North Lanarkshire

We got away from St Andrews before 9 am. It was only a bit over an hour to Falkirk with a stop for coffee on the way. First stop was the Falkirk Wheel which we found with only one wrong turn so a good start to the day. We first saw the Falkirk Wheel on a TV programme Great Canal Journeys. The Falkirk Wheel was built where the Forth & Clyde Canal meets the Union Canal. Only problem is the Forth & Clyde Canal is 35 metres higher than the Union Canal. Based on one of Archimedes' principles they decided to build a giant rotating wheel to deliver boats from one canal to the other. Each side of the wheel has a giant tank with 250 tonnes of water in it. The secret according to Archimedes is that a boat will displace it's own weight in water. So if there are 4 boats on one side and and none on the other the weight of each side is still 250 tonnes. The electric motors used to complete a transfer from one canal to the other use the same amount of power as it takes to boil the jug 8 times.
I am pleased to say that Archimedes knew his stuff and we completed a loop successfully with a lap up the Canal through the Roughcastle Tunnel and back. An amazing sight to see in action. After our boat trip we had a bite of lunch and a cuppa in the cafe at the Wheel. The original plan was to stay the night in the carpark and ride our bikes to see the Kelpies which are about 5 kilometres away along the canal towpath. However, given that we were still a bike down and Gaye was reluctant to sit on the handlebars of my bike we had to look at another plan. After a little research we discovered that motorhomes can also stay overnight in the carpark at the Kelpies so off we went.
The Kelpies is a monument celebrating the part that Clydesdale horses have played in Scotland. Particularly working on the canals. The statues are 100 feet tall and weigh 300 tonnes.
We got the compulsory photos of the Kelpies in daylight and at sunset and stood around in the cold waiting for it to get dark but it never did. The sky was so clear and the horizon stayed orange right up until 11 pm when we called it quits and returned to the motorhome. It was down to about 6 degrees by then.
I did get up and look out the window of the motorhome at 3 am and the horizon to the west behind the Kelpies was still orange and the sky to the east was already welcoming in the new day. Czytaj więcej