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canoeing, kayaking and other adventures

canoeing and kayaking adventures born in the Southeastern U.S. and now centered in Scotland...

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Venturing Outside Edinburgh with Rachel - 17/9/2007 - 18/9/2007

Monday was a bank holiday and Tuesday seemed a good day to take off, so I showed Rachel some interesting parts of Scotland outside of Edinburgh.

On Monday, we cycled out to Cramond. We made the first pitstop at the Shetland ponies just beside the River Almond. The babies were more shy this time around, though we did get to pet a few of them. One bit me when he got jealous of one of the other puppies. At the pony stop, the rain started spitting at us. We cycled along the River Almond, took a detour to not carry up the steps and ended at the Firth of Forth coast. The tide was in our favour so we cycled/walked to Cramond Island for a look around. Then we ventured to the Cramond Inn for lunch inside in the warm and dry. We cycled back to Brian's through a short urban stretch and then the Water of Leith, only getting lost once along the way, again attempting to avoid some stairs.

Tuesday morning, after much pouring over random forecast generators, we headed north toward Perthshire. The RFGs suggested it was most interesting place likely to stay dry. A stop at the visitor centre when the A9 traffic started stacking up yielded a useful book of nice walks in Scotland. We chose one of the Beatrix Potter walks in Birnam just across the river from Dunkeld.

The Birnam Hill summit was supposed to offer nice views of Fife, Angus and Perthshire. We got lost along the path mainly because we were attempting to do it backwards. Once on the right course, the steepness led to winded Rachel and eventually winded me. I'm more used to ups and downs. TN can be hilly, but not Scotland hilly. Some midges welcomed her as well.

We reached the first rocky overlook and could see down to Birnam and Dunkeld. An older guy with two cute puppies wasn't far behind us. One of the dogs, a Bearded Collie, seemed more muppet than dog. After some photos, including creative placement of cameras on rock, we followed the trail around to reach the true summit and its sweeping views around the countryside. A steep and then long and windy downhill brought us back down to the start, but not before Rachel found more blackberries and a few red raspberries for me.

We had a late lunch or early supper at the Atholl Arms Hotel in Dunkeld. I thanked Brian for his (well) extended family's hospitality -- the hotel menu had **choices** for me, not just chips and juice. We got back to Edinburgh about dark with a couple of good sized storms chasing us home. Our day out was well-timed!

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