I Walk To Dundee (in preparation) for the No Surrender Walk ..er, wearing fashion shoes.

Since I'm planning to walk the coastal path in its entirety * I thought I'd go scope out Tentsmuir having never done that part of the walk. I also thought I would casually do some shopping when I got to Dundee. I started early after dropping Jakers at his nursery. I didn't buy any food, instead opting for a litre of ersatz red bull. I wasn't hungry at all thanks to all the sugar but I had a mahoosive headache by the time I reached Tayport. I've decided I need a proper hydration pack as I never have enough water on these trips. First of all I totally forgot that the walk starts out by the Old Course Hotel but to be fair they were setting up for the Open so I doubt anything but the cycle path was an option. After Guardbridge I found the CP was well sign-posted out to Leuchars and to the start of the Tentsmuir section. Once you leave all the Air Base weirdness the walk takes on a remote kind of beauty. Actually if you're not fond of foresty then this is the best bit of the walk! I didnae take many photos as this was a practice run & besides my camera battery was pretty dead. I did see a sign( by the path out of Leuchars) saying "Warning private land - danger of falling trees".I love those idiotic signs. I saw a red squirrel, deer, swans & baby swans (goslings?) and some sort of large bird of prey which startled me by flying out of a tree, and a submarine. More of that later.
Tentsmuir is lovely (er, I suppose) but it might be nicer to walk round by the beach and have a view and see all the pill boxes and anti-tank stuff. I just found it a bit dull walking along the road (through Tentsmuir) to the picnic bit, dodging cars and bikes. I noticed later that there's a cycle path that cuts right through to Lundin Bridge which would have saved an hour or so but I wanted to do the CP properly or at least see how long it would take. There are honestly bits that you would want to hitch a ride. They are that dull. Is that cheating? I have to admit that when I saw how far off Tayport looked from Tentsmuir Point, I could have wept. I nearly threw in the towel but the massive amounts of sugar and caffeine gave me some ill-judged determination.
into Dundee.It didn't take that long to get to Tayport and I found the path well sign-posted to the harbour and then out towards the road bridge. I found myself on another cycle path. Not sure if that's right or not. I saw a couple of nice lighthouses (or light-hice?) and wondered if I was maybe on the less scenic track. (You can take a lower path & rejoin the cycle path) I bought some expensive juice at the carpark, sat down for a bit and then psyched myself up for the walk over the road bridge. This was fine until half way over when I started to feel decidedly sore & a bit lame. I slowed right down for the last quarter and I had to limp out the door and down the stairs & into Dundee. I was 2 to 3 hours behind any imagined schedule and limping like a lame old lame-ass thing.
I took some photos by the bridge with my phone & having just looked at them I noticed a submarine-type-apparition in one of the pics. Weird man! The soviets were following me(?)
Anyway, I could only face walking as far as the junk shop up from the bus station. They had a lovely Burns bass in the window but the shop was shut sadly - they often are after 4pm. Some shopping trip!
I went to the pub next door & they had 'Golden Brown' playing and a bloke was talking about "wreck-the-hoose-juice" which cheered me up. I went to HMV and bought the REd Riding
Trilogy which I had been hankering after for a while. Oh, and I noticed that if you limp really badly - try it across busy roads - you get some quite curious and sympathetic sort of looks/comments...mostly from the opposite sex, which is good. Then I got the bus home.
Ok - so none of this bodes well for my planned charity walk which is 82 miles long but I could always get pushed round in a wheelbarrow by Vicster. She's built like an ox!

Vicster Quote - "You walked 18 miles, from St Andrews to Dundee, through a forest....in fashion shoes?"


* In memory of my friend Tommy - he had the "No Surrender" mentality

"Everybody likes.....The Eagles"

Ok so maybe I need to change the old '100 Day' blog title but it's a New Era for ole Beesly too. Maybe a good time to revive the blog. I just saw a football match. An important one. A memorial for my friend Tommy. It was good, I mean they lost badly but it was still good and they fought well. I could get back into this, I think, the old football mularkey. Maybe supporting your local team ain't such a bad idea. They're called The Cupar Eagles by the way. Terrible link but here goes - I'll be playing for the Howie Fife Experience at a gig (of sorts) in the Golf Tavern , Cupar tomorrow night. Can't remember the last time I played in Cupar....oh wait, I can, but that was in The Corn Exchange. I can't remember the last time I played in a pub. I'm excited. Been learning to sing and play bass at the same time - Just singing on its own is hard enough. Oh, & I get to play a bit of guitar here and there but just the simple stuff. I'm really really enjoying it. Maybe if you live in the area you might like to come along. It'll be fun. We play country/Americana/Misericana...all covers. We might play The Eagles. After all, everybody likes the Eagles... Don't they?