Sunshine ride for RJC

On a glorious Thursday afternoon, just 3 of us - Archie, Colin and I, the Replacement Joint Crew - set off up past Morrison's and along the Banchory Paths out towards the brewery and on to the farm trail that eventually leads towards Drumshalloch Woods.

The short, sharp climb up towards the farm was always going to be too much for Colin as his bike was stuck in a middle gear, but I, too, had to dismount half way up when my chain came off as I tried to change gear. E-bike Archie, however, had no such problems.

The original plan was to head out to Drum but it was such a beautiful day that we felt it would be better to seek a coffee stop where we could sit outside - like Buchanan's, we thought. If we cycled all the way to Drum and didn't have a coffee stop until we were back in Banchory that would have been a bit too much, so we decided instead to just do the Park loop.

When we got to Park, the Park Shop was open and it had tables outside at both front and rear and we thought why not? We were served by a Finnish girl who talked us through all the delights on offer, the outstanding one of which was a large pie-like cake which she told us she had gone to great trouble to bake early this morning, faithfully following a recipe by celebrity chef Yotam Ottolenghi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotam_Ottolenghi). Apparently it is  a Fig, Yoghurt and Almond cake and it was delicious. It came in 2 sizes - Colin and Archie opted for the smaller version whilst I, foolishly went for the large one, which turned out to be a little too much to devour in one sitting:

The remains went home courtesy of Archie's cycling jacket pocket. Here's the recipe - https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/sweet/cake/fig-yogurt-and-almond-cake-with-or-without-extra-figs-shop

(Yes, my next blog is going to be a baking blog).

For future reference, the Park Shop is open Thursdays to Sundays only.

Here's the team photo:

On the return trip, we got to the new railway line halt and I started to notice a rumbling in my rear tyre. I trundled on for a bit but it was soon evident that I had a puncture. With no spare inner tube, I decided just to walk home from there. About one and a half miles of pushing the bike is not a lot of fun, but Archie, who had cycled on ahead, met me at Bellfield with Eileen's car, complete with bike carrrier and we met up with Bill at the golf club for beers on the balcony to complete an interesting afternoon's Booze Cruise.

Here's our route and stats: