The route from Buckie to Cullen takes a high coastal path, this path I guess at one time would have been a railway line in places, there was lots more millennium posts along this section than I have seen anywhere else, to the extent that I was considering? stopping myself from stopping to photo the bike at each one as had become my habit, I was never going to see them all or photograph them all anyway, this has never been an agenda for me, they do all have a brass rubbing part that I guess, there will have been someone out there that has brass rubbed them all? I am determined I won’t even research this or start doing one or two, as it potentially would end up yet another wee project I would start and not complete!
Looking down on the harbour area of Portnockie I was delighted to spot a wee lido, these coastal sea filling lidos are rare nowadays, the ones that are left around the country are generally in a poor state, this one wasn’t it was like new sparkling bright blue, the tide was out so there was no water in it making it easy for me to see how well maintained it was, I hope it gets good use and our country makes a return to these lidos one day, had I known about this place or what sort of day this was and cycled just a little further the previous evening I could have camped up there and had a morning swim down there when the tide was in, sadly on this occasion I just had to cycle past, we can’t do everything
Cullen skink was at one time my favourite soup, on a previous occasion I had stopped off in the town of Cullen specifically to get a bowl of this creamy smoked fish soup, purely done so I could later boast proudly to say I have had Cullen skink in Cullen, being dairy free now there will never again be a bowl of Cullen skink for me! This thought made me briefly sad, it was very brief sadness the sun was out the tide was out, this was showing the great big long beach at its most beautiful, there’s some small geo stacks you could climb on what a wonderful place, I was grateful to be privileged to have the time and ability to cycle through, no need for dead fish and bovine lactation to make this chappy happy on this occasion
The cycle route leaves the coast here for a short while, heading inland on back roads past what seemed to me to be a picture-perfect little castle at Fordyce, weaving down through picturesque Portsoy, back on the coastline at a place called Whitehills I stopped for soup in a café, the route then arrives at Banff, every time I hear or see this town name, it makes me think of Banff Canada where the world’s biggest outdoor film festival takes place, as often as I can I go to Kendal’s outdoor film festival which bills itself as the biggest? One day I promised to myself I will make it to the Canadian one then I can judge for myself which is the biggest,
There was a huge decision to be made by me about the route and its arrival at Banff? The Sustrans route map and the NCN1 road signage have route one turn in land here, to go around thirty kilometre’s of back roads to the town of Maud, long before embarking on this journey I had chatted about my route to some work colleagues (now ex work colleague’s!) Colin and Bruce reckoned it would be a better route to head up along the coast to then turn south at Fraserburgh, that decision wasn’t fully made until I was at Banff, I had cycled past the quaint marina then alongside the beach path to cross a bridge which marked the boundary of Banff and McDuff. This busy junction was turn left for the coast route and right for the road? I chose the coast what swung the decision was the opportunity that, if going the coast I could visit the village of Pennan
I had chosen the longer harder route, colin had told me the coast route was hilly he was not wrong! I spoke briefly with a cyclist who was out to do this road purely to get some hills in for training purposes, as he and some of his cycling club friends were taking part in a alpine cycling event, some of these hills had warning signs the red triangle with a decline of 17% is one that I remember, declines at that angle get the adrenaline pumping with the speed you get to, on back coastal roads like this though it nearly always meant downhill to cross a river with a bridge at a bend, which would inevitably be too sharp a corner to take at speed, oh how I grudge braking to take a sharp bend to then have a hard shove back up a steep rise.
Can any of us say what our favourite film is? I know that I couldn’t I need to say that this film or that movie is in my top ten, the film local hero is in my top ten Scottish films or more accurately films about Scotland, Pennan was the location for much of the filming for local hero, the red telephone box in that village plays a major role in that great film, it was so ahead of its time I think they should do a remake but if they did it would no longer feature a red telephone box, the choice to take this route was specifically to visit this feature films location and get a photo of myself at the telephone box for nostalgic purposes,
You need to leave the main road to then cycle down a very steep hill with a sharp bend at the bottom to enter the harbour town of Pennan, its as scenic as I remembered it to be from the film, the Iconic telephone box has been moved slightly! in the film it was down by the harbour now its across from the hotel, I would have liked to have went into the hotel I was hoping they had McEwan’s export on draught like in the iconic film, sadly they had no license to sell alcohol on reflection I regret not asking to see inside, regretfully I just said no to the offered tea or coffee, it was a faff to set up my wee tripod to get a pic of myself on that phone, it would have been good to have called someone from the actual pay phone, it looked like it would still work but I had no coins, I considered phoning some friends to tell them where I was calling them from on my mobile but there was zero signal!
I then chatted to a photographer who lives in the village, she had some of her work out on display I bought a card from her with the phone booth lit up at night below some noctilucent clouds, her photos are good, she told me she was one of only twelve people living in the village now, we had a good chat then she took a couple of photos for me on my phone camera, we swapped Instagram address before I set off
I never even attempted to try and cycle the fully laden daunder back up to the road, shoving the bike up my body at a forty five degree angle to the road at times, I stopped twice for a breather and to wipe the sweat off the baldy heid, this makes it sound like a chore but it was truly worth every bit of that effort, mostly at this stage due to the fact I had previously bought and down loaded the tremendous theme tune for local hero, its called going home by mark knopfler of dire straits fame, I listened to it three times smiling each time as I was going home also, it had by then been over five months since I was last home, this was a pleasant thought,
according to Fiona the photographer there is a stage show version of the film now, I shall have to research that when I get home! Its beautiful music but again I couldn’t say if it’s my favourite Scottish film theme music that title would probably go to Restless natives, that films theme tunes were all tunes by scots rock legend’s big country, I had their best of album also purchased and downloaded for the journey, more on that later!
Once I arrived in Fraserburgh I went straight out to the lighthouse this is where the Scottish lighthouse museum is, it was closed as I expected it would be, I knew nothing about the broch (as the locals call it) except the town has a beach a harbour and a lighthouse, I had two agendas to be there? firstly it’s a reasonably big town I knew I could find a bar that hopefully one or two of my old workmates who lived there could meet me for a pint, secondly there was a disused railway line starting right in town which I could follow the next day on my journey definitely south this time
There is a large Witherspoons in the town centre so after my previous happy experience I thought I would see if they had rooms? They did, you have to book yourself in on line the barman explained, they were fully booked! he said try cheers bar and inn along the road? They had a good beer garden where I could secure the daunder and a room for the night I settled myself down for a few beers after lugging all my gear up three flight of stairs to my room, there would be no beer buddies that night though, the only ex colleague in town that I had a number for was Stevie and he was on Shetland
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