Wednesday 16th July, Blairgowrie to Edinburgh

68.5 miles

We lost the monkey today. Graeme, who was the custodian of the monkey, managed to lose it on his first day as keeper. We think it’s a trait with people from Hartlepool. So we now have a virtual monkey which was today awarded to a virtual rider. Ryan, who rode across America with Jane, was due to cycle with us at some point but we are still waiting for his first appearance.

Those who were cycling today managed 68.5miles from Blairgowrie to just south of Edinburgh. It was an uninspiring ride after the peace and magnificent scenery we had enjoyed in days previous. The high point was crossing the Forth Road Bridge.

Midway across the bridge we chanced upon five cyclists on the end to end route in the opposite direction. We asked them to take a photo of us on the bridge whereupon they remarked that they had discussed amongst themselves their chances of meeting with us and agreed that it was extremely slim.

After crossing the bridge we dropped into Queensferry which is underneath the Forth Rail Bridge and it brought back memories of Jane five years ago. It was, at that time, the first point I had seen Jane on her journey and the recollection was as vivid a picture today as it was then. It has left me feeling decidedly melancholy which I guess is just part of a grieving process.

We cycled to the Edinburgh outskirts and I treated my co-riders to an exhibition of how to cut up cars and generally ride in a completely reckless and life endangering manor. A few choice words have been exchanged as I was responsible for navigation and they felt inclined to have to follow me. At one point speeding past a row of stationary cars at traffic lights on the outside I was nearly taken off but could only smile.

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This entry was posted by Mike Tomlinson on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 9:37 am and is tagged with Jane's Appeal and is posted in the category Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.