The reason I chose Pickering was that it is the home of Mathewsons car auctions which I watch on the TV.
Some people claim I’m an idiot but of course this is most untrue. Nevertheless after an unusually long sleep I decided to tick Whitby off my non existent bucket list and it was only when I got there I thought “Oh, what about Mathewsons”. So the latter will have to stay on the list.
People say nice things about Whitby but my reaction was a bit the Sage’s view of Mount Fuji: It was nothing special.
I did think the station was handsome and it was nice to see a bit of sea rather than impromptu lakes in Fields in Leicestershire.
Next stop – really on my bucket list – was Jim Clark museum in the small town of Duns where he grew up (and stayed on the family farm nearby for all his short life).
A modest memorial for my first ever hero. Some (like me) thinks he was the motor racing GOAT but he was a modest man and went the way of most motor racing heroes in the 1960’s, smashed against a tree probably because of a dodgy Lotus. Naturally it was closed until the spring, but I saw the outside and have a photo to prove it
So I’d done Yorks, Durham, Northumberland and Berwickshire. Now on to the Forth Bridge (I had forgotten there was a second road one) and along to Perth.
The scenery was even more stunning (no pics of the N Yorks Moors but they were beautiful indeed)
Now there was evidence of snow on hills and beside the road.
Past Perth it was another story. Getting higher up and freezing weather and then there was the white stuff falling
I wasn't up to taking photos then, but this was the scene. For an hour I saw no other soul except a stag which crossed the road in front of me and gave me a peevish look. It was genuinely hairy: the radio stopped working (no signal I suppose) and no phone signal. Someone had helpfully put up wands next to the road which gave me a good clue of where to go.
Eventually I descended into the only town I’m aware was named after a road in Brentford, Braemar. After that it was just about 15 miles on more mildly coated and flattish roads into Ballater, where I am staying.
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