Scotland 2024

Helmsley to Meikleour – 14 May 2024 (374kms)

Departed Helmsley after a substantial bfast. No arguing with our waitress. Coffee is coffee & its filtered. Aye or Ney.

The ride this morning is variously wonderful through Yorkshire & Northumbria. Characterised by a patchwork of green fields, stone fences, sheep with black faces & The occasional bright fields of canola. The sheep have lambed & their is a lot of “frolicking in the fields”. We drop off the top of hills down into beautiful stone built villages. A lot of houses for sale in some of the smaller villages.

As we approach the border with Scotland, the English Flag seems to be flying more often. Patriotic? We pass the last pub & the last cafe in England. We also pass the Sportsman Club which offers darts & dominoes. Very hardcore.

Stopped at the border for photos. We definitely need to come up with some new photo ideas!

After the border, the landscape improves. We pass thru Jedburgh (large stone buildings, castle & abbey). Unfortunately, the drizzle has started.

The Black Bull at Lauder is our lunch stop. Our first experience of a Scottish accent and the waitress convinces us to try the Haggis Bon Bon! It didn’t taste as expected. Quite benign really and we didn’t finish the plate.

The rain has cleared temporarily as we depart Lauder. We skirt around Edinburgh and head north to Meikleour. The rain sets in and the last couple of hours are not fun. Unfortunately we don’t really get to appreciate the beautiful scenery as water hits our visors.  In particular, as we traversed the Forth Bridge over the Fyfe, we could barely make out the three bridges adjacent.

We arrived at the  Meikleour Arms Hotel about 5. Steve arrives with a ‘No Parking’ sign stuck under the front of the mini.  The story goes that it was airborne in the gale and it attacked him! Steve vaguely recalls a man holding the sign but not confirmed. There was a bit of red hair (Jimmy?) in the radiator. Other than that, there were no bike incidents today.

The Hotel is a lovely old stone building on a large estate. The rain continues so we don’t get a chance to wander.

Drinks at the bar followed by dinner in house. One of Russ’ Harvard mates (works in political circles 🤔), Andrew, arrives for dinner &, under strong interrogation, postulates on the various geo-political circumstances (only after we have all signed Confidentiality Agreements under the Official Secrets Act). He has a lovely black Labrador, Maximo.