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Day
18 Tuesday 11th May 2004
Rattray
to Ballater (near Balmoral)
It
was a glorious sunny morning again which was good news. This next section of the
ride was going to be the highest and therefore possibly the bleakest part of the
trip. In fact these next four days
are going to be in remote areas of Scotland
with the only large towns being Grantown and Inverness
.
The
landlady was very friendly and she offered me fruit to take on the journey and
she apologised that she had forgotten to offer to do any of my washing last
night. This was all for £20 of
which the tourist board in Perth had already taken £2 commission.
A beautifully cooked breakfast made it the best B&B for value so far
on the trip.
Today
was going to be hard work – looking at the map it appeared that the first 25
miles were uphill reaching approximately 800m at the top of Glenshee.
The CTC information warned me to make sure that I had enough food and
water for the trip as the area was very isolated.
I therefore stopped at a shop in Rattray to make sure I have enough on
board. The climb wasn’t as bad as
I had expected – another example of Scottish roads gradually making their way
up the valleys without any unnecessary effort being expended and apart from one
short section I managed to cycle to within 1½ miles of the summit.
This last bit I had to walk. It
took me 3½ hours in total with a couple of breaks on the way up.
I
took my first break as I was approaching the Spittal of Glenshee at about 15
miles from Rattray. Positioned on
the side of the road was a signpost saying “Clan MacThomas gathering place”.
It pointed into the woods on the left.
Not knowing anything about my Scottish ancestors I made my way into the
woods to find a large clearing with a huge bolder in the middle.
The information board said:
“The
gate leading to the cockstane
(gathering
place of the Clan MacThomas)
and
the adjoining layby and path
were
erected to the memory of
Harold
Edward McCombie
California
(1895 to 1968)
by
his family in
America
22nd
August 1970”
And
then a little further up the valley at the Spittal of Glenshee I found a bridge
across the river called the MacThomas Bridge.
Fame at last! I could now
just about see the summit ahead of me. The
road was winding away into the distance with the last section snaking its way up
the steepest part of the climb. (When
you see a summit from the distance you can be f
airly confident that when you
eventually reach it there is still more to climb which is hidden from view - and
so it was with this climb.) As I
said, I was able to ride to within about 1½ miles of the top but the rest was a
slow walk, taking my time to turn round and admire the views on the way up and
pausing awhile for refreshments.
The
summit reached, close to the Devil’s Elbow, I entered into Aberdeenshire and
began the downhill journey. This
made up for the effort I had just expended as for the first four miles of the
descent I just freewheeled and the remaining 5 miles into Braemar were almost as
easy. The distant peaks of the
Cairngorm Mountains to the north of Braemar still had snow on them and there was
an eerie mist broken by the sun’s rays.
In
Braemar I stopped to enquire about B&B’s for the night.
The lady behind the desk was also having difficulty with the computer and
was struggling to satisfy a couple in front of me.
So I decided to just borrow the accommodation book and do my own thing by
ringing ahead. This diddled the
tourist board out of their booking fee but the lady didn’t seem to mind.
I had previously asked her if there was anywhere to stay in Balmoral –
to which I had received a reply in the negative.
Later on when I travelled through there I found out why – there is not
a lot there apart from the castle. Her
Majesty probably had a lot of vacant rooms but they could not be allocated to
me! So I ended up by booking a place
in Ballater about 15 miles down the road from Braemar.
I had all afternoon to cycle this, which would give me time to look round
the castle at Balmoral on the way. To
finish off my stay in Braemar I called in at a café and ordered a pot of tea
and a ‘rhubarb and ginger crumble’ with custard which didn’t take long to
down. The waitress said to me as I
left “You finished that off quick!”
The
ride to Balmoral alongside the River Dee which borders the Balmoral estate was
gently downhill. I paid my £5
entrance fee – the attendant asked me if I qualified for the senior citizen
rate. How dare he – I have another
6 months to go. I then locked my b
ike near the entrance under his supervision and made my way up the drive to
look round the castle, the museum, the gardens and the Ballroom.
This was the only room inside the castle open to the public.
It was quite amazing to see the daffodils in the garden which were still
in full bloom – when I had left Lands End a couple of weeks ago the daffodils
were already over. I then had a cup
of tea in the café – only 1½ cups for 90p but you have to take into account
the company I was in – and went to use HM’s toilets before leaving.
Why am I telling you this? Well,
I came to wash my hands and turned the tap on to fill the basin.
The water came out a dirty brown colour.
Had HM already used it upstairs and it was being passed on for others to
use? I guess not.
Would she wash her hands in water that was this colour or would she use
Highland Spring water? I don’t
know.
I
took the tractor and trailer back to the entrance – people who look as though
they are senior citizens need this sort of help.
I recovered my bike and made my way into Ballater where I found that the
guest house is conveniently placed between Alldays supermarket on one side and
the Rowan Tree Restaurant on the other and a telephone box on the other side of
the road – all my needs for the next 12 hours satisfied and I hardly need to
walk a step.
For
my evening meal I had a soup of chicken and rice broth with carrot – very
tasty – followed by steak pie, vegetables and new potatoes.
This detail is important! When
it arrived it didn’t have new potatoes but chips.
They looked well cooked – not too greasy – and as by this time I was
pretty hungry, I decided not to complain which would have resulted in a delay of
calorie intake. I put some salt on
the chips and had just eaten my first chip when the waitress re-appeared,
apologised that she had given me chips, and whisked the plate away.
Out she went through the door into the kitchens returning a few seconds
later with a plate of food which she gave to the lady at the next table to me.
The other three people at this table had already received their meals.
That plate of food looked remarkably like the one which had been removed
from in front of my open mouth a minute earlier!
On goes more salt and the lady tucks into her second hand meal.
Another couple of minutes passes and the waitress returns to me and
apologises for the delay in cooking the potatoes. I whispered to her “It’s a
good job that the lady next to us doesn’t know that I have eaten one of her
chips!” She laughed (nervously!?)
Today
I have cycled 51.8 miles at an average of 9.9mph.
This now brings my total mileage to 899.5
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I
took my first break as I was approaching the Spittal of Glenshee at about 15
miles from Rattray. Positioned on
the side of the road was a signpost saying “Clan MacThomas gathering place”.
It pointed into the woods on the left.
Not knowing anything about my Scottish ancestors I made my way into the
woods to find a large clearing with a huge bolder in the middle.
The information board said:
airly confident that when you
eventually reach it there is still more to climb which is hidden from view - and
so it was with this climb.) As I
said, I was able to ride to within about 1½ miles of the top but the rest was a
slow walk, taking my time to turn round and admire the views on the way up and
pausing awhile for refreshments.
ike near the entrance under his supervision and made my way up the drive to
look round the castle, the museum, the gardens and the Ballroom.
This was the only room inside the castle open to the public.
It was quite amazing to see the daffodils in the garden which were still
in full bloom – when I had left Lands End a couple of weeks ago the daffodils
were already over. I then had a cup
of tea in the café – only 1½ cups for 90p but you have to take into account
the company I was in – and went to use HM’s toilets before leaving.
Why am I telling you this? Well,
I came to wash my hands and turned the tap on to fill the basin.
The water came out a dirty brown colour.
Had HM already used it upstairs and it was being passed on for others to
use? I guess not.
Would she wash her hands in water that was this colour or would she use
Highland Spring water? I don’t
know.