Everything is Going to be All Right!

JR had went for a run, then we had another hearty vegetarian fry up for me (poached eggs on toast for JR). A change in the weather - much cooler today - but no rain, so not complaining.

We drove back along the Dee to Ballater. It’s a lovely road, through lots of wee tidy villages. Ballater is at the end of The Deeside Way, the old railway line - the other end is Aberdeen, 41 miles away.

So we set off from The Railway Station (this old one was along the line a bit) as we’d checked it out the other day. We rode for a couple of hours (10,529 steps), though not without incident... The surface was much better than yesterday’s, being solid with no wee scary stones. BUT... it was very narrow in parts. Mostly it was about a metre wide, often even wide enough for two cyclists (more of which later) or walkers, but too often, it was only about a foot wide - which was MOST unnerving for me. And it often had some tight corners and S bends where there was a wee break at a gate or something. 

There was hardly anyone else using the path on the way out, but coming back we kept meeting proper cyclists whizzing along - we’d stop and get off the path. Also, we didn’t want to hold them up behind us. JR suggested cycling alongside me in the wider parts, to ‘CHAT’. NOOO!

Yesterday I thought I was getting better at starting off, but today I’d lost it. Sometimes I had to have many goes. I have the motor on 1, which helps to give a burst of forward movement, but I’m often wobbly for several metres till I get organised. Not good on a narrow pathway with nettles either side. 

Two incidents. One where I attempted to slowly manoeuvre round a wall, and nearly made it, but bumped into it just at the end. In fact, I was kind of stuck until JR came to my assistance. After having taken a photo, of course.

The second incident was more final. I went all wobbly, and veered into the edge, toppled off the bike, took several steps before falling flat, fortunately not in nettles, but nice soft grass. Also, I knew as I was doing it, I was falling off on the correct side, so as not to damage the bike gears. JR, who saw the whole thing and was killing herself laughing - and after the obligatory photos - came to my assistance. But I was Not Keen on getting on again, as we were at a narrow part. And there were more cyclists coming both ways. I knew I was almost back at the town, so I walked the last half mile or so. I did not want to get on again, which does not bode well.

We then went on the much safer pursuit of castle hunting. We saw Balmoral (or at least a tower or two in the trees), Braemar, and our favourite - Craigievar. Aberdeenshire is famous for the pink castles.

I think I really need these:

PS Archie did another 10k today!