King of the Hills...

Wow. Two posts in two days, my, aren't you lot lucky!!

Fife's answer to
Dempsey and Makepeace

As anyone who read my blog from a couple of days ago, or saw my Facebook post, will know, Stage 3.5 of the grand tour of Fife took place last night. Ian and I, joined for this leg by his better half, commenced our walk from the finishing point of the previous jaunt, Limekilns, and wound our way through Rosyth, ending up in North Queensferry.  The tale of the tape for this leg is....

Distance: 5.25 miles

Time: 1hr 41min 3sec

Number of Blisters: 1 (right foot, I must not have got my Compeed plaster in just the right place!)

Physical Condition at the End: Wrecked!

Limkilns Harbour

Despite a nice starting point, this was easily the least scenic section of our walk thus far, taking in, as it did, a large part of Rosyth. It was also the part of the coastal path which seemed to be lacking in coast. From the point we turned away from Limekilns, right until we were through Rosyth, the coast seemed like a distant memory. 

HMS Invincible - with
Ski Jump

Rosyth itself is, and I'm sorry if any Rosythians are reading this, a bit of a dump.  It's very industrial, dominated as it is by Rosyth Dockyard, currently home for the under construction HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first of the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier, which, upon completion, will be the largest ships ever constructed for the Royal Navy. 

These vessels have been in the news recently due to governmental flip-flopping (what a surprise huh!) on the aircraft which will be used on them.  British aircraft carriers have often been associated with STOVL (Short Take Off, Vertical Landing) aircraft, such as the legendary Harrier jump jet (one of my 3 favourite military planes of all time, along with the Spitfire (of course) and the Avro Vulcan), part of having an effective STOVL capability involves having a 'ski jump', a perky little upturn at the end of the runway deck (as seeon on HMS Invincible here). Originally, the government decided to keep with this approach, and buy Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, variant B fighters, which are STOVL and can operate from a ski jump. Along comes a new government and says, "well, actually, no, we are in charge now and we are going to go with F-35 C aircraft, which need CATOBAR (Catapult Assisted Take Off Barrier Arrested Recovery) capabilities, so we are going to have to piss millions of pounds against the wall, redesigning one of the most fundamental aspects of the ship.  Fast forward a year or so, factor in a delay to the development of F-35 C, and the government has now said "ummmm, yeah, don' t really know how to put this, but we may have just made a bit of an arse of ourselves, and we are going to go with what the previous government ordered in the first place. Yeah, and it's going to cosr about an extra £100 Million. Sorry about that". Arseholes.

But anyway, I digress from the walking. I'm guessing that anyone actually reading this must have loved Lord of the Rings, and all the walking which took place there. As I said, we actually spent very little time on the coast, which was disappointing.  This was my least favourite part of the walk so far, and one of the most punishing, although the two aspects aren't actually related. Ian's other half Lesley-Ann is a trained PT Instructor, and take it from me, she doesn't mind cracking the whip. If I'm being honest though, it's what I need. Left to my own devices I'd probably amble along, and take an extra half hour or more to complete the journey. No chance of that happening with LA on the case, and I have to say, I am extremely grateful for that. Both she and Ian are giving me a lot of support, encouragement and the kick up the jacksey when needed. That I am now the lightest (well, least leviathan) I've been for the best part of a decade is a testament to the help they have given me, so I would like to take a small moment to say publicly that I very much appreciate their support, and guidance. 

Big-gut and the Hendersons

It was, to mix a metaphor, a walk of 3 halves. The start, Limekilns was, as I've mentioned, really nice, the middle, Rosyth, was very much the opposite, and the end, which came atop a hill I thought was never going to end, was also, really nice. I am going to break the habits of a lifetime and voluntarily display an image featuring my awful countenance.  North Queensferry, our ending point, is another lovely part of Fife, there are some really nice houses with spectacular views of the bridges and the Forth. You'd need to win the lottery to afford one though!

Whilst this walk was something of a torture, at one point I'd have happily confessed to anything, the abduction of Shergar, that I was Lord Lucan, that it was me on the grassy knoll, the sense of relief, mixed with achievement at it's end makes it all worthwhile. It's that, the support from my great friends, and the fact that I am actually seeing results on the scales which is keeping me at it, to the point where I tortured myself playing squash this morning and afterwards, planned the next phase of the walk.  I already have plans in my head for the next grand tour after the Tour de Fife is over. 

Stay tuned, and one day I might just tell you what those plans are!