Yon bonnie banks
Glasgow to Stirling, 9th - 11th August
Leaving Glasgow on Saturday, the plan was to follow National Cycle Route 7 for about 350 kilometres up to Inverness. I'd also be joined for the weekend by a friend up from Cambridge and we'd see how far we could get in his three days off work.
I was surprised at how nice Cycle Route 7 was - there were lots of dedicated cycle paths and very little riding on the pavement next to busy roads. Out of Glasgow, we followed the Clyde west to Dumbarton before turning north for a little break on the bank of Loch Lomond. From there, we got our first taste of the hills to come with a little climb before finding a wild camp spot in some woods near the village of Drymen.
Sunday gave us some more hills, but in a kind of fun way, with good views, downhills, and waterfalls. Sustrans has done a really good job on Route 7 here, and I was loving the traffic-free paths through the woods. We even got the chance to eat at a bakery (Mhor Bread) which had been recommended to me at the Glasgow bike workshop Bikes For Good. Most of the other recommendations I got there were for places in Orkney, so I might not have the time to see those - but we'll see!
Unfortunately, with no auspiciously named village to give us good luck (Callander might even count as bad luck), we did not remain dry men on Sunday evening. With a constant evening drizzle, our haggis dinner was slightly moistened despite our best attempts at tree cover. I think it's inevitable that this will happen to you at some point if you're cycling around Scotland, even in August, and I'm sure I'll get some good weather later on. Pretty unlucky for my friend to only catch the bad-weather weekend, though.
On Monday, we faced a routing problem. I wanted to keep going up Route 7 towards Inverness, but my friend needed to get a train back to Cambridge to get to work on Tuesday. Buses wouldn't get him to a major city in time and he didn't want to bet on hitchhiking, so he'd need to head south to Stirling for a train. It would be a shame to split up for that, though, so I decided to go with him for the day and then compensate for going the wrong way by taking a train to Perth afterwards.
This meant going back from Strathyre, where we'd had our breakfast, to Callander - Route 7 again, but southwards. It was kind of fun to see it from a new angle, experiencing all the exciting downhills as grueling uphills and vice versa. From Callander to Stirling we left the official cycle route but still stuck to quiet rural roads, and it was here that the day got a bit of unnecessary extra drama. I took a rather silly tumble off my bike and gave myself some new cuts and grazes: palms, an elbow, a knee, and my nose. All bones and teeth still accounted for, and mostly my pride wounded, really. I cleaned myself up, took some ibuprofen, and got back on the road. The most annoying thing is going to be my left palm, which lost a bit of skin. It's still fine to ride on, but I'll need to hold my handlebars a particular way for a few days while it heals.
I'd been considering staying indoors that night in Stirling or Perth, and the fall settled it: I definitely wanted a real shower and to get the (small) blood stains out of my clothes. After leaving my friend at the train station, I made my way to Stirling Youth Hostel and got myself a bed for the night. Luxury.
