These first shots are not just some of my favourites for 2021, but of all time. I enjoyed this session in particular because I arrived at Fannyside Lochs at sunrise & the conditions I found were as I expected. I felt I was able to get my eye in quickly, & of course, Lensy made an appearance.
…and so to the big change mentioned in the title; the arrival of our e-bikes. My wife (Susan) & I, have been car-free for nearly 10 years now & pre-covid would get around on public transport. Once covid came along, we decided public transport was a risk too far, so any travelling was done on foot. All this changed in May when our bikes, Stormy & Kali arrived & we were once again mobile. This photo & the new found sense of freedom that it represents, is our favourite of the year.
On our latest ride down by the Forth & Clyde Canal, we came across a family of Swans feeding over by the far bank.
In ones & twos, they gradually came across to the near bank.
We carried on with our ride; on our return a bit later, they’d come out of the canal for a family preening session. 3 remained down in the reeds & rushes, but 2 came right up onto the path, & seemed unconcerned by the human with the camera 😂
I was able to get within a few feet of them to get these close-ups 😃
Hi, all 😃 If you’ve seen my Kalkhoff E-Bikes — Fan Of… #115 post, you’ll know that my wife & I recently got these bikes & are using them to explore the local area. As I’ll be taking plenty of photographs on the trips, I thought I’d share some of these with you 😀
Another long ride this week, 80km (50 miles). Looking on various maps, we’d seen that there was an old Tower House in Alloa, so we thought we’d head over to the other side of the Forth & go have a look. Our ride was the usual mixture of canal paths, National Cycle Routes & cycle-friendly roads.
As usual, we joined the Forth & Clyde Canal (NCR 754) at Lock 20 & headed east towards the Kelpies. It was a bright, still morning with some good reflections in the canal, plenty of flowers & even a Heron sunning itself in the morning sun.
From the Kelpies, we headed north on NCR 76 towards the Clackmannanshire bridge to cross the Forth. There were some great views from the bridge of the older Kincardine Bridge and the flood plain as a whole.
Once over the bridge, we continued northwest towards Alloa along designated “cycle friendly roads” where the cars are told to slow for oncoming cyclists 😃 We paused briefly to get some shots of Clackmannan up on the hill; Clackmannan Tower is just visible through the trees in the last pic (we visited there on the way back).
Finally we reached Alloa Tower.
It was now time to start heading back, with a quick sidestep to Clackmannan Tower. This sits up on the hilltop with commanding views over the Forth Valley & the Ochil Hills to the North.
On the way back we decided to return via the Kincardine Bridge & headed onto a coastal cycle path (very narrow) which took us under the Clackmannanshire Bridge.
A wrong turn near Kincardine happily led us to a perfect spot for lunch. This was next to a large anchor acting as a memorial for lost sailors & ships from the local area. Again, there were great views of the Forth & the Kincardine Bridge.