Done In Duns (July 21st)

For reasons I’m not entirely sure of, I woke rather early this morning. Not crazy early, but before 7:00 AM (okay, maybe that’s a little crazy early). I decided to use my time to get packed up and ready to go in an attempt to avoid racing around later. Plus, I had some time to fill before breakfast (which was excellent again).

With a leisurely breakfast behind me, there was just one last thing to do before hitting the road – get a photo with my hosts. As expected, that took mere moments. However, that’s when Bruce asked if I had been given a tour of the garden behind the house. I hadn’t. I had SEEN the garden at the back of the house but not given an official tour. That was soon rectified. And that’s also when I realized that I hadn’t actually seen the garden at the back of the house. I mean, I saw A garden at the back of the house, but lying beyond the gate was a walkway and garden that was, well … pretty remarkable. And certainly not what I was expecting.

The tour of the garden ended up delaying my departure by 30 minutes or so but it was well worth it. I mean, this is the type of unexpected things that you remember most. With the tour complete, we returned to the house where I loaded up my bike and prepared for my departure. My 9:00 AM departure was now a 10:30 AM departure. And I was okay with that.

The plan for the day was to get to Wooler with a stop at the Glenkinchie distillery. If successful it would mark my longest ride of this year’s tour. That said, it was still a manageable 130 km.

Last night’s map review with Ewan not only revealed a lot of potential route options beyond Edinburgh but it also outlined a pretty clear route out of Edinburgh. And essentially it was a simple route. Follow Route 1. It really doesn’t get much easier than that – especially considering the cycle routes tend to be very well signposted.

Unfortunately for me (but maybe fortunately for blog content) my skills at making the simple become complicated are well honed. As such, it’s not surprising that I somehow managed to mess up Ewan’s very clear and specific directions. I’m still not sure exactly where I missed a turn but clearly I did and getting back on course took more than a little effort and found me on another path that I would much rather have avoided. That said, sometimes these things work out for the best.

I eventually reconnected with Route 1 but it took at least 45 minutes to do so. I mean, between cycling the wrong direction, looking at maps, taking photos … these things all take time. However, the culmination of all of those events led me to a small pedestrian bridge near Pencaitland. And that’s how I met Sid (and Harvey, the dog).

To be honest, I don’t really remember how the conversation started but I’m guessing all the gear on my bike had something to do with it. Regardless of how it started, we chatted for awhile and we covered a WIDE range of topics. It was great. Sure it affected my schedule but I didn’t really care. I was just enjoying the conversation – so much so that we didn’t even notice that Harvey had wandered off (young black labs tend to do that!). Our conversation almost came to an end several times but it was kind of like talking with Columbo – you know, Peter Falk (I mean that in a good way). He’d say, “Oh, one more question …” and then proceed to chat a bit more. I wasn’t counting but there must have been about 7 or 8 “one more question” statements. Again, I didn’t mind. That said, we eventually went our separate ways but not before I thought to get a picture.

Moments later I had resumed my ride to the Glenkinchie distillery. And moments after that I had stopped again when I discovered the path on which I was currently travelling passed under the road on which I needed to be. And there was no easy way to get reach said road by bike. There were two options. One, retreat to the bridge where I had met Sid; or two, portage all my gear up the stairs situated next to the bridge. Neither was a great option but I actually decided upon the portage option. I’m not sure why – although it likely had something to do with the hill I would’ve had to climb by backtracking.

I finally arrived at Glenkinchie at 1:15, which was much later than the 12:00 I had anticipated. But given my still rather flexible timetable, I wasn’t too concerned and instead I patiently waited for the next tour which began at 1:40.

The tour was much like all of the other distillery tours but still very good. And, of course, the tour ended with a dram of whisky. Then surprisingly, we were offered a second dram of any of the other whiskies on display. I figured I really didn’t need a second dram of 40% alcohol right away but they gladly put the second dram in container to go (which in all likelihood will be consumed this evening).

It was after 3:30 PM before I finally left Glenkinchie as I decided to make some lunch while I was there. I mean, I was already stopped and it had been a while since breakfast. Plus, I was so far behind schedule at this point I figured what’s another 30 minutes.

As I ate lunch, I was becoming more and more aware that it was becoming less and less likely that I would make it to Wooler tonight. Coldstream, maybe. But most likely I was going to call it a day at Duns. At least that’s what I figured. Duns was certainly doable from the perspective of distance and if by chance I arrived in Duns at a decent hour, well … Coldstream is only another 20 km down the road.

From Glenkinchie, there are two routes to get to Duns. The main road and a secondary road. My original plan was to take the main road which had a reasonably big climb but then a long decent into Duns. However, a construction diversion forced me onto the secondary road which also had a big climb and decent … and then another … and then another. All of them combined to make for a bit of a long ride.

It was 7:00 by the time I got to Duns and I knew I was done for the day. I have to say I really don’t know where the day went. I left Ewan and Bruce at 10:30 AM. I arrived in Duns at 7:00 PM. By my calculations that’s 9.5 hours. My actual travel time was about 4.5 hours. So where did the other five hours go? Well, two hours was spent at Glenkinchie. About 30 minutes chatting with Sid. That still leaves 2.5 hours and that seems like a lot of time to attribute to photo stops and navigational reassessments. However, logically speaking, those are really the only options.

There was a bit of time spent tracking down a wild camping area but eventually I found an old rugby pitch. How that differs from a new rugby pitch is unknown. Either way, I was informed of said rugby field by a couple I met as I cycled through the park. I didn’t get their names but to them I say, “Thank you” for their tip.

Call it laziness, call it … well, laziness, but dinner tonight wasn’t very inspired. Yes, it was windy but I certainly would’ve brought out my alcohol stove had there been access to a picnic table. But there wasn’t. So I didn’t. Instead I had a bowl of cereal. And then another. And then another. That was as healthy as it would get. From there I moved on to chocolate covered digestive cookies (they’re popular over here – and for good reason) and then malted milk biscuits. Out of guilt I did have an apple, but I chased it with more cookies. I am currently resisting the desire to open the chocolate fudge that I bought yesterday. Although, I’m not sure why I’m resisting.

Either way, thus my day ends in Duns. Not as far as I planned (or expected) to go but a good day nonetheless.

Oh, and it’s now 11:00 PM and it’s definitely dark. I so miss my first days in Scotland when it was dusk at midnight. I’m actually going to have to find my headlamp tonight.

Today’s totals: 79.02 km
Ride time: 4:37:21
Average speed: 17.09 km/h
Maximum speed: 60.72 km/h