"Despite the storms of the last couple of days, Ian, Scott, Robin and John mustered at the Guide Hut for the usual 9 o’clock kick-off. There was a consensus, that with all the rain, keeping ‘on’-road would be a good idea. With blue skies to the south and dark clouds to the north we headed in the general direction of Drum Castle. It was good to see Robin after many weeks away, but unhappily Robin’s front wheel let him down on the way up to Crathes from the West Gate. Four pairs of hands and lots of bits of puncture repair kit were brought to bear, but despite all the skills and equipment available, Robin reckoned a better bet was to get the bike and himself to the bike shop. Probably a fair call, and we said our goodbyes. Now the route was always a bit ‘organic’, and Ian remembered a ride, "where we had to go down a track" to get to Drum Castle. Eventually, we succumbed and squinted at an electronic version of the OS 25k (what was ever wrong with the paper copies?). Of course I had not downloaded quite enough of the map-tiles to quite get there, but a route was identified, followed and coffee was achieved at the garden centre. By this time the sun was glorious and the ride back along the Deeside Way proved very pleasant. Again trying to avoid the quagmire by the sawmill in Banchory we headed across the A93, past Tesco’s and up round the back of the hill of Banchory and, as we were all Burnett Parkers, over the top and down to Burnett Park. We did on occasion remember Les, now basking in the sun of of the Algarve, not in any jealous way you understand, just feeling sad for him that he missed a great ride along Deeside…
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