Tarland toddle

Six of us drove over to Aboyne yesterday to do the Tarland Way loop. I picked up Colin and we loaded our (non-aspirated) bikes in to the back of my car, having first of all removed the front wheels. We arrived in good time and parked outside the agreed meeting point of the Black Faced Sheep. Colin and I unloaded and re-assembled our bikes - then waited:

Where were the others? Eventually we spotted John's Macan driving in to Aboyne. He'd had some difficulty loading his bike in to the car as he couldn't figure out how to remove the front wheel as his bike has old fashioned brake pads, as opposed to discs. He had to enlist Joan's support to squeeze the bike in with the front wheel still on.

Next to appear were Stewart and Andy, who had both parked at the Square and cycled over to our meeting point. Nigel's car rolled in right behind them and before too long we were all on our way across the road and through the castle grounds.

My first mistake of the day came when we exited the castle grounds - we should have turned a smidgeon left and got on to the Tarland Way proper but I turned right and headed up the hill on the road. The saving grace was that the road is much less steep than the initial climb up the Way.

All went well for a while - we got to the end of the first part of the Way safely enough and when we reached the bridge where the Way crosses the road, we had a discussion about which route to take to Tarland from here? The official one along the boring, but flat, grassy path or the more solid tarmac route through Coull? Unanimously the road was chosen and we cycled on for a bit until we came to where there was a potential left turn along a narrow minor road. E-bike Nigel shouted back from the front of the pack - "which way, Ian?" "Straight on" I immediately replied - a decision I was soon to regret.

The road meandered onwards and upwards and before long I realised the error of my ways - we were heading up to Queen's View. That wasn't the plan. It was a slog. John and Colin managed better than the rest of us (apart from Nigel, of course) but Stewart, myself and Andy had to resort to walking up parts of the hill. I kept thinking of my e-bike tucked safely in my garage at home.

The upside, of course, was that we had a wonderful long downhill run in to Tarland from there and soon we were tucking in to goodies in Angie's Cafe:

The cycle back to Aboyne was both interesting and thankfully uneventful - the trails on the north side of Loch Kinord being the most fun part. We stopped for a short rest at the car park adjacent to the gliding club where there were a couple of signs:

On the outskirts of Aboyne, at the point where the Deeside Way crosses over to the north side of the road, a number of workers were busy shearing sheep:

A good ride - despite the cock-ups. Here's the stats - with the blue line showing the tarmac route we should have taken in to Tarland: