July 12, 2019
Blair Atholl
The day started with us crossing back into Dunkeld and past the cathedral where we joined National Cycle Route 77. This took us up along the River Tay for a few wonderful kilometers of cycling.
Suddenly we were spat out onto the busy A9. There didn't seem to be any other way to go and we braved it for about five kilometers. There were signs warning motorists to be aware of cyclists but this didn't prevent us from copping abuse in the form of "Use the %$#@% cycle path" even though there wasn't one. Eventually we managed to get onto National Cycle Route 83 which joined up later with National Cycle Route 77 near Logierait.
Then it was on through some hilly sections, never long climbs but short and sharp.
At Pitlochry we crossed an old steel suspension bridge into the very pretty, if not overly busy and touristy, town.
Just outside of Pitlochry we stopped to enjoy lunch and then it was a short, easy ride to Killiecrankie. Killiecrankie is where the first battle in the Jacobite uprising of 1689. which was the first of a series of rebellions to take place with the aim of restoring James VII and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne of Scotland. But the name Killiecrankie also has a long relationship with an area we love very much - the Kalahari.
The Kagalagadi Transfrontier Park, straddling South Africa and Botswana, is a 38,000 square kilometer game reserve in the Kalahari geographic region in southern Africa. It has two ancient river beds that follow the courses of the ephemeral rivers, the Auob and the Nossob which flow only intermittently - apparantly only about once per century After World War 1, Scottish born Rodger "Malkop" Jackson surveyed the region. Jackson, whose Afrikaans nickname of Malkop means "madman", named many of the farms after landmarks in homeland Scotland, most of which are still in use today as boreholes in the Park. Some of those names include Monro, Dalkeith, Montrose, Auchterlonie, Strathmore, Craig Lochart, and of course Killiekrankie.
We are spending the next two nights at the Blair Castle Caravan Park which is part of the Blair Castle estate. An unexpected benefit of us staying here, apart from being able to walk to the castle, is that we get a twenty five percent discount on the substantial entry fee to the castle and gardens.
Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 2,075 km (1,289 miles)
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