Cycling day 43: Carnoustie to Freuchie

The route today was again following National Cycle Route 1, but before I set off this morning I did a little surveying of some cycle paths I’d seen in Carnoustie. There’s a great very new looking coastal cycle path. The cycle path used by NCR1 runs beside the golf course where there are warning signs for cyclists to be careful of stray golf balls. The land beside the cycle path then becomes a large military training area and the signs change to warn of the danger of straying into the land or touching anything which may explode. The cycle path crosses a road further on which enabled me to temporarily cross the railway in search of a Sustrans milepost, which I found before coming back to the path to continue my journey beside the military training ground into Monifieth.

In Monifieth NCR1 has a spur into town. I followed this a little way in order to find another Sustrans milepost before returning back to the coastal cycle route I’d been following. After a short chat with a local it sounds like there may be a braid of NCR1 following the A92 as well as the coastal route that I followed.

Onwards into Dundee the route divides again. There’s a route through the docks and one avoiding the docks. The one through the docks needs a photo ID pass. A driving licence or passport are both valid, as well as a pass that has been arranged with the docks by prior arrangement. I’d read about this during my planning, but had totally forgotten to pack any suitable form of ID, so I took the route avoiding the docks. A shame, because out of the two routes it appears it’s the docks route that OSM haven’t got mapped yet.

Out of Dundee I took the cycle path on the Tay Road Bridge. This is accessed by taking a lift up to the centre of the bridge; the cycle path is between the carriageways. Cycling along it seems a bit strange, but I must say that it’s more pleasant than cycling at the edge of the bridge, such as following NCR1 north from Inverness, or NCR4 across the Severn Estuary. Once across the bridge I stopped for a snack to eat before proceeding into Tayport and from there into a lovely forested section of the route.

A few miles after leaving the forest the route passes through Leuchars, where I again took a diversion of seek out a Sustrans milepost and map some local cycle paths before continuing my journey to St. Andrews beside the golf course.

After St. Andrews the route heads inland using a number of quiet roads. After several miles I heard a number of birds of prey and I think I caught sight of an eagle (it certainly had a huge wingspan), but I wasn’t quick enough with my camera before it had taken flight to somewhere I couldn’t see it.

Several miles further on NCR1 meets one of the newly renumbered Sustrans cycle routes, NCR766. I decided to follow this for a few miles to go milepost hunting again. I was rewarded in Markinch, so retraced my tracks from there back to NCR1 and then off to tonight’s accomodation in Freuchie.