DREICH RIDE….. SMALL SCONES

Robin is the guest reporter for yesterday's run to Torry Battery:

"Our intrepid crew of 7 riders ( Ian St., Ian Sh, Dick, John P, Archie, Scott and Robin) met at the Guide Hut at 8.30am and then drove by various routes to Peterculter Station.A few tense moments ensued as Dick’s bike carrier refused to release 2 of the bikes but The A Team had the necessary tools to swiftly remedy the situation.

BBC weather reports said that the only place in the UK today which would have sunshine would be N.E.Scotland. They lied!! Conditions were DREICH when we started and grew DREICHER as we neared Aberdeen and DREICHER still as we cycled from Duthie Park along the River Dee , over the bridge , into Torry, past the harbour and up to the Tory Battery ( which Ian Sh advised us only stopped being part of Aberdeen’s defences in the 1950s) and onto Balnagask lighthouse which was somewhat hard to distinguish from the surrounding mist.

One important stop on the way was at Abbey Road . Spot the Fab Four out of this lot!:

Whoops - not quite all ready for this one!

That's better - all present and correct this time

After the heights of the lighthouse we passed the bay where the new harbour is proposed and from there returned by way of  Victoria and Walker Roads  Torry to the more familiar environs of Duthie Park and the Deeside Way. The Newton Dee Restaurant provided a welcome stop for the somewhat damp crew . Robin proclaimed the price for the coffee and scones to be the cheapest on Deeside but his enthusiasm was curbed by cannier heads who pointed out that the scones were smaller than usual and the cups could have been bigger. The truth of this was born out when Dick had a second scone and Dick and John a second cup of coffee each!

From there it was a short hop back to Peterculter Station by Noon after what had been an interesting and enjoyable outing which we agreed should be repeated in sunny conditions in future."

As Robin says, it was pretty bleak out at Torry Battery. The attempted team photos at Girdleness Lighthouse failed against a background of unrelenting greyness, but I took a few other photos when we were up on the Battery which demonstrate the conditions:

Robin suggested I take an "artistic" view of Balnagask golf course

Had to get one with the flag of course

As far as the stats go, Dick's Strava shows we cycled almost 34 kms with a surprisingly high climbing total of over 500 feet on what seemed like a flat cycle - https://www.strava.com/activities/426904571

John supplied the route overview:

Meanwhile, in presumably sunnier climes, Les is keeping his fitness levels up. He completed a 25 kms run round Vilamoura on Tuesday - https://www.strava.com/activities/425769866

No word yet from Ken P in Thailand. No doubt golf will be his primary sport, but he'll perhaps find somewhere to cycle during his 6-7 week stint there.