DIY - Back Fae Arran - 200Km - 3rd September 2018

After the Ride to Arran, ON the friday in glorious weather I took a Trundle round the West coast visiting the Pirnmill shop for a rest, Lagg Velo Cafe for lunch, Whiting bay for Ice Cream and then Arran Active in Brodick because I'd forgotten to to up my small tube of electrolyte tablets.

On Saturday it clagged in and I went explore the woods around Eas Mohr, where I just about saw the waterfall through the mist; Arran's ferry aligned bus time table meant that was all I could do before returning to the accommodation near Brodick.

On Sunday it was again clagged over but after some umming and awing I got on the ferry with some of my club mates to visit the Holy Isle off Lamlash.

Monday rolls in and the weather on Arran is fantastic; I could have stayed a bit later and climbed Goatfell, traversed the Stacach and descended to Corrie by North Goatfell (a hike I've been wanting to do for a long time) before riding home overnight, but that would have been far too sensible...

Caledonian Isles at Ardrossan

Looking at the ferry timetable I decided to get the Caledonian Isle's sailing in the morning, while Pete would be carrying my hiking kit on the following ferry this was the older Isle of Arran, I didn't fancy wandering around the older ferry in my cycling shoes, the Caley isles was a challenge enough!

Leaving behind a clagg free island the Ayrshire coast of the mainland looked clear and I settled down to a CalMac breakfast to set me up for the ride ahead, in no time the master threaded her through the hole in the wall and swung round to the linkspan and it was time to get off,

Tarbolton Bachelors club

After a short pause to make sure everything was ready for the journey I set off from Ardrossan harbour bound for Tarbolton as a first control, pretty quickly I lost my track and ended up in the caravan park between Saltcoats and Stevenson; eventually finding an escape route onto the NCN coastal route in the form of a railway bridge out of the caravan park I was soon cutting my way rather indirectly across the Ayrshires.
After some time dodging through parks on hardpack gravel paths, the country roads were reached and I was finally managed to start making some decent progress. I reached my first control village and stopped for a photograph of Burn's Bachelor club in Tarbolton; this also signalled the last of the travel in the wrong direction that I had included only for the purposes of getting the distance of the ride up to Randonee standard.

Bill Shankly Memorial at Glenbuck

From here the climb up over the Southern Uplands of Scotland started with the first lump taking me up to Mauchline where the Burns Memorial tower is sited, a sharp descent down to Sorn was then followed by a sustained climb
I stopped for a first lunch at the petrol station in Muirkirk and then continued on to the abandoned mining village of Glenbuck, once home of the Glenbuck Cherrypickers football team that produced amongst others the Shankly brothers who led Liverpool and Dundee into European competition.

As I descended into Douglas could see heavy clouds ahead, I felt I hadn't consumed quite enough at Muirkirk and stopped at the petrol station in Douglas where I spotted the DERV pump also had a Parafin nozzle! Not something you see very often now.  I spoke to one of the mechanics from the garage about where I was riding to; "Dundee, you're brave", "Nah, Daft's more like it", "Well you said it!"

Burns Memorial at Mauchline

From Douglas I rolled under the motorway and then down into Clydesdale. "A70 closed at Carnwath follow diversion" was splattered onto a yellow sign where I crossed the Clyde at Hyndford Bridge; this may be a problem I thought, but I'm not riding all the way to Biggar and with my next control not until Kelty I realized worst case I could get myself into West Lothian and figure something out.  Rolling through Carstairs I considered my previous declaration of myself as daft and deciding not to section myself, carried on.

At Carnwrath I discovered that it really meant "Closed at Carnwrath" as the high street was closed for resurfacing; I'd taken a gamble on the closure likely being in the countryside where I could have field edged round but this was ideal as of course access to shops was maintained for pedestrians;  I wheeled my bike along the pavement and remounted at the top of the closure.


By this point I was hating my route choice, Ayrshire and Lanarkshire proving to be pretty boring; when I checked out the former public toilets one of the locals said I'd be able to use the pub toilets, but I didn't want to get comfy anywhere particularly so close to a railway line.

Who thought this route up? 

It's rubbish, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and then Livvy, boring!

Climbing on over the dull Lanarkshire landscape I had so far continued to keep the wet weather just ahead of me, I finally reached the summit of the route as I crossed the railway at Woolfords, this also started the long descent down into the Forth Valley, through Livingston.

A quick descent from a sign at some water works formally belonging to the West Lothian Water Comissioners, presented on the wall in a very 1960s style and then over the March into East Lothian.





A lap of an industrial estate on the edge of  Livvy was carried out due to the cycle track short cut being long overdue some gardening. Mid Calder was considerably pleasanter than I expected and I rolled out of town and into the rain.

I stopped at the bottom of the hill and dug my rain jacket out of my bag while scoffing my Happy Food Jelly Babies.  Over the Union canal and into Newbridge where I stopped to watch the planes for a bit before a bit of rough stuff along the old railway to Kirkliston and then the Forth Road Bridge.

At the FRB I discovered that today it would be the west walkway that was in use, so I had to carry the bike down into the underpass and back up; had the closure been signed somewhere more useful I could have ridden onto the west side of the bridge from the Echline junction, oh well.

Jim Baxter Memorial at Hill of Beath

Now not only am I in the rain, I'm back in Fife!  Climbing through Inverkeithing I consider a food stop but it's too early to go nuts in a takeaway so I stop in Crossgates for more juice and sweets, the drag up to Hill of Beath took me past the second football related memorial of the day, with the Jim Baxter statute outside Hawthorn's ground signifying that I was almost at the Fife summit of the ride. 
Through Kelty and the long descent to Kinross and Milnathort where I went to see what Giaccopazzi had for eating, no hot food left but I picked a Bakewell tart which I stuffed in my back pocket and a can of coke which I decanted into my seat tube water bottle knowing that the downtube bottle would be enough to get me home.

By now the rain was off and the climb to Glenfarg via Dumcreivie is rather enjoyable, not particularly straining and giving a fantastic view of Fife's most visible landmark, Mam Fife, the West Lomond. I stopped to eat my cake and drink my coke, at Duncreivie the descent to Aberargie begins through Glenfarg Village and then the gorge of the same name.

The Tay from Blackearnside

I hit the Tay Cost road in high spirits at last, and Newburgh seemed to arrive in no time at all and it was still just daylight, it wouldn't be long until my lights would be in use.

Newburgh of course signifies the start of the climb to the Col between Green Hill and Tay Mount, all the way back up to the same height as the summit at the top of Cowdenbeath!

The Tay at Wormit

220m of climb and 60m of descent just to tease you in 11km; I know this road so well that I forget about some of those dips! But that last dig to Hazleton cross roads from Fliskmillan is the real mental point, once at Hazelton it's true there's
a bit more climbing but it's less than 10km home

.

It was now dark and I was reminded that I'd set my dynamo light a tad too high, lighting up the overhanging trees ahead of me as well as the road, despite this I was rather happy with the light provided on the descent into Wormit, and of course home at last!

As much as I hated the early stages of the ride I kept with it and accepted there would be something enjoyable out there, even though it was really only the last 50km home from Milnathort.




That of course is also Septembers 200 done, 7 months of BR(M) rides.
For October I have the Brant and Slape 200 from Windermere and then I plan to ECE the Dick McT's Century Classic 160km; to do this I need to submit a 50km extension and then rather than ride at the Populare time table, ride it at Randoneur pace.
Of course I could have entered the Etal-U-Can 200Km ride again, but I wasn't thinking of RRTY at the time!