Yesterday started with a really nice morning and I had a pilot friend flying into Edinburgh Airport from Boston in a Jetblue Airbus A321! It was only his second time landing at Edinburgh and he was raving about his first time earlier this month, its one of the most beautiful approaches there is! So it was a ride to the airport to start the day, only 7C when I set off so I had to layer up! The ride to the airport is one of the easier rides thanks to the lack of hills, I had only climbed just over 800ft by the time I arrived! I passed Hillend Loch soon after leaving home and stopped for a photo, with light winds it was flat calm for a change!
As I was riding along the approach road to the airport I could hear a plane spooling up and decided to stop to see if I could catch it on the way out, it was a Delta 767!
The wild flowers and weeds are really taking over this year...thankfully the high banking gives you a decent view across the airport! It started to get really warm in the sun and I wasn't complaining!
You get a really nice view of the Pentland Hills to the south at the airport!
Easyjet smoking the landing!
I love the United 757's!
Old livery and new livery together!
My pilot friend after his butter landing, taxiing to the gate! I was videoing the landing so no photos of it but you can watch the video here!
https://streamable.com/bfvg0a He pulled a nice wheelie!
I had a fun 90 minutes or so at the airport before setting off for home, let the climbing begin!
I headed west through Winchburgh and Threemiletown where I turned south to take the back road towards Beecraigs Country Park, stopping for photos along the way!
The Ochil Hills were looking amazing in the background, the camera doesn't do this scene justice!
The bridges over the Forth!
I also had these stunning views of the Pentlands!
I timed it nicely to catch the sun shining on the fields!
The road to the country park!
I decided to turn north before the park and take the big dipper road at Kingscavil, I was gutted to find the road strewn with dirt so had to slow right down as there were clumps of dirt on the steep part...thanks farmers!
The River Forth and the Ochils from the top of the hill!
The big dipper from the other side!
The village of Bridgend in the background!
At the end of the road I turned west towards Linlithgow and had this stunning view of the Ochils across the fields!
I stopped in town for lunch and continued west towards Whitecross before turning NW through Maddiston and Brightons and up the big climb into Shieldhill, the clouds were getting a bit darker now and it threatened to rain!
The Ochils and mountain range to the north from Shieldhill!
Thankfully the rain held off so I enjoyed the big fast descent down into Glen Village at 42mph! From there I took the back road to Bonnybridge and stopped at the canal path, while I was taking this photo a moron on a dirt bike shot along the path like a bat out of hell...
I then took my usual back roads home, such great roads they are too!
I did get a little rain but it wasn't even enough to wet the roads and I had such a great day! More than 3000ft of climbing on the way back from the airport!
It looks like I will finally have a nice day on Sunday to ride up to the motorcycle racing at Knockhill, I just hope the forecast is right...
