Do you know the way to Pit-loc-hry? du du dur du, dur du du du.....

Firstly thank you to whoever sorted out the return of the bright burning ball of yellow in the sky today, much appreciated. 

We left Dunfermline Travelodge at just gone 9:00 and headed straight uphill. After just a mile and a half we stopped to get some breakfast (which took an age!) in Kingseat. I also went into the Post Office which resembled something from a thirties drama and bought the only bottle of water they had!

On through Kelty, alongside Loch Leven and into Kinross.We shadowed the A9 using quiet b-roads and just after Moncreiffe Hill I set about getting a new max mph for this trip - I recorded 38.8 mph but couldn't get any quicker because of the nasty headwind we had met, really for the first time on our journey. The headwind turned today into a much harder ride than it should have been and at times I was in easy gears on the flat and downhill still going slowly!

Following the cycle path towards Perth I suddenly saw some glass in front of me, SMASH, too late. I ran straight over the sharp edge of a large broken bottle. My tyres are Fantastic. No Punct*re - thank you Punct*re Fairy - I now definately believe. We stopped for lunch in the beautiful city of Perth and eventualy dragged ourselves away an hour later! 

The wind continued to blow against us as we followed a scenic path away from Perth before turning north again through Bankfoot and Waterloo. We followed the old A9 - which has just been left to go wild for several miles until it disappeared just 5 miles from Pitlochry. We did several loops of Ballinluig - getting increasingly frustrated at our efforts to find the path (this was the section I had struggled to map and now I could see why) eventually we climbed - never a good thing when your tired and fed up, through Dalcapon before dropping back down to join the mysterious disappearing path and the final couple of miles through Pitlochry. The Craigatin House Hotel came as a very welcome sight after a tougher than expected day.

Martin

Bikes parked up in front of the church and opposite the lunch stop.

Just before we found the broken glass................

A welcome return ....

Errr yes just one more little lump to go over.......