How long should it take to cycle a mile? Let me see… At 10 MPH I reckon around 6 minutes. 12 minutes at 5MPH.

It took us 60 minutes of full-scale physical exertion to cover the distance.

 

Our bikes were not ridden but pushed from one clump of moss to another. We were squelching through knee deep mud and water, wearing just cycling shoes and our lightweight shirts and lycra cycling shorts. It was a pine tree forest, Christmas trees to you and me, with their needle sharp leaves puncturing our arms, legs, and faces as branch after branch got in our way.

 

The track we were following had simply evaporated, making forward progress nearly impossible. To add to the challenge we were being hampered by a row of trees that had blown down and were now obstructing us from following our compass bearing.

 

I took some great video footage of the onslaught through the forest – hopefully you might get to see it at some point.

 

All this drama was happening just a short drive from Kilsyth were we had spent the night. Later on in the day we encountered another forest, and exactly the same conditions. It was becoming clear to us that Scottish ideas about bridleways were different to what we had expected.

 

By and by we were getting closer to the Lochs, and it was thrilling to see the signs for Loch Lomond. In Aberfoyle we enjoyed a Costa’s Coffee and I was pleased to be able to speak to my children by phone. Water ingress had badly affected my mobile over the past few days but it was beginning to function properly again.

 

Paul was uncertain about the conditions of the final 20 miles of forest that we needed to travel through, so he asked Tourist Information if they knew what the route would be like. They said it was a National Cycle Network track and that it was in good condition.

 

Sure enough, it was route 7, and we were soon notching up the mileage at a rate of knots, charging along the banks of Loch Drunkie and Loch Venachar. Just before we entered Callander, Martyn reported a loud clicking sound coming from his rear axle. I listened and said I reckoned it was a damaged ball bearing. We tried a bike shop in Callander but without it was closed. Martyn rode on and the sound eventually faded away.

 

We completed travelling along Loch Lubnaig and arrived at our campsite for the evening. Stuart whipped up a pasta dish with bean sauce and we feasted with gratitude. I helped Martyn with a repair to his rear wheel bearings – basically they had no grease left for lubrication. We  spent a fair part of the evening snipping the grass around our feet with scissors because one of the ball bearings dropped to the ground. It took quite a while before I spotted it. Never have two people celebrated so much at the re-discovery of a ball bearing.

 

All of a sudden I have realised that it’s late and I have some sleeping to do.

Good night

Gavin