Final countdown.

Innerleithen to Edinburgh

To say that I had misgivings about the ride over the hills to Edinburgh would be an understatement. I stayed in Innerleithen last night to try and ensure the shortest ride possible, there is a large area of high ground between the start and finish of the ride and although there are figures on the map I'm not very good at translating them. The peaks of the hills measure between 400 and 650 meters, I did not climb to the top of any of them but it gives you an idea of the height.

The weather looked good before I had breakfast. I had been advised not to leave too early as the road is busy with commuter traffic. I had breakfast, packed my panniers and went to load the bike, aargh, the cloud had descended and it was pouring, what to do? The landlady kindly offered an extra nights stay if I did not want to ride. I sat down and had a quick look at the weather forecast, it looked as though it would improve towards the middle of the day but remain windy, gusting up to 36mph! With the prospect of an improvement I donned my waterproofs and set off. The ride started along a very flat part of the valley, really nice to ride along, it was just the weather that was rubbish. I soon realised that I had too many clothes on and as it was still quite wet I decided I needed to stop and divest myself of my middle layer. I was by now approaching the small local golf club so I nipped in and asked if I could strip off, I got a funny look but was directed to the ladies locker room and took a layer off, much better, off I set again.

The road now started a gradual climb and continued thus for about six miles, I think. It was a much more gradual climb than I had envisaged but quite a sustained effort, I was warming up again and the rain was almost over. Once again I stopped to change, removing the waterproofs and exchanging the trousers for my warm cycling tights, much more comfortable. Had I been carrying my original load I would never have got going again and I was still a way from the top.

The road was quiet and most drivers seem to be very courteous, giving cyclists a wide berth which is just as well looking at some of the potholes along the side of the road. This is a bit unfair as a lot of the road has a perfect surface. I continued to climb and eventually thought it looked as though the summit was nigh, but no; it was a short downhill and then up it went again, but this was the last push and the road swung right as the most amazing view across to Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth appeared. There was a place to pull over so I parked the bike to take in the view. The wind was blowing very hard, I struggled to hold the camera steady enough to take any photos, the visibility was not perfect either but it was a great vista non the less.

From here it was downhill big time, wow, what ride. I didn't,t actually allow myself to go over 25mph as the bike is heavy and starts to wobble so that was fast enough, after having spent most of the morning travelling at about 7mph.

Now I had to negotiate my way to the B&B I'd booked, I only managed to get one night as Saturday is the Edinburgh Marathon and rooms are scarce. This leg turned out to be the most difficult bit of the trip. After a few false starts and getting caught up in some really awful traffic I found it. It is very nice, they even insisted I bring my bike into my room.

Today is tinged with a bit of sadness, I'll never have a first trip again, my trusty map is unlikely to be used again; but onwards. I have decided not to stop in Edinburgh, I cannot face the city traffic, what I encountered today was much worse than anything I experienced in Leeds. I have elected to take a train with my bike to Ardrossan and get the ferry to Arran tomorrow. I have booked into the Scottish YHA hostel in Lochranza for two nights, so I'm off to see the west coast.

Along the way today I saw some lovely birds, some species I never expected to see here. I will just list them, if anyone wants to see a pictures the RSPB site http://www.rspb.org.uk/england/ is easy to use and has good illustrations.

Oyster catchers, Curlew, Golden Plover, French Partridge, Grey Heron, Ring Ouzel (red status), and the more everyday but still very pretty Goldfinches, Blue Tits, Chaffinch, Black Headed Gulls, lots of Skylarks and others I did not note.

Today's ride was about 30 miles again, I'm not quite sure how long it took as I took a bit of time getting lost and found once I reached suburbia.