The Twa Sisters
Friday, 25th March to Sunday 27th March 2022
Background
In January 2022, a window of opportunity appeared when it was announced that Hazel and the boys were all going to a Scout Camp at the end of March.
Contact was made with Blackburn and the green light was given after it was confirmed the date did not clash with a wedding.
Next the route. After considering a few options, it was decided on a halfway house to be based at the centre of the earth – Dundee.
Prologue
On the Friday, the peloton decided on different modes of transport to Dundee.
John decided to cycle down from Castle Kinellar. It was frosty when John left but the weather turned out braw. John texted at 2pm that he was sitting in a tearoom in Arbroath. He had cycled non-stop 59 miles.
The BofA bod ( due to work and school run ) had to make do with the train. A hoose depart at 5.35 and got to Stirling station for 5.55. The train departed on time at 6.11pm. I had reserved a bike place on the train. Unfortunately the train was an Inter City and so the bike rack was the dreaded vertical.
The train was quiet and arrived in to Dunders at 7.10pm. John met me coming out the station.
We were staying at the Holiday Inn Express at Dock Street – right in the city centre. John had already checked in so it was simply a case of my bike being put in the cupboard beside reception, a quick freshen up and left the hotel at 7.30pm to hit Dundee.
First stop was the St. Andrews Brewing Company – although things didn’t get off a good start when I ordered two beers and the barman returned with two totally different ones ! Order sorted we got a nice seat at the seating by the front door. A lively chat ensued about The Wednesday Club Sweep, the great work John had done with the new automatic updates and how we could improve further.
After two pints, we did the short hop to Dynamo Dundee ( aka 6 Degrees North Dundee ). John ordered a 10% beer – fortunately it wasn’t a pint.
I had booked the Kayla Indian Restaurant for 9.15pm. It was actually located underneath our hotel – handy. The food was excellent. John’s had two chillis on the menu and was spicy. I ordered a bottle of Cobra and it was massive. John noticed a VIP area and asked some questions about it.
Thirty seconds later we were back in the hotel bar with a round of Highland Parks. Then, in TdF style, I announced that the first destination in the 2022 main cycle trip would be…… Linlithgow.
We headed back to the room to watch A View From the Terrace with a round of test tube drams. To our utter dismay there was no BBC1. So we had to do with the now traditional Bullseye. Eventually I got AVFTT working on my mobile phone but about three seconds later John konked out. I managed about another ten minutes then shutdown everything for the night and also konked out.
Stage 1 – Round the Tay ( 57 miles )
We woke early and headed down for hotel breakfast at 8.15am. It consisted of a good buffet including fry up items eggs, sausages, bacon etc. I ordered rubber veggie sausages.
After going back to the room and sorting our stuff ( it was an unusual day as normally we have to pack up all our stuff as we are touring to a new location ) but we were travelling light, collected our bikes from the cupboard and left our digs at 9.15am.
We headed straight for the road bridge ( about 100 yards away ) and got the lift to bridge level and were off.
After crossing the bridge we turned right and cycled the 16 miles to Newburgh. It was a lovely undulating route and to boot the weather was absolutely gorgeous. We stopped at Newburgh and re-visited Lindores Abbey. After having a look around, John bought a miniature bottle of their first whisky and we sat in their enclosed terrace. It was a nice dram.
As we were leaving, I happened to mention that my bike was making a funny noise for the last few weeks and I couldn’t pin down where it was coming from. John had a gander and within 30 secs it was fixed. One of my pannier spokes was rubbing against my wheel. What a difference this made for the rest of the day – the bike was running a lot smoother and it actually felt easier cycling.
We continued on to Bridge of Earn ( the second best Bridge of in Scotland ! ) . As we were leaving it was time for the first Intermediate Spirit. We stopped at a bench, got out our cups and I poured a 24.153 Midsummer Nights Dream ( Macallan ). It was a 12yo and had spent it’s last three years in a 1st fill Ex-Olorosa hogshead and boy it was some dark colour and tasted fine.
Heading on we joined route 775 and cycled through Craigend and in to Perth. We stopped in the city centre and I mentioned a brewery I had seen recently. The old phone was produced and a route mapped to it. Despite initially heading away from it, we turned round and followed the one way system to Cullach Brewing on Princes Street. It looked empty. As we were locking up our bikes, a member of staff popped out the door and told us we could take our bikes inside. So we followed and ended up putting out bikes ben the hoose. They had a great selection of their own beers and I plumped for a Bandit Pale Ale while John had a Tayside IPA. They were great. The brewery ( aka The Brewhouse in BoFa ) did their own pizzas. John had the Chorizo pizza whilst I plumped for the Anti Pasti. They were superb. We had been tempted with the Cabin Porter beer but it was awfy strong ( 7.4% ) so we saw sense. However I did buy two bottles to go. Our panniers were almost empty anyway !
We piled out happy at 2pm and headed towards Scone. It was a long drag but the weather was still glorious and the views fantastic. At one point we were on the Milkboy’s Path which was a muddy/grass track that brought us back to the road. We decided to do a wee detour to see my sisters “house” ( this did take us via a weird route through Rait and down a very steep rough track back on to the road we had come off to go through Rait ). When I say house it is currently two walls and some roof beams. She is just waiting for the final planning permission then the builders can get started. It is in Craigdallie on the Carse of Gowrie. We parked our bikes and walked ( although John almost fell on a wet, slidy patch ) and sat in the back garden. John then made this a dram stop by producing some Glenmorangie Taghta which was lovely.
The hope was whisky was going to steel us for it was a 3km climb through Kinnaird and up towards Abernyte. Now approaching Abernyte I’m pretty sure the plan was to go left towards Knapp but somehow we went right and headed all the way downhill to the A90 and Inchture. This was familiar territory from the memorable Le Tour de Paris Bun so we crossed the overpass and headed back along route 77. This took us past my sisters old house ( hence giving the name of this trip ).
From nowhere the wind had got up and it was in to our faces in the exposed Carse. But we didn’t have long to go and cycled through Kingoodie, Invergowrie and then along the riverside all the way back to where we had started at the bridge lift ( including cycling between the V&A buildings which was cool ).
As we dismounted, John noticed that his ankle was sore. But we battered on and put our bikes back in the hotel cupboard and went back to the room to shower and change for the nights beer and curry.
After his shower, John was struggling and his ankle had swollen up badly. To reduce walking, the option of going back to the restaurant underneath was mooted but John indicated he would be ok. So we headed out and straight for the Innis & Gunn taproom. After two nice pints it was time to shuffle up to the Dil’Se indian restaurant on the Perth Road. Now I didn’t realise it was so far up the road so poor John had to hobble for about a mile to get his curry. It was another triumph for Dundee curry houses with another cracking meal. We then traipsed back down the Perth Road and stopped in at the legendary Phoenix bar which was now quieter than when we had popped our heads in earlier. We grabbed a wee table and John went to the bar. Last time I had been in the Phoenix ( with Shuggy before a steve Hackett gig ) they had the beers Due East and West on. So I asked him for one of these. However he came back and said the brewery had closed down and instead produced two pints of……….Orkney Dark Island – weyhey.
We then had a nightcap back at Dynamo Dundee ( to break up the journey for John ! ) then it was straight back to the room and another test tube dram before konking out.
Stage 2 – Dundee circular Route ( 26 miles ) – CANCELLED
Disaster for Scotland.
After waking up, it became apparent that John’s ankle was in a bad way and so after a quick discussion it was decided to cancel the days cycling. It was only the Dundee Circular route taking us through some of Dundee’s finest areas and so we probably would have been mugged anyway !
We went down for the same breakfast as the day before ( John actually took the stairs not the lift ! ).
We checked out of the hotel and got our bikes from the cupboard again. It was about 10.30 and we cycled the short distance to Dundee train station. John checked the times and there was one due at back of 11 and we said our goodbyes ( actually John ended up getting an earlier train at 1051 and , more importantly, got his bike on ! ).
I am too scared to ask how he got home from Aberdeen station to Blackburn.
I left Dundee station and cycled part of the proposed route and veered off at Gowrie Park to revisit my childhood playground. I then cycled up the famous Mallaig Avenue and Spey Drive then went to pay a surprise visit to my mum as it was Mother’s Day.
Summary
Despite the unfortunate ending, the cycle on the Saturday is one of the best I can remember. The weather was great, the route interesting, nice pitstops and my legs felt good. In fact John did mention that I was right behind him after the big climb up to Abernyte ( Ed – although to be fair he did probably have a broken leg at the time ! ).
Dundee certainly delivered with beer and two excellent curries.
Thoughts now move towards the main event – The Helensburgh Hurtle that is proposed for August 2022.
Bring it on.
Addendum
The good news is that John’s leg is on the mend and is now able to do 20 miles. Thankfully it looks like the issue is unrelated to the ford broken foot that resulted in two pins being inserted.
The Wednesday Club Sweep 