Dark Booze Cruise

There was another spectacular late afternoon sunset:

John Morton supplied the match report for the first ever night ride:

"Seven folks were up for the inaugural ride to Crathes Castle in the dark. John's Meaden, Larkin, Meres and Morton; Drew Leslie; Ian Stewart and Jack Simpson.

The Deeside way was awash with light from the many bike lamps and reflective fabrics as we set off down towards Milton and then up through the castle grounds.

We stopped for a photoshoot at the castle, and then for some fluids at Scott Skinners. No moon, no mishaps, and no sightings of the Crathes ghosts ;) 

A fine first dark run, and looking forward to the next one."


What John didn't say was that he had even gone to the trouble of putting reflective strips on the "gates" on the Deeside Way so that there was no chance of anything remotely approaching another "Brodiegate".

The multitude of lights - front, rear and head-mounted were amazing. Any oncoming traffic must have imagined that it was Close Encounters of the Third Kind approaching them! Here we are at the castle:

The downhill ride to the West Gate was, a little surprisingly, completed at pretty much daylight pace and there were no reportable incidents. At the foot, there was a brief discussion/debate about which hostelry to visit, with Jack, naturally, angling for the one closest to his home. Skinner's may not be everyone's favourite, but it had been a very pleasant, sociable evening and it would have been churlish to have gone elsewhere and leave Jack in the lurch.

We had a good natter over a couple of pints, putting the world to rights as usual - and time for another team photo:

l-r: Drew Leslie, Jack Simpson, John Meaden, John Larkin, Ian Stewart, John Meres and John Morton (standing)

It was, as we knew beforehand, a very modest 15 kms with 108 m of climbing, but the rides don't have to be long and arduous to be fun, do they?

John Meaden supplied a fractionally too late entry for the blog posting of Monday's ride:

"John P shows the potential hazard of being clipped in when the traffic suddenly slows - in this case as a result of cars parked at the gate."