Day 11

A lot of people have told us that Cornwall is the hardest bit of a LEJOG but I'm not sure I agree. Today was a relatively short 63 miles but boy was it tough. It started off easily enough with a few miles of easy riding to Blairgowrie then we were heading up Glenshee. Looking at the map, to my uneducated eye, it seemed we were following a river valley bottom so that has to be level, right? I was wrong, there were plenty of hills along the way. Then 10 miles out from our planned lunch stop at the Spittal of Glenshee (love the name) the heavens opened and we got absolutely soaked, shoes full of water soaked, for the second time on this trip. Had lunch at the Spittal hotel and dried my shoes and socks by holding them repeatedly under the hand drier in the men's loo. Fortunately it had dried up a bit by the time we we left but we were soon presented with the first punishing climb of the day, up to the Glenshee ski centre. After that we we were rewarded with a superb descent all the way to Braemar, we reached 43mph and virtually didn't need to turn a pedal all the way to Braemar. Then along the valley to Balmoral which is unfortunately completely hidden by trees, then along an old military road towards Tomintoul.
Some of the scenery was absolutely stunning in Glenshee and on the road to Tomintoul. We took some photos but I doubt whether they will capture the splendour. And some of the descents were great fun and went on forever.
I have been looking out since we arrived in Scotland to see a Red Squirrel. I saw my first on today but sadly it was roadkill. I will keep on looking. I did today see some highland cattle which made me feel we like we were "really" in Scotland.
Everyone is telling me tomorrow will be tougher than today, gulp, better get a good nights sleep and not too many beers!