Canal Cycling

Dover - Shetland Day 24
Edinburgh to Guardbridge (Nr St Andrews)

Distance cycled: today 105.7km, total 1666.7km
Ascent: today 1114m, overall 10,297m

Highlight: a dry day for two big milestones of the trip: my 1000th mile around the Forth Bridge and somewhere, struggling across the surprisingly hilly roof of Fife, my 10,000th metre of climbing. It was good to have Ålan's company to celebrate these on a long day, which was statistically the hardest since my epic first day of the trip.

Lowlight: I think Alan & I agreed it was a toss up between a near death experience trying to find a way across an A92 roundabout on the outskirts of Kirkcaldy during rush hour or what seemed an endless half an hour swirling around like flotsam, lost on the western periphery of Glenrothes as the day drew into early evening.

What else? The top of the 207m high towers of partly constructed Queensferry Crossing were lost in mist and we were nearly blown off the existing road bridge by a strong easterly. When the new bridge opens it will be dual carriageway and have hard shoulders, as well as wind-shielding to prevent it being shut other than in extreme conditions. Public transport, pedestrians and cyclists get to keep the old bridge all to themselves!

Photo: nice start to the day using the Edinburgh river and canal-side cycle paths to keep away from the city's rush hour traffic and its hills.