As I thought the roads were soaking wet this morning and the supposed dry weather hadn't materialised! Another look at the forecast on many different apps and I decided to wait until later in the morning and take a chance with heavy rain showers expected, it was a case of weather avoidance once again! I waited until just before midday and the roads had all dried up and the sky looked promising by now! I decided to head southeast and my turnaround point was going to be Biggar, after a full week of heavy rain I didn't want to chance the back roads due to flooding! I reached Carstairs village with the weather still playing ball and as you can see I had nice roads to enjoy! I had the strong breeze at my back for the first 33 miles and I was flying along and having a ball!
I reached the main A73 road which leads to Biggar, this road can be very busy with trucks and cars but it was my lucky day as the road wasn't that busy! With more amazing roads and the strong breeze pushing me along I was in cycling heaven and absolutely loving it! The Tinto and Pentland hills can be seen in the distance, its such a beautiful part of the country!
When I was a youngster (long time ago
) my dad had his own haulage business, just 2 trucks but he was also working his main job which was a fleet engineer! Many times me and my siblings would join him and this road was one he used a lot as there were many sand and gravel quarries in the area! As soon as we arrived at the quarry we headed straight for the sand dunes and had an absolute blast messing about in the sand! This was one of the old quarries we used to visit at Thankerton, it looks very different these days but the main building still exists! I don't think there is any sand these days though so I'm not sure what they are mining now!
The view of the Pentalnd hills just past the quarry!
Another cyclist enjoying the awesome roads and the view!
I passed over the River Clyde just before reaching Biggar and was pleased to see the water levels have risen quite a bit, they had really fallen dangerously low in recent months! There used to be a railway bridge here dating back to 1858, exactly 100 years before I was born!
I passed through Biggar and turned north towards Carnwath, I now had a strong crosswind to deal with but there is a lot of tree cover so it wasn't that bad! A little more open here but with views like these I'm very glad!
I continued north with the weather still looking lovely and the nice views kept coming! The Tinto hills in the distance which I cycled past earlier!
I was now almost at Carnwath and the clouds had started rolling in, I could see big squalls everywhere! Now I was on exposed roads and the rain arrived, as soon as it started the wind really picked up! I had the option of jumping on to the back roads with a lot of tree cover but I was worried about flooding so I stuck it out and thankfully the strong wind blew the clouds away! I just turned the assist up and soldiered on and the clouds were forming all around, I was sure I was going to get really soaked! Eventually I reached the road to Salsburgh and the sky had cleared here so I grabbed a photo of the squalls I had passed through from the top of the hill!
Thankfully I got home dry and very happy with my days cycling, it was so good to get out again!
stuffing (or was it the never empty wine glasses) - the first picture Charl took of me while I had to summit the hiking trail while she happily stayed back and out of trouble on the main trail. The 2nd picture is from that bald knoll capturing the colors of the Cypress Hills that join the prairie abruptly. In the far west distance the Rocky mountains were pretty hazy from some still lingering forest fires.
