Edinburgh to Kilsyth

Saturday October 2, 2012
This is a great hostel, the Caledonian Backpackers. I took advantage of the free breakfast again and ate my fill (which is a lot). Breakfast goes until 12 noon, and check out isn't until 12 noon.
I missed the AFL grand final because I thought it was tonight not last night. Getting confused with the time zone difference again, it was on at 5:30 am in the UK. Just as well I didn't get up (or stay up) for it, nobody wants to see Collingwood win, do they? I was so disappointed they beat St Kilda, half my family barracks for St Kilda (the other half, including myself, barracks for Essendon).
Before checking out, I rode to the post office to post some un-needed stuff home, stuff that I'd been carrying around for the last month and which I'd come to realise I didn't really need. I packed into two boxes: two pairs of shoes, two pairs of bib knicks, two pairs of knicks (I don't seem to need knicks with the brooks saddle), un-needed camera charger pieces, receipts, a jersey, Australian coins that were in my wallet, occi straps and a tea towel. All up it cost £32 for just under 4 kg (over this weight the cost would have gone up so I had to keep my sunscreen, a jersey and an acrylic jumper). I also found my missing nail clippers; I'd left them in a shoe in my rush to pack for the airport. Good timing, because my nails really needed a trim! Especially my toe nails.
Why am I always running behind schedule? Always! Even with the late check-out time, I just got back to the hostel at mid-day, so I had to get my card extended so I could get into the bedroom and pack up all my stuff. Then I did a bit of planning, looked at the maps and decided where I was going to go. Then serviced the bike quickly (adjusted rear brake pads and oiled chain), and finally headed off at 3 pm.

The Forth Road Bridge, in front of the historic Forth Bridge which carries the railway. Both bridges are over 2.5 km in length.

I followed route 754 which ran alongside the Union Canal and the Forth and Clyde canal, which is a canal that crosses Scotland, providing a route for sea-going vessels between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. The path which is 106 km in length was off-road (on gravel) but completely flat the whole way, so I could just cruise along without needing to exert much effort, quite pleasant really...until it started raining and got dark.

Riding alongside the Union Canal on the Forth to Firth Canal Pathway, near Winchburgh.

Riding alongside the Union Canal on the Forth to Firth Canal Pathway.

Scottish countryside with some power stations, looking towards Grangemouth.

I wanted to get to Tarbet on Loch Lomond to see some of that scenic area of Scotland before heading south through Glasgow, but of course I ran out if time.
Just before dark I stopped at a supermarket and went to lock up my bike, which was when I realised I'd left my cable lock at the hostel :( I couldn't ride all the way back to Edinburgh to get it, so I rode to the nearest bike shop 3 km away in a town called Grangemouth, but of course being 6 o'clock on a Saturday night it was closed. I rode back to the canal path through Falkirk and stumbled upon the famous Falkirk Wheel.

The Falkirk Wheel, which is a rotating boat lift built in 2002, and connects the  Union Canal with the Forth and Clyde Canal.

Roy from Colwyn Bay had told me about this but I didn't know where exactly in Scotland it was.
What it does is lift boats up from the lower canal to the higher canal, or boats from the higher canal to the lower canal. It's the only one of it's kind in the world. It would have been good to see it in action.
I stopped in Bonnybridge and bought fish and chips for tea, continued on until I found a patch of grass beside the canal, near Kilsyth to set up the tent. Yep back in the good old tent again, after a week in hostels. It smelled a bit mouldy actually, because it would have been wet when I packed it up last time. It always seems to be wet when I pack it up.
Before sleeping I tried to do some more trip planning, and looked online on my iPhone to see what the go was with the ferries I wanted to catch. It turned out the ferry from Troon, which is South of Glasgow where I wanted to catch it from, only runs between March 10 and October 4 - that's two days away! Luckily I wanted to catch the ferry the next night though anyway, which would be October 3, but wasn't sure if I'd make it there in time.
The ferry from Rosslare in Ireland to Cherbourg in France is a bit longer and more expensive than I thought: €90 and 19 hours. I don't have much choice though; catching the plane is not much of an option with the bike.

Ride stats
Distance: 69.62 km
Average: 17.2 km/h
Maximum: 40.5 km/h
Time: 4:02:33