B team Booze Cruise

What a fun afternoon we had yesterday. Just 4 of us made it to the start point - Les, Dick, Stewart and me. The forecast wasn't particularly encouraging and Les was full of doubts about our planned route, suggesting that we should shorten it and just do a simple Park run, but we stuck to plan A and it paid off in the end as none of the threatened rain appeared. We arrived at the Durris forest, via Knappach, and Les insisted that we enter via the second (highest) entrance. It's not a climb I would have done in an "analogue" bike, but we met a young man on a non-aspirated bike at the entrance who was on his 6th loop of the trails that day! It's a nice run and merits future further exploration of some of the many other trails there. We arrived at Mains of Drum slightly early for our booked table, but there was no issue - it was fairly quiet anyway. Keith and Bill had both been unable to join us on the ride but were keen to meet us for beers afterwards so we decided that the best place might be Banchory Lodge and the easiest/quickest way of getting there was back via the Deeside Way, but first we headed towards Drum Castle. I had a bit of a senior moment as I tried to manipulate my e-bike through the kissing gate at the back of Mains of Drum but got there in the end. Les then led us round some of the trails west of the castle to a viewpoint where the attempt at a team photo produced this slightly disappointing result:

Back in Banchory, we bade farewell to Stewart, then Les, Dick and I headed down to Banchory Lodge where our initial attempts to sit at one of the many empty tables at the elevated new Sitooterie were thwarted by a jobsworth who told us they were all booked. Our other option was to head across to the lawn and the Brewdog marquee, but they didn't officially open until 5 pm. Nonetheless, Les took the bull by the horns and went over to speak to the barman there and managed to wheedle us in for a couple of pints under canvas. Before we downed the pints, however, we were invited to taste a new gin being promoted. Les enjoyed his so much he bought a bottle to take home. Bill passed his apologies but Keith had arrived to join us for drinks, courtesy of Annette's taxi service. It was all hugely enjoyable but it did start to get really cold - maybe just as well or we would have downed more beer before a wobbly ride home. Here's a couple of photos taken at the marquee:

Here's the route and the stats: