Hosted by my sister Barbara and her husband Bill , sharing the celebrations with Bill's sister Nancy and her husband Wallace who were married a few weeks before B & B. No pics I'm afraid till Ros sends me one to include.
Off next morning the 21st to Edinburgh for meetings at AS and then to Monaliath Hotel at Laggan to meet up with the Yorkshire contingent - John F, Rod, Simon, John A and Adam. A near perfect day on the Saturday for our hike up Creag Meghaigh and a couple of other Munros on way back. Views magnificent. John's dog Mia an excellent additional companion.
Morrone on Sun morning to collect stuff required for LEJOG and NB and back to Edin for a delightful dinner with Keith and Fiona , meeting Hew and Karyn Dalrymple for first time. Monday was hectic - returned hire car to airport , got bike serviced incl new wheels - splashed out here with the rims worn and and the Adirondac experience of having a tire and rim explode. I was concerned at prospect of biking 1,000 miles with only 50psi of tire pressure.
Left for station early on Tues am fully laden and accompanied by Keith . Train an hour and a half late due to severe flooding , only to get to Newcastle and find train terminated. Offer of free trip back to Edin and tickets valid for following day. Disaster then struck. As I was rushing to push fully laden bike over a steep ramp to get access to platform on other side of station, the heavy back end came down , one of the pedals catching me on the shin and inflicting a considerable gash. Blood flowing freely of course . Applied a tourniquet handkerchief ( always useful - Mary please note ! ) and then bandaged up by a first aider at station. Of course missed that train , but got the next one back to Edin and the long suffering K & F. F later insisted ( and I'm so grateful to her ) on my going to A & E where I spent almost 3 hours waiting to get treated. Well worth the wait though. The gash had exposed the muscle and nearly the tendon. A delightful Danish doctor ( and keen cyclist who understood my predicament ) stitched me up with a belt and braces job ( cosmetics I said not a problem ! ).
Back then in pouring rain to Waverley station the next morning and a 2nd try at getting to London and Penzance. At time of writing , all going well. Not easy though with uncertainty of getting bike on train due to limited capacity and a pretty hairy ride from London Kings X to Paddington. Missed train there by 5 mins , but v helpful ticket office staff managed to secure a bike slot on a train an hour later . Then another exceptionally comfortable 5 hour plus 1st class trip to Penzance and a B & B booked at the Torwood. Leg stiff but with stitching and antibiotics , should be OK. Will change dressing tonight and see how it looks. With benefit of 1st class ticket ( great thing to have senior status ! ) have managed to put leg up for over 10 hours.
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