45.4km: 730m assent: 461m highest point: 4hrs 40 ride time
Punctures 0: Stacks 0
Riding out from Tomintoul along side the river Avon provided some great wildlife. The use of human binoculars helped massively!
There was another lamb near miss, how this one didn't get minced by the spokes I do not know. It came down a bank, full speed right in between us - we were riding very close together too.
Another very varied section of riding up this remote valley. The top was celebrated by a wee dram out of the lid, which the addition of 1-ish drops of water from the camelbak!
We found civilisation again, in the full on form of tourists at Balmoral Castle, We made a hasty pedal through, until the team photo opportunity arose on Balmoral golf course.
A tea break and bike shop stop at Ballater to get some spray lube onto a squeaky peddle resulted in a new helmet for Helen.
From here it was a ride down a disused railway to Aboyne where we had arranged to couch surf for the night. Our host Will, was hugely into his fly fishing and turns out knows the area and the company Matt works for in New Zealand. We found the couch surfing to be a really fantastic way to meet people with a similar outlook to life and to get a better insight to an area - more so than if you were at a hostel. We learnt about a blackening - how before a wedding the bride and groom would be kidnapped and egged, tied up, have treacle thrown at them etc. Will provided us with a shower, bedding and even cooked the food we bought too - a fantastic host.
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