Wet, wet, wet.

It is sunny as we leave Edinburgh. During the night we had left the heating on in the room and we had used the hairdryer to dry our shoes, so everything is back to normal. Getting out of th city, is easy enough. And we make it quite easily to Queensferry. There is no ferry anymore at Queensferry, nor did we spot the Queens, but there is a huge bridge over the estuary of the river Forth. The bridge is under maintenance, which makes it a very easy ride for us, without any heavy traffic, only pedestrians and cycles. A bit north of Dunfermline the surroundings are starting to become somewhat interesting. So far we have been underimpressed by where the road has taken us and we hope that is going to change. What for sure is changing again, is the wether. After sun comes rain. We stop to shop for food for the evening in Kinross and as we hit the road again, water comes pouring down again. We make it to the campsite a bit further north, which turns out to be a members only site. Fortunately the manager makes no fuzz and allows us to pitch our tent. It’s actually a caravan site, which makes the facilities basic. It continues to rain all evening and throughout the night. The location of the camp spot was also poorly chosen, just next to the M90, which made me listen to passing trucks in Dolby Surround all night long. 

We’re deviating from the NC1 today, taking the NC 775 in the direction of Perth. Perth doesn’t seem much as we ride through it. The road to it, through it and beyond, still isn’t much either. Past Perth we follow our own route, the A93 in the direction of Cairngorms National Park. At first the road is quite busy but the further we move away from the city, the quieter it becomes. We hope to make it to Breamar today, which is very close to Balmoral. No, not the nineties club in Gent, rather the summer residence of the British Royals. When people ask us where we’re going, we’re replying: “Late night tea with the Queen”.  We stop at a strawberries selling point turned into to a cafe. When the owner sees us come in, she welcomes us and says: “I saw you on the way up. I felt so sorry I was nearly going to offer you coffee”. Notice “nearly”, as she didn’t. We buy ourselves some soup and a sandwich. It goes further to Blairgowrie. It starts raining,...again. The scenery is getting nicer, but with the rain, it not always easy to appreciate. Cold and wet, all of a sudden we see a sign “Hot coffee/tea and selection of cake”. I hit the breaks. Let’s warm up a bit.  As we go in and ask for tea and cake, the selection of cake turn out to be, well very selective as there is none. Just tea then. As I check out where we are and how far we still have to go, I check out the website of the the place where we are. The Bridge of Cally hotel. Rooms at £50/night. I look at Bien, we might as well stay here. We both look outside, rain, look at each other and don’t even blink. Screw late night tea with the Queen. We’ll go for a real roof over our heads and a warm, soft, dry bed. We check into the hotel. I even have a bath. I have a bath every five years or so. I am not particularly fond of baths, but when you’ve been out in the rain, and are cold,....amazing. We threat ourselves to a lovely dinner in the restaurant and as outside it continues to rain all afternoon, evening and night, we convince ourselves over and over again that we made the right decision. 

In the morning the sun is out. We’re loading our tandem together with the motor bikers that also stayed at the hotel last night. As we set off we ask them to be gentle when the pass us. Again, we’re happy with the decision we made yesterday. As we are entering the Cairngorms the scenery is becomeimg more and more beautiful. With yesterday’s weather that would not have been as obvious. At the Strawberry place yesterday, we met two other cyclists they told us the road to Braemar would be easy. Except for the skimountain. That is the Glenshee Ski Centre. It turns out to be indeed quite the climb. The first one on this trip, however  after a week and half of pedalling it actually goes quite well. We never race up the mountain. It mostly is  a long and slow process but once we find the right rhythm we get there. We get some soup at the cafe at the top, before preparing to go down. We both put our jackets on and put on my clear glasses. It looks silly, but I am past the point of street credibility. I have had too many insects in my eyes and even without them because of the speed and the tears as a result, I have been in situatutions where I could hardly see on the way down. So no risks, rather silly glasses. This is one of the reasons why we love cycling so much after more than an hour of climbing and slowly creeping up that hill, we get to go down like on a rollercoaster. In no time we reach Breamar. We stop again, now for a real lunch. Breamar is a coasy little village. Smaller that what I expected. But the perfect spot to discover the Cairngorms from. When leaving Breamar I was expecting more climbs, but the road follows a river valley. The sun has been out all day, but partially due to the altitude, partially because the road crosses the forrest, we’re never really too hot. A day late, we arrive at Balmoral. The estate does not seem to be  open to the public, but we’re right on time for afternoon tea, so we think. However  as we ring the bell at the gate, neither Phil nor Lizzy respond. Somewhat disappointed we continue our journey. As we reach Ballater, we’re the last tent to be admitted to the camping. A super equipped spot, with great warm showers. We even manage to do our laundry as we go grocery shopping. Perfect timing. As I start to prepare dinner, clouds come in quickly and before we know it, the sunny daytime is washed away. 

The morning is bright and shiny again. It did rain most of the night and our gear needs some drying before we leave. Ballater is more the Balmoral village. It is where the station used to be for the Balmoral visitors. The local butcher is not just butcher Sheridan, but H.M. (Her Majesty’s) Sheridan. It makes Bien laugh as it reminds her of the sitcom “Keeping up appearances”. So that’s where Sheridan ended up, she smiles.  But also the local garage and quite some other shops have big signs on their front. It’s funny as normally the suppliers to the court are the big companies, here it’s all these small shops wearing their shield with pride. I had hoped the road would continue more or less along the same lines as the day before, relatively flat, over a bridge, through a forest. However going out of Ballater we immediately get to climb. The stage is set for the rest of the day. We go on the old military road again and also that goes up steadily. After the decent to Colnbaichin we stop for soup and sandwiches again. We’ll need them as next is the climb to the Lecht ski area. Once we get back down to Tomintoul, I thought we were done for the day. One straight line to our goal for the day Boat of Garten. Nothing is less true, first as we leave Tomintoul it starts raining cat and dogs, as in streets become rivers again. Then, as the rain calms down we get treated to a couple of 20% climbs. We’ve tested it. Up about 15% we can handle, after that the bike is simply to heavily loaded, we need to get off and push ourselves and the tandem up. As we reach the end of one of the slopes there is a tourist bus waiting on a viewpoint. We get applause from the entire bus. I don’t really get why as we didn’t pedal up, but walked. We finally get to Boat of Garten after the rain and the climbing we’re ready for a real bed and a room again, but no vacancies here. We continue to Carrbridge, where a rundown tour bus hotel is able to accommodate us.