Henrikdoc

A very warm and humid night even for campervan / camping standards. Slept well though. Beautiful morning despite the early (6 am) attempt at rain which didn’t materialise.

We set off, looking forward to not sure what.

Please note that above shows waist belt full of extra goodies, NOT excess middle spread built up over trip.

This is what we were expecting

Some beautiful scenery on the way – again (photo courtesy of Jill )

…. then we turned into Glen Shee, Hisham powering ahead … was he going to stop for a bite to eat (given we had done 2 hours)? ….. of course not ….. gotta get up that hill first 😂💪

A well earned coffee / sandwich stop – and perhaps some ‘dry ski- ing’ ?

The beauty of climbing , as all cyclists know, is the other side! It had started drizzling by then but that did not stop a few ‘whaheeeees’ ( we’ve been debating how to spell that all trip, and still not sure we’ve got it right – but you get the picture) for the next 40 km or so as it was mainly downhill all the way to the campsite in Ballater.

Carol and Jill had made an arrangement with someone very important for 12 noon which would not have been polite to be late for ( one could lose one’s head for worse things)

Hisham and I made it to Ballater well ahead of the ladies so we sat in / outside coffee shop – the ‘Bean for coffee?’ Chatting to the locals, keeping out of the drizzle, refuelling on coffee and cake (brownie and millionaires shortbread).

Another day in the Cairngorms to come. Only 3 more days in the saddle 😱l