Peebles and Pitlochry - Day 8 - 4th September 2023

Wee bit dusty when we arose but some homemade sourdough, homegrown eggs and home-roasted coffee, had us up and alive. We then drove a short distance in Graham’s car before we met up with Anna’s cold water swimming group and walked to the nearby reservoir. Even though this was on public land, and we had to go through private land, Scotland has a “Right to Roam” law where as long as you don’t rock the boat, you can go where you want. Anna, James, and a few of their friends went swimming with their flotation devices - in case of cramps - while Graham, Jen, and I drank coffee on the warm, dry bank… it was a very surreal experience.

Anyway, we bid the Gillies clan goodbye and thanks before we took the big van, Thomas, and his mountain bike to Peebles to meet his mates. The garage in this van is ridiculously large and fits multiple bikes.

We then spent a few hours strolling around the quaint village of Peebles. The town was heaving as a bike race was ending there and there were MAMILS as far as the eye could see. (Middle Aged Men in Lycra!) We then decided to drive to the other quaint village in the midlands called Pitlochry. A quick coffee and cake at a cool nursery cafe called the Secret Herb Garden and we were off north.

We drove over the engineering marvel that is the Forth of Firth Road Bridge and two hours of good highway later we pulled into the free car park of the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. We walked the short distance into town over a beautiful iron suspension bridge and walked the length of the quaint high street.

All of these villages in Scotland are stunning. Ancient grey stone buildings are decorated with the most beautiful flowerpots/gardens, and because it is high summer, there are people out everywhere. Ice cream shops do a roaring trade and there are always people with cold pints of lager in street-fronted beer gardens.

We picked a posh place called “Victoria's” for dinner and we both went with a pasta dish. Jens was chili seafood with linguine and mine was Tuscan sausage, mushroom, chicken breast, mascarpone, and rigatoni…it was epic.

We then walked back to the van, and everything had caught up to us by this stage and we were snoring by about 9 pm.