“It’s a great day for it.”

The woman walking her the dog in the park smiles as I go by, and I wipe the misty rain from my  glasses to look at her. I’m riding through the park on my way to Leith, the first small leg of today’s journey. It has been drizzly in Edinburgh, and the paths are wet, splashing water and grit over my bike.

I don’t know if this woman is for real. To the east, the direction we are bound today, a black cloud hangs, ominous and low. The forecast in Edinburgh today is for rain. It doesn’t feel like a great day for it at all. But it’s time for us to move on, and Eyemouth, on the eastern coast awaits.

The plan for today is to visit Leith, head to Glenkinchie Distillery for a tour, then cut across to the coast and down to Eyemouth. It has been a late start, with technological issues for route planning, weather issues, an important document to be located, and general sadness from yesterday’s events.

After an underwhelming cycle through Leith, and a huddle under a service station to avoid the rain, our planned day seems just a tad ambitious, so we abandon the distillery idea and set forth to the coast.

Our revised route takes us along the beach, through Prestonpans and up to Longniddry. Along the way we see many locals, out enjoying the best of a Scottish summer day, rugged up in scarves and raincoats, walking their dogs and babies. Someone joked to us yesterday that after the perfect sunny day on Saturday, Edinburgh was back to typical summer weather.

Somewhere along the coast, just before we turn away to take a more direct line to Dunbar, we pedal into a patch of beautiful sunny, blue sky day, and I realise that the lady back in the park must have The Sight.

Our revised route has caused us to stumble onto National Cycling Route 76, which we follow for the remainder of the day. It takes us along an old rail trail to Heddington, where we stop for lunch at The Loft, a lovely cafe and bakery. We then wind our way along mostly back roads toward Dunbar.

As we near Dunbar, Neil calls back to me. He points at what appears to be cottage perched on a cliff, with views across the waters of the North Sea.

“Maybe we should live there.”

I think that maybe it would be a cold place in winter, but it does look lovely.

Closer up, we discover this is no cottage on a cliff: it is a golf course, and a very fine looking one.

After a short break in Dunbar, we tackle the final leg of the day – the last 30 or so kilometres into Eyemouth. The road has been kind today, but we know there is a massive climb to make before cruising into Eyemouth. The route takes us down into the small holiday village of Pease Bay, before tilting rather rudely into a very unpleasant 15% plus grade, which is too much for me at any time, let alone this far into the first day of a trip. I walk, while Neil bravely, stupidly, strongly, rides up.

Back up on the main road, we cycle the seemingly endless last 10km ito Eyemouth. The route meanders a little, but we finally ride into town. Our timing to visit this town is not great, as we are several weeks early for the Eyemouth Herring Queen Festival. We content ourselves with viewing the historical pictures of the last 50 or so queens hoisted on high banners along the streets.

After a very long first day, we make it to Bantry House, our home for the night, at around 8pm. It is too late to eat at the recommended restaurant in town, and we wind up at the local Indian. On these bike trips, we have a tradition of enjoying a beer at the end of the day. Too late for that today; our beer comes in an upstairs restaurant where we are the only patrons. After a curry we take a nightcap at a local bar before bidding all the Herring Queens a good night.

Stats for the day

• Distance: 91.4km
• Moving time: 5:33:24
• Average speed: 16.5km/h
• Climb: 562m
• Average temperature: 15C
• See our route on Strava.