Author: John Clark

This isn’t exactly the group shot we were picturing, but at least there are four happy faces here:

The forecast yesterday was for a likely chance of rain, so we got our earliest start of the trip. Amazingly, Sue told us later that it rained pretty good in Innerleithen about an hour after we left, but we didn’t experience any until we were very close to the end (and it was a 39+ mile/5 hour day)!

There were two decent climbs in the first part of the ride, but neither were too strenuous, especially after the previous day. Here are my teammates cruising up the first one:

The clouds were building early, which makes for good photos, but we didn’t feel like we could stop and enjoy the views much. Here’s what it looked like from the saddle, as we approached the first summit:

We did stop for a snack just over the top, and had a nice view of some huge wind turbines, a common sight in Europe.

As we went up and over the second (and last; hooray!) summit, we were greeted with a gorgeous view to the north, with Edinburgh in the far distance. I guess you’ll have to take my word for it, as it’s pretty hard to see from this photo ;-}

There were so many spectacular little spots like this along the way:

As I said earlier, it wasn’t until we got within about 7 miles of Edinburgh that we could see rain coming our way (and hear the thunder), but it really didn’t do much more than sprinkle on us. I think we all felt like we were dodging bullets.

We pulled up to the bike shop as the sun was breaking out of the clouds, and met back up with Sue soon after we arrived back at the hotel. We got settled, showered, and headed out for one last sweet evening in the city with the four of us.

It has been so great having this much time with them on this trip! Due to Sue’s travails, as we bid each other adieu after dinner, we all agreed that we have to plan another trip sometime soon.
As they began their long journey home early this morning, we were able to sleep in a bit for a change. I’ll post about our day sometime tomorrow, probably after we’ve arrived at my sister Deborah and her husband Peter’s home in Devon (southern England).

I was so tired the last two nights that I just didn’t have it in me to put together a post. The four of us have been having great fun exploring each new town we stay in, finding nice little pubs and such for dinner, and catching up on everything our kids and mutual friends have been up to, that we’re usually saying our good nights around 11 o’clock. The first few nights, I would stay up past midnight writing my blog post, but I just haven’t had it in me for the last couple (no surprise)!

Sue continues to do a great job exploring on her own while we’re riding, both in the town where we start, and then at the destination, after catching a bus there. I know it’s challenging, and that it’s tremendously disappointed to not be riding with us, but I hope we’re making up for it just a little bit with our afternoon/evening time together.

The route we chose to take to Innerleithen (of four, ranging from 18 to 55 miles!) was 38+ miles, and it was another spectacular day, at least to start. Showers were forecast in the afternoon, but we were fortunate that they stayed away for the duration of our ride.

There were two big climbs that day, the first a long, slow slog up a steady pitch amidst stark surroundings. First or second gear most of the way. Near the top, I captured this panorama. Note the clouds in the distance behind us; the tiny speck on the road at the far right is Mallory.

At the top, we found a sweet little stone windbreak in which to have our picnic lunch:

While on the top of the pass, we were surprised to see a military-style cargo plane flying low enough that it appeared to be below us. Then a little further on, while riding the lovely, idyllic valley pictured below, we heard a low roar building behind us that quickly became so loud that it scared the wits out of us. I literally had trouble holding on to the handlebars it was so frightening. It turned out to be a fighter jet, flying less than 500 feet off the ground, and it was fully sideways as it wound up the valley beyond us. I only wish I had time to snap a photo!

We arrived at our B&B in Innerleithen about 4:30, and Sue arrived soon after that. This was probably our nicest B&B yet, a newish place with quite a few rooms, operated by yet another incredibly friendly Scottish couple. Amazingly, less than an hour after we arrived, the skies opened up, and we wondered what riding in a downpour like that would be like. A little later, we found out that the rain was much bigger than a ‘normal’ one, causing flooding in town, as well as our host’s garage and car park. It was bad enough that most of the restaurants in town were closed, so we took a taxi to the neighboring town of Peebles (where it hadn’t rained at all!) for dinner. We had a lovely meal, and enjoyed exploring the village at sunset. There I stumbled onto the most incredible bed of hybrid lupine I have ever seen:

Stay tuned for the report of our last day of riding, which I hope to post later today!

We’ve completed four days, and this one was the nicest yet, at the very least from the perspective of weather. It dawned overcast, as usual, but before we’d even finished breakfast, the mist was burning off, and by mid-day there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Our hosts at the B&B, Graham and Hilary, had very nicely offered to give Sue a ride to Melrose (today’s destination) around 1 o’clock, on their way to a car rally near there. So she planned on going for a walk on a nearby nature trail after we took off on our bikes.

Our route choices for the day were about 18 miles or almost 36. We quickly decided on the 18, because we wanted to make sure we met up with Sue as soon as we could, so we could spend time with her in Melrose! Once on the road, we just couldn’t stop talking about how much of a bluebird day it was:

At one point, we had taken a short side detour recommended on our map, but it actually inspired us to create our own detour in the other direction, just to see what some of the smaller side roads looked like. Back on the regular route, we came to Scott’s View:

That’s a small iPhone panorama, with the town of Melrose in the valley in the far background, to the right of the Eildon Hills. What a view, eh?

As we wound our way into Melrose a short while later, I took this shot of a very contented rider:

Not long after that, we took a long footbridge over the River Tweed, to get to city center:

On the other side of the bridge stood a beautiful stone structure, and I couldn’t resist this detail of the stonework:

As usual, we easily found our B&B a few minutes later, and Sue was enjoying a cuppa in the sun out front. The riders got settled as well, and then we explored town a bit, eventually settling on a quiet little pub for dinner. We didn’t even let the fact that they’d run out of fish (!?!) discourage us, so the boys had burgers, Sue had Mac & Cheese, and Mal had Soup & Sandwich. Of course, we all had some local ales as well.

When we returned to Braidwood Guest House after dinner, I had to take this shot of their beautiful roses.

Now I’m ready for sleep. It’s on to Innerleithen tomorrow, via one of four route options. After figuring out the logistics of Sue’s transport (and entertainment) over breakfast, we’ll have to peruse the route details, in order to decide which one to take.