Today was a tough day, not because of the terrain (the BIG climb of the trip comes tomorrow) but because it was another day in the rain, only this time it was cold too. So cold, in fact, that Andy even put his baselayer and gloves on… something that only a few days ago he was questioning bringing. We had been lucky to date that as wet as we got, we weren't cold. Today, after a particularly deep puddle/flooded road, my feet were numb. For the first time, I questioned what were we actually doing here?! But then the sun came out, I stuffed myself with sugar, and everything seemed bright again.

We left Innerleithen late as neither of us were that enthusiastic about going out in the rain, and ventured further up the Best Road in Britain. It didn't disappoint, with more gentle climbs, nice descents and sheep. Sadly after that, it was a pretty uneventful day.

We got to the outskirts of Edinburgh and tried to circle the inner ring-road for what felt like forever, never quite sure if we were going round in circles. We knew in advance that we had to follow cycle signs to the Forth Bridge, but the cycle signs were not that reliable and soon decided to follow our mapped route instead. We also knew that the cycle path across the bridge starts from the Services, but it turns out that there are two Forth Bridge Services. Still, we found our way and finally started crossing the Firth of Forth. Ahead of us we could see two familiar figures and knew it was our End to End friends from yesterday. We caught up with them at the middle and all got off our bikes to feel the bridge shake. I like crossing these big bridges. Andy liked it a lot less and very quickly got back on his bike and cycled to solid ground. From the bridge, you get a great view of the Forth Rail Bridge, which apparently isn't permanently painted anymore as they have started using longer lasting paint.

After the bridge came a series of run down towns with bumpy roads that made our 10 days in the saddle bottoms hurt. We emerged into the countryside and saw a castle perched at the top of the hill which was the home of the Murray family. We can't remember the name of it, so have called it Andy Murray castle. We also saw the biggest, fattest cow/bull (it was sitting down so couldn't check vital anatomy) known to man.

Perth itself is a pretty little city with a centre containing all the usual shops, and some dubious characters about. There was someone jet skiing on the river Tay, which you don't see every day. We had dinner in a lovely restaurant and to keep it Scottish, had haggis, steak and cootie dumplings, (which is basically Christmas pudding).

Tomorrow we're going to see the Queen and are also going to attempt climbing up the highest A road in the country. Best make sure we get to the top before the café shuts.

More heavy rain forecast. Rubbish.

Distance: 125km

Breakfast score: 7/10