Fintry Bike.

The day promised to be warm and sunny; IT LIED!
It was the day of the audax (a long distance cycle ride) three years, almost to the day, since I rode the last one; that was 300 km and was rather a struggle, this was only 200 and did not cause me any problems. These events always have quirky names, going around Loch Katrine it had to be called Katrine Kapers, a name I chose when I helped design the course and ran the first few editions over ten years ago. It faded away due to lack of interest but a new organiser has sprung up and has made a few changes to the route which are big improvements.

The first control was at Fintry, it was an ad hoc affair, refreshments served from the back of a car; plenty of drinks were provided - but no cups to drink from, however, since that was the worst disaster of the day, the miscreant was forgiven. A hundred yards (sorry, metres) up the road is this inn, I assume that it is cycle friendly and could be used for the control in future years; the lights are on so, presumably, someone is at home.

The scenery on the route is spectacular, running, as it does, along the banks of five lochs and including the popular cyclists' climb of Crow Road (900 ft in 3 miles). Half way up, there was a man using an expensive camera, with a long lens, on a tripod, photographing each cyclist who passed; I wondered why he was using a flash, perhaps it was just to let me know that I was a target. Some time after the first few events, there was a child murder committed on this stretch of road but it's impossible to find any details as all searches turn up the Iain Banks novel, "The Crow Road," detailing such an occurrence.

Expecting bright sunshine and difficulties making the time allowance, I opted to take a compact camera with a "real" view-finder; it was a bad choice since the camera has no other merits and neither of the above problems materialised, consequently, the landscapes that I did take were very disappointing. But blip isn't just about taking good photographs so I'm happy to post this one.

Edit: Corrected length of climb up the Crow Road.