Dundee - St Andrews 1-2 August 2016

At 5 am we were awoken by the sunshine and looked out upon a glorious morning. A sense of excitement overcame us as we loaded the bikes and we agreed it had missing for far too long. A breakfast of porridge made with milk, fortified with fresh blackcurrants from the garden, and sweetened with their own honey fuelled us up for the day. They have two hives and while we were out on Sunday morning getting supplies for the dinner Kirsty checked one hive which she thought had been struggling. We meet some wonderful people to whom we chatted in town. Forfar is a very friendly place and has a

good feel about it even though the local economy is struggling.

Daan decided to have a break from the chores of the farm and rode with us through small country lanes to the edge of Dundee where he bid us farewell. We stopped along the way to gorge on wild raspberries and we also collected a container full for dessert that night.

Dundee https://www.visitscotland.com/destinations-maps/dundee-angus/ was a pleasant city with the main street blocked off to traffic. We found the galleries http://www.mcmanus.co.uk/ and Sally enjoyed a long visit while I played guard dog. I also nipped in for a quick visit. The edge of town near the river so being redeveloped like the viaduct in Auckland and we found a spot protected from the wind to eat lunch. There was a herb garden so Sally helped herself to some mint

leaves for a fresh brew of tea. We crossed the Tay River bridge http://tayroadbridge.co.uk/history-engineering which seemed to go on forever and headed out along the coast towards St Andrews. At Tayport we passed through the Tentsmuir Forest reserve and then found our way to St Andrews about 6 pm at night.

We could smell the fish and chips but we could not find the shop so regrettably we headed off to the campground for the night. It was full and so was the nearby camp as well so we decided to wild camp. We stopped at a likely spot and while contemplating a man on large horse came past and told us we could camp there “Might be a bit noisy though, so close to the road”. We ate our raspberries with fresh blackcurrants from Daan and covered in double cream. You can get away with that when you are cycling.

The next day we packed up in the rain and set off for Inverkeithing where we found a old fashioned off-beat camp ground. We spent the night in an Anderson shelter ( a relic from world war two which started life as a bomb shelter in someone's back yard). http://www.andersonshelters.org.uk/ Once again there were wild raspberries so ate a few more before heading to bed.)

The route took us through Kirkcaldy where there was a massive wind generator parked on the sea shore. The actual body of the generator was the size of a small supermarket. I decided it must be for use out a t sea as it was not anchored down and was not working. We also came across the St Bridget's Kirk http://www.scottishchurches.org.uk/sites/site/id/2227/name/St.+Bridget's+Church+Dalgety+Fife
where the relatives of family members buried there stayed in a little hut overlooking the cemetery to deter grave robbers. Around the next

bay there was a sign saying do not dig here as the sand is contaminated by radioactivity. We cycled on without stopping.

Later I was overwhelmed by the engineering of the Forth rail bridge. https://www.networkrail.co.uk/VirtualArchive/forth-bridge/ An engineering triumph. A train which was crossing it looked like a caterpillar.