Return to the Glen.........

Today I went back to Little Glenshee; first cycled in May. This time I cycled from Stanley through Luncarty, past Battleby towards Logiealmond and then headed up towards the Hills. It was a fairly easy but steady climb most of the way, but I had the benefit of freewheeling almost all the way back returning by the same route and covering 33.6 kms in total.

I had a few incidents or accidents depending on which way you look at it. At one point I was obviously going too fast down hill on the narrow twisting glen road and the last thing I expected in the middle of nowhere was an articulated lorry taking up the whole road, so I must have lost almost all the tread on my tyres as I braked and mounted the banking to escape being squashed. The lorry proceded with caution on his journey with all lights flashing and alarms sounding to alert any more freewheeling cyclists taking advantage of the road that he was there.

By the time I came down off the glen road onto the main road it was still very much downhill, and as I approached a bend and then an upward sweep, my speed must have been too great for the gear change I made and I lost all my traction, and to be quite honest I'm not sure what happened next, but I was in a ditch with a dent in my left knee and masses of nettle stings.

Thankfully no traffic or any witnesses about to cause any major embarrassment, so I managed to quickly dust myself off and as no damage was done to my bike, I continued carefully on my way the rest of the way back home. I think I need to get a better understanding of the dynamics of cycling before tackling runs like that again.

Firstly a photograph taken at about 11.00 am this morning in Little Glenshee, followed by what I imagine the differences may well be in the Jordan Valley, I am used to seeing deer crossing signs in the Scottish Glens, but in Israel it is for camels crossing!

It's now a lovely evening, so tidied myself up and off again to Luncarty and back adding the extra I missed this morning and bringing my total for the day to a neat and tidy 53 kms.

The flies were bad tonight and reminded me that it is unwise to put the lip gloss on when out cycling! However an American on holiday chose to take an action picture of me cycling towards him through the park, so at least I was prepared for that.