Henrikdoc

Before I let you in on today’s journey I must just fill you in on the team’s survey of last night’s campsite shower facilities . You may recall the 80p token for minutes.
Candidate 1- It was ok BUT a bit of a dribble and a shower mat that had more stuff living in it than Edinburgh zoo

Candidate 2- it was abominable. Took 8 goes for token to work and then went from scalding to freezing in seconds and turning dial a mm altered the temperature by 30 degrees

Candidate 3- The token didn’t work in one shower (note there were only 2) and when in shower temperature changed constantly

Candidate 4 – It was fine until someone flushed the loo in the room next door (“room” is too fine a word) when the water disappeared altogether for 30 seconds BUT the clock kept ticking .

I will let you guess whether or not we will be frequenting that establishment again (you also had to buy your own loo roll for 40p – good job support team thought ahead and brought supplies👏👏👏)

So… continuing the “facilities “ theme , here is the 5 star comfort stop location Hisham and I were blessed with en route today

With the inscription inside

Needs must when you are keeping well hydrated and there are no bushes around .

A beautiful ride today. Started chillier than normal so 2 layers at least were needed.

We went off piste initially – much to Gloria and Glenda’s disgust. So much so, they decided to get one back on us and send us back to Tweedbank at one point. But we have become a little more savvy now and spotted this in time.
The Tweed valley was stupendous before turning off at Innerleithen into a gentle ascending valley ride of 19 km

Until we reached the top of the ascent to see a vista of Edinburgh below

We were pleased to be able to follow cycle route 1 for some of today

Arrived at camp after 5 hrs cycling where once again the washing was being organised by the support team 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️

Some maintenance to shoes was required – cleat change on the right –

and the ever faithful SouthAfrican Rusk to reload – thanks Sue , they are fantastic (nearly all gone though)

After supper (salmon, new pots, broccoli, courgette, bean sprouts, Creme fraiche, sweet chilli sauce- amazing what you can do with 1 pot and a wok) Carol and I went on a “short” 5 mile recovery walk 🤣🤣🤣🤣 to see the Aquaduct, get lost and be redirected by a sweet Scottish lady who was a bit cross about the monstrosity of a new school building locally, see a deer leaping in the field , moo at a few highland cattle (it’s what you do isn’t it ?) climb over a fence and finally end up back at campsite 2 hours later 🤦‍♂️.

Rest day tomorrow (Tuesday) and we will visit the Castle and eat pizza (coz you can’t cook that in an old VW Campervan 😜)