30milers to Jupiter Artland

A dozen people decided they didn't have anything better to do this fine sunny day (so different to June's weather!) and came along on the 30 mile ride to Jupiter Artland, near Ratho.

We started off heading out of town along a novel route - not involving the canal - to Harrison Park and Shandon, then wiggled our way through Stenhouse to the cycle path along the new tram route (lots of rusting rails...), into Edinburgh Park briefly and under the bypass then out to Ratho and beyond along the canal. We got as far as an aqueduct then carried our bike down some steps and then cycled up the first hill of the day, through some quiet country roads and arrived at Jupiter Artland around 12 - superspeed!

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We enjoyed an excellent lunch in the sun, and some people took a few minutes to wander around the "public" areas (i.e. the bits by the road you don't pay to see!) and enjoy the sculptures.
After lunch we headed back to town, along route 75 for a fair distance (Long Dalmahoy Road) - we had to climb hill 2 to get there though, through Heriot Watt and then along Donkey Lane and across the West Coast main line (not something I'd want to do with a much bigger group - although we had it fairly swift and efficient, people did get bunched up on the "railway" side a couple of times and we had to slow the flow). Then up the third (and trickiest) hill of the day - it was quite a rough surface and we were tired (well I was anyway)! and then it was downhill all the way by the Water of Leith and the canal.
We were back in the centre around 3pm - just goes to show that smaller groups move faster - we've been considerably later than that on a 20miler ride.