£133.60 for B&B in Maryculter House hotel plus room service lunch, dinner, and drinks
£5.60 for sandwich, smoothie, pear, and kiwi fruit from Co-op shop, Kintore
£4.45 for peach crumble with custard and banana milkshake, The Square cafe, Turriff
There had been a misunderstanding about breakfast times; I had set my alarm in order to make sure I was down for breakfast at 7am, only to find no-one there serving. After ringing for the night porter, I was informed that only self service continental breakfast was at seven, whereas full cooked breakfast started at eight on a Sunday. Not a good start to my birthday, as I didn't want to cycle on just a continental breakfast. I knew I had a lot of miles to cover.
Re-appearing at eight, Vaughan and Liz joined me, wishing me a happy birthday and agreeing that I needed a good breakfast to set me up for the day, even though it meant setting off later than I wanted.
The weather was warm and sunny. The layers I had on for starting the ride were soon shed and put in the pannier. I'd started carrying one pannier again as we were all beginning to get nervous of the more remote conditions and Vaughan had bought me a survival bag to carry along with my first aid kit, tool kit, and spares. I'd also taken to carrying more food again and all my wet weather gear, even if the forecast was good.
I started the ride with the remains of the headache I'd had since the whisky in Johnshaven. I hadn't drunk any alcohol the night before and had had quite a good night's sleep, so I wasn't sure why the headache hadn't shifted. Liz thought it was something other than he whisky, and had looked online for side effects of the protein and energy bars I'd started eating; apparently they can give some people headaches.
I didn't start the day on a Sustrans route. We'd not stayed in Aberdeen as both Vaughan and I had stayed there a lot on business and wanted to avoid both staying in it and having to travel through it. Since the Sustrans National Cycle Route route 1 takes you through Aberdeen, I'd chosen other quiet roads to skirt around via Maryculter. It was a Sunday morning, so even the A roads were quiet and all the traffic was giving me a wide berth when passing.
The landscape around here is heavily agricultural. I'd seen more hay bales than ever before in my life, and had been overtaken by a wide range of agricultural machinery being towed by tractors. I'd ridden alongside combine harvesters getting the wheat in, balers putting hay into neat dumpy cyclinder shapes, and pronged contraptions picking up the bales to put them on trailers. I'd also seen potatoes being picked, sorted, and transported.
By the time I got to Kintore I was ready for a break. The public conveniences were locked (something I was beginning to get used to), and the alternative public loo that was signed, in a pub, was unavailable as it was before 11am and Scotland has stricter Sunday opening hours than England. I had become adept at finding suitable open air places to relieve myself, but the lack of open cafes perturbed me as I really wanted to get off the saddle and have a short break with some food and drink that wasn't an energy bar or electrolyte drink.
The Co-op food shop in Kintore was open, so I bought a trio pack of sandwiches (I should avoid the bread, but needs must), carton of strawberry and banana smoothie, pack of reduced kiwi fruit, and a pear. For some reason, I really fancied some fruit. I decided I would find somewhere nice to sit in the sun and eat my picnic.
It didn't take long for me to find the perfect place. The River Don runs through Kintore, and just on the edge of the town there were lush green riverbanks. I sat in the sun, remembering my 30th birthday twenty years before, when I'd sat on a riverbank having a picnic near Aberdeen. Strange how some things come around again.
Refreshed (and relieved), I set off again. There was a stiff westerly wind blowing and even though the wind was unusually warm, and the sun was pleasant, the wind made riding laborious as it was either a cross wind or head wind all day. By the time I got to Turriff I was getting tired and in need of sustenance. I found a restaurant with outdoor seating that was serving Sunday roasts so I treated myself. The waitress was a keen cyclist and we chatted about the Scottish winds, my route, and my reasons for doing the trip.
By the time I got to Banff, a really pretty seaside town which I'd have liked to have spent some time in, it was beginning to get late so I abandoned the Sustrans route 1 again to take the more direct A and B roads along the coast, straight into the wind. Vaughan called to say he'd booked us a table at the nearest pub to our campsite for 8pm. I knew he'd done this as a birthday treat for me, but I also knew I wouldn't get to the campsite in time so I told him to go ahead and I'd meet him there, after I'd had a shower at the campsite.
I met Liz and Vaughan on the final hill to the campsite. It was dark by then, and I could see their two torches in the distance as they walked along towards me. They hugged me, wishing me happy birthday again, and told me where the pub was before we set off in our opposite directions again.
As I turned into the campsite and started looking for the campervan, a man with a dog appeared from the shadow of the toilet block and whistled, then shouted. I wasn't sure who he was, or what he wanted, but had to ride past him to keep looking for the van, so stopped by him, shielding my headlight with my hand so that it wouldn't blind him.
"First things first" he said in a broad Scottish accent, "happy birthday". He then went on to point out where the van was and how I got in to the shower and toilet block (each camper has their own key on a piece of string). I have to say it was the strangest, and most unexpected, birthday greeting I'd ever had.
As I got ready for a shower Vaughan called again. They couldn't get food in the pub, despite having booked a table, as they stopped serving at 8pm and he and Liz had arrived at 8:15. The landlady was going to drive them to Buckie to the Indian Restaurant which was still serving food, and Vaughan wanted to know whether I wanted to come. By this stage I really didn't want to go anywhere, so told him to go ahead and eat without me. I had some sandwiches left in my pannier and an early night appealed more than a wild goose chase around the Scottish countryside for food on a Sunday evening. I could tell Vaughan was disappointed, as he'd wanted to treat me for my birthday, but I said we could celebrate in Inverness the following night.
Sat on my own in the campervan, chewing on a squashed chicken sandwich and supping on a cup of tea, I reflected on my 50th birthday. Unusual, certainly. Not entirely enjoyable as the cross winds had deeply frustrated me at times. Entirely wonderful though, from start to finish.
I never heard Vaughan and Liz return from their meal as I was fast asleep by 9:30.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment