Friday 3 April 2009

the joy of angus

off out on the bike and away up into angus where i find it's remarkably flat. not only that the a94 is well surfaced an almost empty so i don't keep to the wee roads and find myself ambling along in the sun at a fair old crack. it's true i should have probably looped back at forfar but my legs were okay and i knew i could get a break at rachel's.

so, onwards and forwards and with the mileometer ticking just over fifty i arrived for coffee. it's true i could describe rachel's residence, the way she floated out in some laura ashley creation, how she showed me round her 'poetry room' with its gingham curtains but as she asked me not to then i shan't. but we did spend a lovely hour in her arbor before i was back on the road home.

coming over the hill to lunan was fantastic but after the climb i was suddenly reminded that although i'd stopped i hadn't actually eaten anything in montrose, not a bad mistake as it turned out, but a mistake nonetheless. the wind had kicked up, being near the coast and all so my speed dropped. then i got lost in arbroath and cold. the whole stretch to dundee all i could think about was food. each house i passed i wanted to be a shop. all along the road i came across empty cans that had once contained sugary stuff. i could just about taste the last hinty of sweet, sweet energy from my final gel. i wasn't ready to bonk but it wasn't good.

and then newbigging. a can of coke, a double mars and a slab of tablet. i practically inhaled them! and with that flew down the road to dundee where t was waiting for me. i could've have forgiven her for short temperedness as i was well over time due to a) being lost in arbroath b) travelling down ncn 1 which had no signs south of arbroath and c) being unable to tell the difference between 'about twenty miles' and forty five on the map.

still, my first 150k of the year. i retire to bed and sleep solidly for thirteen hours!

7 comments:

Rachel Fox said...

You're very cheeky! But next time I promise...food! It was all the talking...no time to think of food.

p.s. I have never owned anything from Laura Ashley in my life readers! Now you all know what to get me for xmas...

Marion McCready said...

crikey, all that way for a cup of coffee, lol!

Rachel Fox said...

He didn't even look tired either Sorlil! I think maybe he's not human...

swiss said...

damn i missed the bit about the sunhat and the basket full of daffodils!

Feltbug said...

I could feel the wind on your face with these words - a lovely description of your long distance bicycle journey.

swiss said...

i find when i read your blog that i'm always tempted by london. wouldn;t swap tho! ; )

Crafty Green Poet said...

sounds like a great trip!