St Andrews to Brechin - 76k - Thurs 5 July

We emerged from our tent to an overcast and dreary looking sky, but at least it wasn't raining. It hadn't rained at all through the night. Today was a special day - 32 years ago I married a teenager. Her name was Julie Stewart. We were married at The Salvation Army Citadel (Church) at Braddon in Canberra on 5 July 1975. We would be celebrating our wedding anniversary over dinner at the little village of Brechin (pronounced bree-kin) tonight, God willing.


Julie surprised me over breakfast with a gift of a lovely cycling shirt with the cross of St Andrew very cleverly presented in several places amidst the lovely blue and white colours of the shirt. It seemed almost too nice to wear. Sadly it was a 'wee' bit too small, even on my reduced body mass, so it meant calling again at the St Andrews bike shop before we left town.


We rolled out of the Cairnhill Caravan Park at about 10am. It is situated on the brow of a hill in a field overlooking the entire town of St Andrews, affording a magnificent sight as we slowly held the bikes back descending into the town. We loved St Andrews, and at times like this are filled with mixed emotions about leaving after such a brief stay. History says that two saints were washed up on the beach after a violent storm - one was alive - the other was just the remains of a saint who had died several centuries earlier. The alive saint - St Rule was his name, or 'St Regulus' had carried with him from Greece the remains of St Andrew. The town takes its name from the earlier Saint. When the Picts fought the Northumberlanders and defeated them some centuries later, they flew the blue flag with the distinctive white cross, the same one so cleverly imprinted several times in my new cycling shirt.


On the way north out of town, we cycled past the Old Course of St Andrews Golf, and then followed the bike path that runs the entire length of the New Course until well clear on the northern end. Part of the National Cycle Route (NCN 1), the bikepath was a great way to head north - it went all the way to the village of Guardbridge, then went wandering off back to the coast to the east. We didn't want any unneccesary miles today, so we jumped back on the B945 that took us through lovely farming countryside to the seaside village of Tayport on the Firth of Tay, with panoramic views of Dundee in the distance, and especially Broughty Castle across the bay.

We followed the coast for several miles before the great Tay Bridge came into view that crossed the mighty Firth. Not having quite the same outstanding quality as the Humber or the Forth bridges, it was nevertheless a magnificent sight, and was 2.5k from bank to bank. This brought us into the port of Dundee, and after an elevator ride to get down from the bridge, we followed the NCN 1 signs that took us north along the ports and docks of Dundee to the Broughty Ferry some miles north where we had lunch sheltered from the wind overlooking the magnificent and fully restored Broughty Castle.

The rain looked terribly threatening, so we lost no time in hitting the road inland and north. From Monifieth we linked with the B962 to Newbigging, where a volvo driver hailed us to stop. He pulled in front down the road, and stood behind his car with his hands raised. I really did think we were in trouble. But he was an Aussie, a very home sick Aussie, and he was a very sad fellow, very sorry to have sold his WA farm to live in Scotland. He was doing it hard, and we felt really very sorry for him. He was just glad to speak to us, but his sadness was etched deeply into his personality. We didn't rush away, but eventually had to move on. The roads began to climb into the hillsides.

We stayed on the road as it gradually worked its way higher and further inland. The farming country was just beautiful, but the sky was threatening, and were expecting a bucketing any time. We eventually stopped for a breather at Carmyllie, and just enjoyed the panorama of the farmland with cattle, sheep and pastures. My front tyre was spongy, but I decided to pump it rather than change it. A spongy tyre always means one thing! I was hoping to get the next 20k to Brechin without having to do a roadside change in the wet. The roads showed all the evidence of rain, but it beat us and stopped before we got there. The roads were awash on the approach to Brechin.

Despite the rain, the road to Brechin from Friockheim leveled somewhat and became more 'hills and dales'. We were able to pick up the speed a little, and even cruise for long periods in the big chain ring, giving great speed and momentum over the rolling hills. It was great fun despite the wet road, the little rivers and pools washing over the roads making it necessary to show great care. I could only get 6-8k before having to stop to pump more air, until the final long descent down onto the bridge that crosses the River Esk at the bottom of this most magnicicent village of Brechin, with its own occupied castle, and Cathedral. The tyre was dead flat now, and it was a humble final mile as we walked up into the village square from the river, hoping that our B&B was close to the bridge. It wasn't, and happened to be right at the top of the village - a very welcome sight in the wet conditions nevertheless. The folk welcomed us with great warmth, and were not at all worried about our state. Bikes and all went through the front door!

We dined that night to celebrate our 32nd wedding anniversary - at the Northern Hotel. We had 'Haggis en Croute'' for entree, followed by pork (Julie) and chicken (K) slithers in fantastic sauces, with separate bowls of untold vegetables - and chips! For dessert - banoffe pie! I gave Julie a special necklace with the Scottish thistle etched into it, which is very hard to describe. It was a lovely evening. The nice thing about B&B's is the TV - but our TV that night was all gloom about the heavy rain expected all over Scotland for the next several days.

It started to rain as we went to bed, and it rained all night long. But it was a great day, for which we are grateful on a daily basis to the Lord for His untold mercies to us.