Hogmanay trip north

Eight of us gathered this morning for a pre-celebrations cycle. Messrs Sharp, Kilgour and Stewart were in much need of the fresh air having over-indulged a bit the previous evening at Pittodrie and we were hoping that our shaky legs would be up to the challenge. We were joined by Les, Dick, Ken P, Mike & John McW.

Swapping tales of yesterday's floods at the start led us to agree fairly quickly that we should head north - well away from the river - for another trip to Platform 22. Conditions were really pretty good and we never encountered any problems with standing water. It was only 3 or 4 degrees C but it was bright, sunny and still.

Lashings of coffee, tea and, in John's case, a rather exotic hot chocolate with marshmallows, helped us wash down the scones and bolos de arroz (with cream and raspberry curd) and soon we were on our way to the back road taking us down eventually to Campfield filling station. Stopping at a spot with a nice view of the hills to the south, it was time for the team photo:

l-r: Ian Stewart, John McWhinnie, Mike Reilly, Dick Taylor, Ken Page, Ian Sharp, Colin Kilgour & Les Gray

Unfortunately, the proliferation of yellow jackets blocked the view!

The route home took us up towards what used to be ITE, where a few turned off and headed down the Glassel road, whilst the rest of us carried on to go on the bumpy forest tracks that would take us round the back of Archie's house. The total distance shown on my Strava was 30 kms with climbing of 286 metres - https://www.strava.com/activities/459967576