Day 33 - Dulloch Hamlet to Dollarfield

Royal Wedding Day (0730-1530)
Distance: 20 miles (Tot: 579.75)
Weather: mainly sunny
Number of friendly cyclists encountered: dozens

I said yesterday that today would be more interesting (on the basis of it being longer than 15 minutes). As it turned out, it was the least interesting day of the walk so far - and every step of the way was on tarmac.

Our first task of the day was to get through Dunfermline. I always find it a bit tricky navigating through a big town with only a 1:50k map, but it was made trickier for us today by virtue of a massive amount of building having gone on since the date of my map. In spite of all the development, we negotiated most of the town succesfully, until the point where the cycle path we wanted had been obliterated by a new estate. Backtracking a little, we took an alley, which seemed to be going the right way; it brought us out just up the road from where we'd been ten minutes before...

Back on track, another minor detour was taken, intentionally, as we realised that second breakfast time was upon us and that the longer route gave scope for a second breakfast involving bacon/egg baps and cups of tea.

Finally leaving Dunfermline, our way along a disused railway line that is now part of cycle route 764 (and is, unfortunately, both tarmacked and largely uninspiring), which sped us along for 8 miles.

Things did get more interesting as we left the ex-rly line; suddenly before us there were proper rough lumpy bits (of 2000' and more) not too far distant.

We're now camped just a stone's throw from those lumps. By late morning tomorrow we should be the other side of them.

(Maike - there are two questions there: a) how far are we capable of walking in a day; and b) how far would we want to walk in a day. To answer the second question: with my full backpack on, my current mental cut-off point is 25 miles (assuming reasonable terrain and not too much upness).)


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