A good walk spoiled

We set off from London for St Andrews Friday after work. As the closest station to the home of golf is Leuchars, we cycled the last 6 or so miles.

We took a rather good cycle lane and were very happy that we both had great lights. It was rather nice weather, mild and no wind, I’m sure that someone have told me that north of Hadrian’s Wall the weather was nasty, cold, windy and very wet.

A quick tour of Peli’s old haunts and some cheesy chips later we were up at the campsite (well, mobile home park) just outside the town.

We got up nice and early, to a beautiful day, got ready and headed into St Andrews to hunt for food. Stopped at one of the cafes that Peli used to frequent when she was stationed here, the famous Macgregors, and had a Scottish breakfast (Woolly) and a bagel and lemon slice (Peli – the recipe had not changed since she was here eight years ago!).

With our bellies full we headed south out of the town, I’m sure that Peli said it was flat here, but that drag on a full stomach into the wind was a bit hard.

As we headed down to Crail we found a sign to ‘Scotland’s Secret Bunker’, I decided to not take a photo or go there, simply it would not be secret anymore if we did. So Scotland count yourself lucky your secret is still secret, mum’s the word. ;)

Crail has a pretty little harbour, stunning little place. Even the Americans thought so too and had flown in a large number of watercolour artists to paint the town.

We continued further down the coast to Pittenweem where we had a walk on costal path past the castle. In Pittenweem we stopped at the Coco Tree for lunch (have a wild guess what we had in that place? yep, delicious hazelnut hot chocolate with a cinnamon stick, and chocolate milk shake).

Not a town you want to be a witch in, they drowned one on and off for two hours. When they got tired of that they threw stones at her until that bored them, whereupon they they put a door on top of her and jumped on that for a bit before they drew a horse and cart over her. Did I mention the stone throwing that they did in the breaks? Poor woman.

For some reason that jogged Peli’s memory and she remembered a place, where legend has it that the druids made human sacrifices. Thanks to a little mobile googling, we located the spot – en route back to St Andrews next to Dunino church.

We then jumped of the busy A roads and onto the small country lanes, where we enjoyed the views and rolling hills. This area looks so much like Denmark.

We found the church of Dunino, behind which the druids had their fun. Today’s teenagers are keeping the legend up for sure as there was plenty of stuff left behind, like dream catchers, Buddhas and other mementos laying around the fire.

This place was a great place to do some wild camping, though you would need a bucket loads of DEET, but for some reason Peli wasn’t that keen on it.

We then rolled back down the hill with the wind to our backs to the campsite for a quick before we headed into town, for a pint before dinner.

We found a pub overseeing the 18th hole of the golf course, where we saw plenty of people finishing spoiling their good walk.

Before dinner we cycled out to East Neuk – a two mile road that has the famous course on one side and the lovely West Sands beach on the other. We had a little look at the kite surfers – they make it look so easy.

Then dinner at a rather nice Indian before we headed back to the campsite via Janetta’s which had 52 kinds of ice cream, a cyclist heaven and nightmare in one. Which flavour to go for today, when will you be back, which one did you try the last time, one or two scoops, arrgghh brain freeze. Anyhow, after a mild heart attack I picked one scoop, with the help of the staff, chocolate orange and one scoop of Irn Bru sorbet. You haven’t lived until you have tasted this ‘orrid thing :)

38 miles of lovely pootling in great weather, thanks Peli for showing me these lovely bits.

The Sunday we we got up to a bit of grey and packed up and headed into town to find some food. Peli was staying put to do some work and I had to catch a train in the afternoon. We sped the day sight seeing, saw bit where Peli used to live and study and the castle and the cathedral as the sun came out.

We cycled to the train station and arrived in good time where we spend some time sitting in the sun. The train arrived, one of the few a day that goes direct to London, but is a tad to long for the platform at Leuchars. I had to nearly go all the way down to the tracks and then lift the bicycle up to the for once friendly and helpful staff on East Coast.

Peli then cycled into the wind and spend the next few days up there working hard. When it came to her turn at Leuchars the staff on the train was not clued up that she was there and it took some time before they got Peli’s bicycle on board.

I picked up Peli at Kings Cross and as we were catching up about the trip and that we need to move up there to the fresher air and less crowed place. We spotted Ariadne standing by the side of the road or rather she spotted us as I didn’t recognise her in her civil clothing.

LINK : click here to see all the photos