Thursday, June 6, 1996
From Fraserburgh to Aberdeen
64.3 miles
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In the morning there was a short drizzle of rain but that was gone before I even realized that id had been there. The first real surprise of the day came when I was putting together my tent and the other things. Without having touched it I suddenly heard that the air was blowing out of one of the tires. When I checked it out I saw that the back wheel had gone flat. Well, why not, I got out my repair tools and started to mend the hole. But then I noticed that the hole was on the inner side of the tube and not on the outer side where it should be when you ride through sharp stuff like glass or nails. When I checked the rim I found that the rubber belt which should protect the tube from the spokes didn't cover three of the screws. Seems that the guy in Elgin hadn't worked properly.
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But I had been extremely lucky because the day before I had been riding a maximum speed of over 45 mph. Just imagine what had happened when the tube had been blown away at that speed! Well I mended the tube and then left the camping site at Rosehearty.
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First I cycled into Fraserburgh to have a look at the city and then I headed southwards on the A952. The sun was shining, but the wind was against me. The further I came south the more uninteresting became the landscape. While the day before the road had still been rising and falling along the coast today the country was only flat. That's perhaps not too bad for cycling but it gets boring. So after checking the map I mad the following plans: Cycle to Aberdeen today and then head westwards back into the Highlands.
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Well, that's what I did, but the ride into and through Aberdeen to reach the camping site was horrible. I had to cycle a dual carriageway with a lot of traffic. Later at the camping site I met an American guy from Seattle who was walking through Scotland. I think he carried more weight on his feet than I on my bike. When I saw him I was glad I had my bicycle with me. Another thing I got on that day was a very heavy sunburn on my arms and my legs. So besides aching knees I got aching legs and arms as well. What a wonderful holiday! Now that I'm writing these pages (at the moment it's February 1997) it's really funny when I think how I felt these days. Although sometimes I just didn't feel like going on when I stopped at the end of the day I always got up in the morning, packed my things and went on the road again. There actually never was a single day when I stayed at the place where I spent the night. And that's an important thing I learnt in these days: No matter how bad you feel, somewhere you still have the power to go on.