Date: 20/06/2022 Old Scone to Ballater

Set off at 8:45 with good weather, it was a straightforward route on the A93 all the way to Ballater.
It was an easy start, going through Blairgowrie and Bridge of Cally with the road then following Shee Water up to the Glenshee Ski Centre.
Today is effectively one long climb up to the top at Glenshee then mostly downhill.
I was tending to lag behind, catching up at  the breaks, I decided to skip the third break and carry on, just going at my own pace.

The sun was out and there was no noticeable wind once we had started the climb.
I seemed to have been cycling on my own for quite a while before Nick & Norman caught up with me. Rodney had kept driving ahead of us and stopping to watch us cycle past.

The road up looked like it goes on forever but as I climbed higher I picked up a following breeze. We were soon separated again and I was on the lowest possible gear for most of the climb, occasionally glancing up at the hills I have walked over.
Eventually the crest came into view and I knew I would manage to stay in the saddle all the way and I met up with the others at the ski center car park at about 12:30.

After a good lunch break it was a long descent down the other side to Braemar, then what seemed like a fast ride to Ballater arriving at 3:00 pm.

64 miles with 3700 ft of climbing in 4 hrs 30 mins, avg 14.3 mph.

Nick & I were staying in the Ballater Hostel tonight, luxury 5 star accommodation, Rodney & Janice were booked into a hotel while Norman & Lizzie, in the camper, were in the car park.
We had visitors tonight, Mike & Christine happened to be in Stonehaven for a few days and had been walking around Ballater for the day so they met up with us for a couple of hours.