Falkirk Wheel

Sunday 29th May

A group of the Malawi participants had arranged to meet at the Falkirk Wheel, some travelling from Edinburgh and others from Glasgow. I met up with Pat and Lucia just after 9am as we were all leaving from Glasgow. It was a wet and windy morning and lying in bed would have been an easier option, but the training needs to be done! We took the canal route all the way and the rain eased off which was helpful. There was a charity cycle group travelling from Anniesland to Ratho so we met loads of other cyclists along the route. It’s a great ride with nice scenery and an easy flat route.

There were high winds today and they were blowing along the canal route which was great on the way to Falkirk which we did in just over 2 hours. The Falkirk Wheel has a good visitors centre so we stopped there for a while and got some lunch. Unfortunately we didn’t meet up with the group from Edinburgh as we were too early and they were hit by strong winds and rain, so we decided to head back to Glasgow. This is when the fun began.

It was tough going back towards Glasgow as the winds were very high and at some points you could hardly pedal due to the wind. It was a long 25 miles back and it took about 4 hours to complete. We did stop a couple of times for a well required rest. Today’s cycle certainly was a test of our resolve but it was good for the training aspect. We don’t anticipate any wind in Malawi so thankfully we won’t need to endure that sort of journey again! Well worth it though.