Pie dealers to Pipers

Just back from 3 days cycle touring with Abi, Janet and Rob. We have been on a few cycling trips together over the years including the sustrans route from Newcastle to Edinburgh, which they call the Coast and Castles route. This is on the national cycle route number 1, which is part on the North Sea cycle route, or EuroVelo 12... Confused?! Basically it's a 6000 km signed cycle route around the North Sea.

Very green rolling countryside in Banffshire

We decided to do another section of it and originally wanted to continue from where we finished last time at Edinburgh and go through to Aberdeen (roughly 180 miles I think), but we had issues trying to book bikes on trains so ended up skipping this section at the moment and cycling the next section - Aberdeen to Inverness.

This was quite appealing on paper given the fact that we would literally finish at home, but none of us knew what to expect from the actual cycling as it doesn't get much press. We ended up with a mileage count of 155 miles over the 3 days.

Near Banff

Now might be a good time to describe how we travel as a pack... slow and heavy! This isn't a complaint, but we use B&B's (so middle class, but nice!) and it always seems to take the whole day to do our normal (approx) 50 miles a day. And I'm not sure if the others are the same but I have 2 panniers full of stuff that I generally don't use.

Portsoy

Clearly we are quite modestly slow, but by not rushing we get to see lots, stop when we want, and have cafe breaks! It just works!

Day 1 - Arriving in Aberdeen we found a slightly strange cafe for 2nd breakfast. It was like a Gregs, or a cake/pastie shop, with 4 or 5 older women defending the counter between fag breaks. It sold all sorts, including lots and lots of pies. The (overly) efficient staff pressured me into an egg and bacon roll whilst the others bided their time over their choice. Early nerves tempted us to buy pies for the road, not knowing what was out there... but we stayed strong and left just full of eggs..

Turriff, a nice small town with a cow

Once on the outskirts of Aberdeen we hit an old railway line and stayed on this for hours, nice, easy carefree cycling in the sunshine. We just made it to the cafe at Maud for a late lunch at 3pm before it closed at 3.30pm. It's important to point out that after savoury Rob had the biggest piece of cake I have ever seen.

Cullen - another great seaside spot

By the time we left the old railway line and Maud we were really happy to be back on the roads and have some variety from flat straight lines. The roads to Turriff and our first nights stay were some of the best road cycling I can think of. Rolling hills, beautiful scenery and no cars.

On-route to Buckie

I was almost sad to finish the day.. but it was nice to get a shower and food in a pub/come grill. Amazingly Callum (who I have started some filming with and met on a photography course) was staying in the same B&B as we works out East as an Eco Consultant for a big power line project - small world.

Day 2 - After a leisurely breakfast we headed North on even more beautiful lanes following a river system to the Moray Coast and we popped out at Banff. It was here that the ice cream troubles started.. People at work had said that Cullen's ice cream was the best, but Abi's friend had informed her that Portsoy's was even better.. Loitering outside the public toilets an old man wandered past in a well worn black leather jacket and said that Cullen's was superior... it was now 2:1 to Cullen.

Spey Bay

A beautiful section of cycling ensued along the coast. The sun was out and spirits were high. I was even considering a dip in the sea. Portsoy like everywhere else here was stunning, but there wasn't much in the village and after a brief stop we skipped through without lunch or ice-cream, something that would haunt us (?forever).

Spey Bay

Rolling into Cullen we had a great late lunch (again) in a cafe and I completed a lifelong dream by having Cullen Skink in Cullen! So we were in the village famous for it's ice cream, but all too full to have any, so we had the bright idea of pushing on through to Spey Bay for ice cream.

We arrived at Spey Bay (where the river Spey joins the sea) and the Dolphin Centre (there's not much else here) just as it was closing and a slightly unhelpful member of staff told us it was just closing so no ice cream.. This was all quite upsetting as you can imagine so after watching the sea and chomping bars we continued heading to Elgin.

Buckie - picture for work mate who comes from here

Elgin was pretty fun, with generally great cycle ways and we ended up in a posh B&B. In the evening we tried the Turkish restaurant, which was very good for the soul (lots of Aubergine and cheese), but the Turkish coffee that Abi and I had at 10pm was a complete disaster and meant an unsettled night on a caffeine trip..

Day 3 - Another day, another cooked breakfast for me! Today was a shock to the system as it was raining in the morning and continued all day. I didn't take any outside pictures on this day. The cycling was nice, again lots of quiet roads, probably particularly scenic around Cawdor and near Culloden Moor, and we did have a nice long lunch stop at Brodie Country Fair but my battle today was keeping warm enough as after a few hours I was pretty wet everywhere.

Sheltering from the rain on day 3.. pleased with lunch

The last couple of hours for me at least was pretty miserable as I was really cold by the end and struggling to generate enough heat given the slow pace. Finally we made the outskirts of Inverness home of the Highland pipers and headed for the Kessock Bridge and the finish.

It was great arriving home, and as soon as we dropped down into North Kessock we were sheltered from the weather. I immediately lit the fire as someone got the kettle on and we eat cake, drank tea and put on dry clothes. Happy to finish, but another great cycle trip with the gang.

footnote - at the pub later in the evening the talk of the Edinburgh to Aberdeen section gathered pace... tbc

footnote 2 - as you can see I didn't take many photo's on this trip! I just enjoyed the ride!