Day 40 - Elgin to Edinburgh

With Kev deemed competent enough (just) to get us out of the Elgin Inn car par park despite having difficulty understanding the difference between 3rd and 1st gear we undertook the long 250km journey from Elgin to Edinburgh by way of Aberdeen.

While the scenery was sparse after Aberdeen the great weather and KH's want to drive through ("the bloody things slow you down")rather than around the thousands of roundabouts enroute provided enough entertainment to keep us awake for the entire journey!

A stop off at Rosyth just outside Edinburgh allowed us to catch up with Monika's brother and wife (Chris & Maggie)where we "crashed" on end to end 1 as well as Monika's sister (Rita) who made a welcome and surprise journey up from Honiton to say g'day to self and Kev.

With their help we negotiated busy Edinburgh (now in the midst of it's International festival) finding our accommodation and then setting out to locate a Scottish local who having also cycled Tibet (and as we found out Cairns to Cook town off road)was kind enough to store a couple of bike boxes that were organized by a friend of his.

I can report KH drove magnificently through the centre of Edinburgh only once nearly going around a roundabout the wrong way to get to Toms place although we both had difficulty understanding the traffic light sequence of a red light with a green arrow pointing straight ahead ???

It was ironic in meeting Tom that we'd travelled to Scotland to meet a Scotsman that not only has a full length diddgeredoo but can play it!

Edinburgh

Both Tom and his wife were great hosts and talked about cycling and life jorney's that made us both just a little jealous!

Our Glimpses of Edinburgh revealed a beautiful Victorian (era)like city with many prominent buildings and churches and lots of confusing roads and lanes

We will certainly use tommorrow to explore further while packing our bikes for the European leg and looking forward to the much anticipated Edinburgh Tattoo!