"We're not camping?!" asked the Little Chaps as we started to get ready for our latest adventure. It's a different sort of adventure we told them, pulling the bike panniers down from the garage shelves. The plan for the week was to follow the number 7 Sustrans route, starting in Glasgow and heading towards Pitlochry and, yes, we were going to use B&B's each night - unheard of luxury as far as the Little Chaps were concerned!
Our bike set up for the trip is probably an important detail at this point, because there is a limit to how far (both in mileage and ascent) little legs can pedal.
Our bike setup: Left - the Express with riders admiring the view of the Clyde, Right - the pannier laden Trek
Mummy's bike is quite easy to explain - it's a Trek roadbike that we attached the pannier rack to and planned to carry two side mounted panniers on - more than enough for Mummy and Daddy's clothes (my off-bike shoes being the biggest item). The rest of us would be travelling on the family Express as we have nicknamed it. The Express is an Orbit tandem plus (possibly our most used item that we have bought for the Little Chaps and a review will be posted soon) a FollowMe tandem that connects Little Chap #2 onto the back - a bicycle made for three! We would also be carrying rucksacks to boost our clothes/lunch/spares carrying capacity and you can probably see why we went for the B&B option over camping with all that extra kit - and more importantly, extra weight! Whilst our TowWhee is great for short bursts of mountain biking, it is not road suitable and the Express set up allows us to safely go further and faster on road/tarmac/cyclepaths.
The route details are important too:
Day 1 - Glasgow Airport - Glasgow (start of route) - Drymen (51.67km, 296m ascent)
Day 2: Drymen - Callander (39.44km, 676m ascent)
Day 3: Callander - Killin (54.10km, 585m ascent - includes 13km side-excursion)
Day 4: Killin - Pitlochry (63.99km, 755m ascent)
Day 5: Pitlochry - Perth (52.98km, 450m ascent) - TRAIN - Glasgow - Glasgow Airport (26.12km, 44m ascent - not the shortest way!!)
Days 1 to 4 followed the number 7 Sustrans route so navigation was taken care of with their signage. Sustrans do produce a range of maps for the routes and this was really helpful for planning purposes and also for using each day to determine which villages had food/drinks/ice-creams. Day 5 would follow route 77 back to Perth where we planned to take the train back to Glasgow (approx 1hr) and then cycle back to the car.
We used one of the off-site airport carparks (how to find secure carparking for 5 days in Glasgow was a planning conundrum!) and, it turns out there is a Sustrans route into the city centre from there (more about that later!). The cunningly titled Flying Scot carpark was enough to amuse the Little Chaps as we pulled up (and if you know anything about steam engines and our chaps, you will know why!) and our car was still there when we got back so they did everything we needed of them!
Day 1: Ferry over the Clyde, "Cyclists Please Dismount" - "We don't need that Daddy", Well-deserved pizza and beer
And now, back to the ride itself. The weather forecast for the week was reasonable but day 1 was a bit windy. Not enough to trouble the aircraft at the airport but brisk enough to blow us into the city centre to start following the route. A quick passenger ferry trip over the Clyde to the north bank and we were straight onto the blue signs that we would follow for the next few days. We also had our first wildlife spottings of the journey - an inquisitive seal in the Clyde and a young deer on the cyclepath that was as surprised to see us as we were to see it! We followed the Firth and Clyde canal to the lock where it enters the River Clyde and on to Dumbarton.
The old railway line section here is close to the main road but it is amazingly sheltered from the noise and, luckily, from the worst of the headwind! The route now swings north towards Loch Lomond and follows the River Leven and then the climbing starts as it gets a bit hilly between Balloch and Drymen (pronounced Drimmen apparently and also commonly used as night 1 for walkers on the West Highland Way). Our B&B (Braeside) was excellent and the pizzas at the pub were well-deserved - the Little Chaps had adult portions and there was disappointingly little left for lunch the next day!
Pic: end of the Clyde & Forth canal
Day 2: Aberfoyle Forest, off-road riding along Loch Venachar, Callander
Day 2 began with a steep climb out of Drymen but we were fuelled by bacon and eggs. We were soon in Aberfoyle and went up to the forest visitor centre. A short walk took in a waterfall and also some red squirrels who were having their own lunch at the wildlife hide. After lunch, the bit we considered to be the hardest part of the whole ride - mainly due to bike choice as we have a road/tarmac set up and this section is off road on forest tracks. I was pleased to make it up this climb in one go, deploying the pedal-power of the Little Chaps on looser, steeper sections. I would liken this to a Playstation car-racing game, allowing your boost to build before using it and then letting it build up again. As it turned out, the descent was actually the hardest part, mostly due to bike choice, which was long, bumpy and slow and not much reward for the climb! We then followed a lovely and fun (technically challenging for a road bike!) path along the Loch towards Callander and our overnight stop. There was plenty of time to stop by the Loch for the Little Chaps to throw a few stones in and still time and energy to find the park in Callander! A harder day than the distance would suggest although the bike setup is mostly responsible for this. That said, 755m of climbing is way more than I have towed the Little Chaps up on any single day ride so the fish and chips, eaten by the river, were well deserved!
Day 3: Along the old railway line, view down Loch Earn, Glen Ogle viaduct
Day 3 seemed a bit short in the planning stage but we were unsure how the boys would react to full-on multi-day adventures (our previous expeditions have involved them mostly sitting in a canoe!). We resolved this with bacon sandwiches for breakfast and then, because our legs felt good, a side-excursion up Loch Voil to see the valley. Except for the side-trip, we spent the day following the old Callander to Killin railway line so, except for a couple of short sections, the climb was long and slow and gentle (but still uphill!). A couple of sections were steep with tight hairpins and we were forced to walk as the Express was just a bit too long to make the tight corners. A great view down Loch Earn and then over the Glen Ogle viaduct (plenty of time to view it as we repaired our only puncture of the trip) before dropping down to Killin. Loads of time to walk back from the hotel to the Dochart Falls and to sit and watch the river when most of the crowds had left for the day.
Day 4: fuelling for a long day, looking back up Loch Tay to where Ben Lawers should be visible(!), Castle Menzies
Day 4 was always going to be a longer day cycling wise but the route returned to tarmac on quiet back-roads so the going was way easier and faster than previous days. I am told by Little Chap #1, who has the bike computer on his handlebars, that we hit 54km/h on one descent which is a new record! We made good time and stopped to look around Castle Menzies which is in the process of being restored by the Menzies Clan. As with many Scottish Castles, it is impossible to escape any link to Bonnie Prince Charlie although the Clan were apparently neutral in the uprisings. On towards Pitlochry for our final over night stop. There were a couple of steep (marked with Chevrons on the OS map!) climbs which were a test after 4 days on the bike but we made it up them all. A little spare time to wander down to the hydroelectric dam before tea and then back up to the hostel for bed.
We spent days 3 and 4 alternately overtaking and being overtaken by another family who were taking on the same route to us. The two boys at 16 and 19 were much older than our Chaps but it was great to share the road with like-minded people. This family had managed to arrange their tour through a company who transported their bags each day and this option may make the route more manageable.
Day 5: a bit damp, "did they fall off?", train ride
Day 5 was forecast to be damp and did not disappoint! We swiflty dispatched the hilly section we had ridden the afternoon before as we went back down the valley to pick up the route 77 to Perth. Through Dunkeld and the grounds of a lovely hotel that would have been right on the route although we would have lowered the tone somewhat! We feared the route would be following the A9 all the way to Perth but were taken away from the main road (uphill!) and through the countryside where the heavens opened for a wet descent into Perth. The section on the outskirts of Perth really showed that we can make excellent cycle friendly infrastructure just as good as any of the stuff we have ridden in Germany and Holland, so all credit to Sustrans and partners for this. We wound our way along the River Tay to the town centre and headed up to the station to catch a train to Glasgow. We were a little nervous about getting 3 bikes and 4 people on the same train and had a long list of contingency plans but, despite a busy train, the helpful guard greeted us on the platform and pointed us to the bike section. I'm not sure what other passengers thought but we were onboard and it was time for lunch! A train ride is a sure-fire hit for the Little Chaps so this was a great way to almost-complete our journey and many of our fellow passengers "enjoyed" a running commentary of all that was to be seen out of the window. It was raining even more heavily in Glasgow as we braved the city streets to find the official "start" of the number 7 route (Bells Bridge). Cue all the jokes about completing the warm up and now setting off for real but a wet Saturday teatime in Glasgow is not all that inspiring! Then we had an almighty faff getting back to the car park as some particularly helpful Glasgow residents had turned many of the signposts around. If you need to use a map at each signpost then you are wasting time and mental energy and so, in the end, we went with following our nose (and the river) back to the passenger ferry before retracing the first section of Day 1. Annoyingly, we found the newly marked cycle path from the airport to city centre at this point as the signs were visible heading back this way. Never mind, they'll be useful for anyone who reads this and gives the route a go!
And that was it, our first cycle tour completed. We rode 288.3km over our 5 days, only one puncture and only 2 uphill pushes/walks (both on bits the bike just didn't fit around easily!).
Any lessons to be learned or things to do differently? Not really is the answer. The days were of the right length and effort for us to tow the Little Chaps and our stuff around with plenty of interest points to break up the cycling and to enjoy the area. We also managed to pack the right amount of kit to keep weight down to a minimum. The only question that might arise is over bike choice. We have road bikes, our set up works on road bikes so we used (you've guessed it) road bikes! And plenty of the route is on tarmac. On a few sections (days 2 and 3) it was hard going but we made it and, on balance, I think the road bike was the better setup. With kids who can ride solo (and it is likely they have access to just one bike) then mountain bikes set up with a mixed tyre would be a reasonable option. Few people will take an "Express" and that was the main off-tarmac issue as Mummy was fine on her bike, even with the weight of the panniers.
The main thing is we all had a great time together on our "luxury" expedition. Definitely a format we will try again at some point...
Comments