of an old tourist train line and down into Killin, first on lovely smooth tarmac, then on a mud and stone track that appeared to have been carved out of the forest by heavy machinery – which caused a few interesting moments on my slick and narrow tyres.

At Killin, Mark turned back and I set off along the south bank of Loch Tay, at which point I started running out of superlatives:

The light was totally different depending on whether you were looking east (where there were also rainbows)…

Or west..

I crossed another boundary:

But despite their increasingly urgent warnings…

The only red squirrel I saw was squashed flat on the road, all four little feet akimbo, cartoon-style.

Eventually, after two hours of pedalling, I reached the eastern end of Loch Tay, having fully understood the Scottish meaning of the word ‘undulating’ that Colette had so innocently used to describe this section of the ride.

As always, there were curiosities along the way – are these somehow different from plain old ‘Toilets’?

And this made me laugh out loud: it seems that the good folk of Dull and Boring share a sense of humour.

Finding nourishment (or just coffee) proved a bit difficult today: cafés, hotels and entire villages seemed to be closed. Mark and I made do with Nescafé and packet cake at the village shop in Lochearnhead, and in Killin we each consumed a scone the size of our heads. Besides that, my diet between breakfast and dinner consisted of a Tunnocks bar and a packet of peanuts. Which may explain why today felt like quite hard work, but I’m now much restored, thanks to the ministrations of the lovely people and excellent food at Three Lemons Bistro in Aberfeldy – I recommend!

Tomorrow: Dalwhinnie.