A one in 100 day: sun and blue skies! How incredibly lucky for Liz and me, and our bike ride.
We complete a gorgeous 3-hour loop. Along the way… no shortage of potential cafés, an agreeable pit stop for lunch at Killearney, lovely Drymen, and sumptuous views of Ben Lomond and the Trossachs, photogenically snow-dusted.
Of many highlights the Pipe Track was perhaps the most spectacular, so named because… in 1848–9, a cholera outbreak in Glasgow killed over 4,000 people. The city council realised that the supply of drinking water needed to be improved. In 1855, it approved a scheme to dam and raise the level of Loch Katrine, in the Trossachs,and to pipe the water from there to a holding reservoir by Milngavie and then onwards into the city. The route to Milngavie was 41.5 km long, including 14.5 km of aqueducts. A further 21 km was tunnelled, by hand, through hard rock. See https://killearnheritage.org.uk/the-pipetrack.
The track took us along the southern skirts of the Campsie Fells, woodland alternating with pasture. Fabjous. I will struggle to give Liz a comparable experience in the South, if and when we unite for some southern cycling. But let’s see.
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