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Friday 21st May 2010 Crawford to Bannockburn I was getting a bit tired of eggs every morning so for breakfast at the Crawford Arms I had a functional repast of cereal, cheese on toast, jam on toast and coffee. When the bill came it was £38, which included the previous night’s meal and the decent pint of Theakston’s Dark Mild I’d supped. It was a fine day today and very hot. I had quite a few hills to get over along the way and as I tackled them my temperature soared; I found myself glowing with the heat and the handlebar grips were slippery with my sweat.
The first part of the route, to Lanark, was easy enough but there was a big hill coming out of there and it all became a bit of a slog. Still I wasn’t feeling too bad as long as I didn’t force things on the hills, just got off and pushed. Even that was quite hard work though. After a few miles I came to a village called Allanton and although the Allan had one too many ‘l’s in it I still couldn’t resist getting a picture of myself by the road sign. Being on the outskirts of the settlement there was no-one around to help out but then I spotted someone peacefully minding her own business in her back garden. After a quick introduction and explanation this nice Scottish Chinese girl obligingly took my photo by the sign – Alan and his town! What an egomaniac.
A few hundred yards further on I also called in at the local Post Office and the Postmaster cheerfully stamped my record sheet for me so I was able to cycle on with nothing but warm, positive feelings about Allanton. The back roads I was travelling along were quiet and quite fast down some of the downhill bits. I got the speed up to 37 mph at one point but chickened out rather than trying for the impressive 40 mph. It might have been impressive but the 10 kg load over the rear wheel made handling a tad delicate and any stone or pothole could have been a big problem. 37 mph felt plenty fast enough at the time!
The drawback with quiet back roads is that there’s never anywhere to get anything to eat. I hadn’t got into the habit of carrying packed lunches on this trip and so I was getting quite famished by the time I reached Plains. Unfortunately Plains turned out to be another Lennoxtown style dump. I knew there should be a pub there because it was marked on the OS map but when I finally found it, a place called the Stables, they told me they didn’t do food. Helpfully they referred me to a nearby establishment called the Pantry. I’d approached the Pantry beforehand but from its unprepossessing appearance, complete with wire grills over the windows, I had judged it to be closed down and had walked on past. Where there had been no food at the Stables there proved to be no seats and tables at the Pantry. I bought a cheese and tomato roll – nice enough but made of the ubiquitous white bread – and a bright pink cake and a cup of tea, then sat on a tuffet by the side of the road and consumed it. I was too hungry by then to be over-choosy.
Putting my cold and negative feelings about Plains behind me I carried on and eventually reached Kilsyth at about the 56 mile mark. I wondered briefly whether to stop there but it was only about 15.30 so I decided not to be a wimp and pressed on. My reward was an absolutely mammoth hill just outside Kilsyth, topping out at a grueling 322 metres. I pushed, toiled and roasted my way to the top of it, gaspingly took in the view there and then had an easier ride down to Bannockburn, just the occasional uphill bit, where I finally called it a day.
I found accommodation at the White House (£40) and after stowing the gear and putting the GPS on charge – it had conked out just short of Bannockburn after approximately 7 ½ hours use – I went out to look for somewhere to eat. One of the locals directed me to the town centre but she must have meant Stirling town centre as I ended up walking over a mile and coming to a quite large, built-up area. There was a café there called the ‘Filling Place’ where I got a fair veggy-burger and chips (white roll again) and a cherry crumble and ice cream. I then had to walk all the way back to the B&B as there were no taxis around – did me good, I expect. Distance: 67.48 miles Average speed: 10.3 mph Max speed: 37.4 mph | |||||
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