Tuesday 13th September 2011

After being thoroughly soaked yesterday, we put on our wet shoes and socks and left the B&B at 8:15am. It was still quite windy from the remnants of hurricane Katya. From Galashiels we headed north towards Edinburgh, stopping after 32 miles at a Farm Shop for coffee and a very nice bowl of Porridge with stewed apple. I managed to dry my shoes and socks under the hand dryer in the Gents! I had warm feet for the first time today!
We headed on to Edinburgh and wound our way through the streets (including Princes Street in the centre). As we exited the City, we picked up national cycle route 1 which took us all round the houses until eventually we arrived at the Forth Road Bridge. Then were were literally blown across the bridge - the only effort needed was to keep the bike upright with us on it.
When we got to the northern side of the Forth, we headed in to a local town where Pete and Ken put their bikes into a local bike shop for a pit stop - new tyres and tubes for Pete's and new brake blocks for Ken's. All this was fitted for a few pounds while we had a cup of tea and a toasted sandwich in a local cafe.
We then set out again, but it started to rain - it was that fine rain that soaks you right through. We had decided that, to avoid a very hilly section we would cycle two sides of a triangle, turning west at the Bridge of Earn - straight into a head wind for the last 12 or so miles.
By the time we arrived at our lodgings for the night (9pm) it was dark. We had completed 84 miles and I had felt totally exhausted for the last 12!
This was mainly because of the shorter day yesterday with the strong winds, the traversing of Ediinburgh, and the crossing of the Forth bridge.

We were greeted and shown to our fabulous rooms in the B&B, before we popped out to a local hostelry to replace some of the liquids we had lost during the day. Then after washing our gear we retire to bed around midnight.