A Dram (Or Two) Will Do (July 14th)

My plan to start the day was pretty simple. Pack up and head about 500 metres up the road to the Cardhu distillery for a tour. As such, there was no real urgency to get my day started because the distillery didn’t open until 10:00. Despite the lack of urgency I found myself wide awake at 6:00. It would seem I would have a very leisurely morning ahead of me.

Fortunately it was a dry morning so I didn’t have to race around trying to get packed before the elements had their way with me and my gear. Instead I had a very leisurely bowl of cereal (or two). I have to say, cereal’s great. And easy. Which is one of the things that makes it great. And the milk experiment continues to be a success as my milk was nicely chilled this morning. Then again, so was I.

Much like last night, my new bovine friends dropped by for a visit while I enjoyed my breakfast. Not as many came by as last night but the few that did were a bit more vocal than yesterday. They continued to be curious about my activities. Perhaps they should read my blog.

With a bit of time on my hands, I set out to tackle the ongoing backlog of updates. I’ve been doing so in my tent and moments ago I felt like I was briefly in an unreleased scene from “The Birds” as hundreds of large black birds just went screaming over my tent and descended on the field next to me. I’m sure I have no reason for concern. Probably.

My writing attempts were moderately successful but the lack of WiFi in my present location prevented me from actually uploading anything I had just typed. The backlog continues.

Even though it was still fairly early I opted to pack everything up and head over to the distillery. If nothing else there were likely photo opportunities available. My tent was a wee bit wet but certainly nothing like previous mornings.

As you might expect, there wasn’t a long line up of people waiting for a whisky tour at 10:00 AM. Actually there wasn’t anyone there except me and so the morning began with another solo distillery tour (not unlike the tour I had at Kilchoman). That changed about ten minutes into the tour when two late arrivals from Spain joined the tour.

Having been on a few distillery tours now, I’m somewhat familiar with the process of making whisky. I’m far from an expert but the content of the tours themselves is certainly becoming familiar. That said, it’s still very interesting to see each distillery because although the process is essentially the same, the facilities all have their differences.

The tour ended around 10:45 when we all had our customary dram of whisky. It was good although I still think Oban is my favourite so far.

With the tour complete I was ready to hit the road again. The staff working at the distillery visitor office were kind enough to fill my water bottles for the road. I’m not entirely sure if the tap water was drinkable but they gave me a couple of large bottles of water which I then used to fill up my various bottles.

From there I headed south to Cragganmore for another distillery tour. I wasn’t going out of my way to visit this particular distillery as it was only 9 km away. But given the close proximity I felt that NOT going would’ve been silly. That said, after yesterday’s logging road debacle, I opted not to follow Google’s suggested route. It was a smart move. I stayed on the main road for most of the ride but eventually I had to join the route Google had laid out for me. When I arrived at that point I was greeted with a grass trail with nothing more than a narrow tire track. I could only assume that that’s what the entire route would’ve been like. Going with my gut was a good decision.

I arrived at Cragganmore shortly after 12:00 but sadly the final “free” tour of the day had already left. As I’ve already done a handful of tours I mentioned that I didn’t mind missing part of the tour. As such, the woman in the office led me along the tour route (giving me the safety blurb along the way) and moments later I had joined the tour. Again, it’s not like I NEEDED to take this tour but I did appreciate their efforts to accommodate my arrival.

With two distilleries – and two drams of whisky – taken care of before 1:00 PM it was time to focus on cycling. No, I wasn’t intoxicated.

The plan after leaving Cragganmore was to work my down to Braemar. And, if time permitted, a stop in at Balmoral Castle. In theory, the Castle would be open for a visit as apparently the Queen doesn’t arrive until August. That said, given my departure time I suspect it will be closed by the time I get there. My reasons behind that suspicion were both the elevation chart of today’s route, and Hilary and Dave’s warning that there would be three big climbs on this route. Not “big” like the other day. But actually bigger. On the upside (or technically the downside), there would also be some big descents.

I knew the biggest of the climbs was within the first 20 km. It was just a matter of when. But before I reached that point I took a bit of a detour. See, I’m getting better at this stopping and looking around approach. As I crossed a bridge I saw what to me looked like a tiny house … except, maybe even better. It was a tiny castle. Seriously, who wouldn’t want a tiny castle? Okay, probably people with a big castle. But still, a tiny castle would be more than a little cool. Not stopping for a photo wasn’t an option. And no, I was just trying to delay my arrival at the big climbs. I knew they would wait for me.

Sure enough, as I pedalled along I eventually came around a corner and, voila. There it was. The start of the first big climb of the day. I think the photo says it all.

The 20% climb wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I’m not saying it was easy but it’s also not like it was a 5 km climb at 20%. I’ve also been curious as to how accurate my cycle computer is in regards to the grading of hills. I’m still curious as the steepest grade I saw as recorded by my computer was 16%. Certainly not insignificant and certainly the steepest recorded hill I’ve ever climbed. The funny thing about a 20% (or 16%) climb is how “easy” a 10% climb suddenly seems in comparison.

Going down the other side of these three climbs was a bit precarious because of the beating my brakes took yesterday trying to cope with the hills and rocks of the logging road. The rear brakes pads are all but worn out and the front pads are below 50%. And in case I haven’t mentioned it, stopping when going downhill is challenging even with good brakes.

The first descent was fantastic. It was straight and I set a personal land speed record on a loaded bike – 74.73 km/h. I don’t always trust such high readings from my computer but in this case I believe it to be accurate. The high speed descent was actually a bit amusing as the wind blew my helmet off my head and the chin strap was the only thing keeping it from flying away. It probably looked a bit like a drag chute. I’m not going to lie, that descent was a LOT of fun.

The second descent was more challenging as there were a few sharp turns and I’m limited as to how much I can actually bank my bike before my panniers rub against the ground. Something I’d rather not do at 60+ km/h. At one point I felt like I was 10 years old again as I had to resort to dragging my feet in an effort to slow down.

The third descent was little more than a deathtrap. It was a single track road and there was no way I could stop if I met oncoming traffic at an inopportune spot. Well, not with the current condition of my brake pads anyway. Even with good brakes it would’ve been challenging. As I saw it, my options were to go down the hill really fast and hope for the best, or figure out some way to control my speed during the descent. I opted for the former and made obstacle avoidance was my primary (i.e. only) strategy.

Fortunately I only encountered two oncoming vehicles at moderately inopportune times and in both cases they gave me as much room as they could as I went by. All things considered, I think things went very well.

As suspected, by the time I arrived at Balmoral Castle it was closed. Hilary had mentioned there was a backroad or path that could be taken to circumvent that situation; however, upon searching for said route all I saw was a series of “Authorized Persons Only” signs. At that point I was rather exhausted from today’s climbs (and descents) and just wanted to get settled somewhere. As such, I hit the road again and continued towards Braemar.

My arrival in Braemar brought with it the challenge of finding a place to wild camp. There were a couple of areas right in town – including next to the information centre – but on the advice of the guy at The Co-operative, I ended up heading down a backroad to a less central area (i.e. the middle of nowhere). On the upside, there was a pretty nice view. On the downside, there were no facilities. I’d worry about the latter in the morning.

By the time I finally claimed a place to camp and got my tent set up, it was after 9:00 PM. Combine that with the lack of a table and I just didn’t feel like firing up my Trangia alcohol stove. There would be no hot dinner tonight. Instead it was chicken wraps again. Oh, and Doritos. In the grand scheme of things, I was okay with that.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 96.69 km
Ride time: 5:43.08
Average speed: 16.90 km/h
Maximum speed: 74.73 km/h