Super tandem along silvery Tay for luscious fresh farm strawberries at Port Allen and visit to new Pickled Peacock cafe at Cairn o’Mhor Fruit Winery

This “old lady” tandem and the silvery Tay – sensational views on NCN Rt 77.

This blog is the story of my dynamic crew having lots of laughs and fun on a super Sunday #tandem along the banks of the silvery Tay on The National Cycle Network Rt 77 for luscious fresh farm strawberries from Mains of Errol Fruit Shack at Port Allen and a visit to the new The Pickled Peacock café at Cairn o’Mohr Real Fruit Wines.

Another epic day out started with an early alarm call and after breakfast the “old git” and “old gal” headed to Dundee and parked Matilda Transport at the Tay Road Bridge Kiosk car park over the water from the city.

You can check out the details of our tandem route by clicking on the Strava map below.

After crossing the Tay, Team Matilda tandemed out of the city on the waterside Sustrans Scotland NCN 77 path – part of the The Green Circular cycle path which circumnavigates Dundee. After passing the airport Rt 77 passes thru Invergowrie where the River Tay opens up in front of you showing its true width and majesty. More of that on the way back!

With just a little breeze it was great conditions for tandeming along the quiet and relatively flat rural roads. Great to see so many other cyclists out – tho we failed to spot any other tandems!

We pedalled thru Errol Village before turning down a signposted track to our picnic destination of Port Allen. The “old gal” spotted the Mains of Errol Fruit Shack – an honesty mini hut shop selling freshly harvested strawberries.

It truly was from farm to fork in zero food miles – and as a result the strawberries were just lusciously sensationally fresh and flavorsome … providing the perfect accompaniment for one of my dynamic crew’s signature prosecco picnics in a true natural alfresco habitat!

The “lesser spotted” rose prosecco hiding in its “natural” habitat – complete with fresh strawberries.

Indeed the “old git” immediately added one of the smaller strawberries into the prosecco, so not only was it farm to fork, but farm to glass! “Extremely decadent – but very yummy” was the “old gal’s” verdict from the taste test! But only after exhaustive repeat testing just to make sure!

The “old gal’s” taste test of the ultra fresh strawberries from Mains of Errol Fruit Shack …

… the luscious zero food miles strawberries mixed perfectly with the pink prosecco! …

… and the “old gal’s” verdict after much tasting! – extremely decadent but very yummy!

Port Allen offered the idyllic picturesque picnic spot, sitting on a lovely bench featuring the wording “For what in Scotland can compare with the Carse o’Gowrie.” (The Carse o’Gowrie being the name for the renowned soft fruit growing area) And at that beautifully serene picnic moment – complete with those strawberries and the sun breaking thru – Team Matilda couldn’t agree more!

Luscious fresh farm to fork strawberries – the very best the Carse o’Gowrie can offer!

Cheers! Prosecco with a fresh strawberry from Mains of Errol Fruit Shack in the glass!

Amazingly given its solitude now, Port Allen historically was a bustling local harbour offering  a ferry crossing of the River Tay to Lindores in Fife. Records show that back in its heyday large quantities of grain were shipped from the port and around 200 people lived there in 1700s. The area is now a nature reserve with the reed beds proving the perfect venue for wildlife, in particular birds.

Enjoying the tranquility at Port Allen, with its reed beds now a nature reserve.

Team Matilda at picturesque Port Allen outside Errol – hard to believe it was once a bustling port.

After a most relaxing picnic Team Matilda pedalled on to the amazing idiosyncratic Cairn o’Mhor Fruit Winery just outside Errol to sample the delights of the new – and wonderfully named – Pickled Peacock café. The café has new owners along with a new name – with a sideways reference to the possibility of getting a little bit typsy from the fruit wines and cider made on the premises!

The “old gal” eyeing up the wooden “totem” sculptures at Cairn o’Mohr Real Fruit Wines!

And the menu looked fabulous – with great sharing plates – tho after their picnic my dynamic crew had to restrict themselves to sampling a slice of cheesecake with a nice strong coffee! And the whole winery and café is ultra bike friendly – and is therefore a favourite with cyclists.

The new The Pickled Peacock café  was worth a visit for fab cheesecake and coffee.

Naturally the “old git” had to visit the shop at the winery and purchased a bottle of Pictish cider for consumption at home at a later date! Well it would have been rude not to buy anything!

Here I am having a chat with the delivery vans at Cairn o’Mohr Real Fruit Wines!

After interrupting my very interesting chat with the smartly designed wine delivery vans, it was time for the “old gal” and “old git” to pedal back to Dundee – into a modest headwind as the tide was rushing back into the Tay estuary. There was a stop for pictures just before Invergowrie where the photos showed off the reality of the words from the famous poem by McGonagall about the “silvery Tay.”

The “old gal” reflecting on the words from the famous poem by McGonagall about “the silvery Tay”.

By the banks of the silvery Tay – Team Matilda enjoying the view across the river.

Despite the sun, the return crossing of the Tay Bridge was a bit blustery back to Matilda Transport. After I was safely packed away, the “old git” checked Strava which officially recorded the ride as being worth of a staggering 50 gongs – made up of a very pleasing 15 personal bests; 21 2nd bests and 14 3rd bests.

The detailed Strava figures showed my dynamic crew tandemed a distance of 33.9 miles with a moving time of 2 hours 33 minutes. The average speed was a healthy 13.3 mph given the wind. Elevation was just 689 feet as it was mainly along the banks of the river. The maximum speed was 35.6 mph and Team Matilda managed to burn up 1,489 calories and produce an average power output of 145 W.

As always the route is brought to life in our Relive 3D mapping video – so click here to view or on the image below.

Quite simply another great fun day out on a bicycle made for two!

City of Discovery penguins and discovering a winery on ride to Errol

Penguin spotting at Discovery Point in Dundee with RRS Discovery and the new V&A museum.

More penguin spotting … a fabulous picnic spot … and the key attraction of exploring a winery – it sounds like another perfect schedule for a Sunday #tandem ride for Team Matildas Musings!

Another day of warm sunshine and fabulous blue skies was forecast so my dynamic crew decided on a new route south from the Tay Road Bridge to Errol on  Sustrans Scotland NCN Rt1 and NCN Rt77.

“Did someone say we are visiting a winery” asked the “old gal” – trying hard not to sound too enthusiastic – as we drove to Dundee. “Yes, and you’ll get to sample their produce!” responded the “old git” before adding: “And on a day like today you will be able to close your eyes and think you are in the vineyards of France!” … Well almost!

But first there was the business of continuing our penguin hunt by p-p-p-p-icking up a penguin … or two … on the new Maggie’s Penguin Parade charity art trail of 80 giant individually designed penguins! The 5ft-tall penguins have been decorated by local artists with designs ranging from golfers to footballers and has been set up in aid of cancer charity Maggie’s.

This ride – and some of the recommended stops – recently featured in Scottish Cycling magazine – which is well worth a read. Check out the details of our route by clicking on the Strava map below.

After parking up opposite the city of Dundee we had to battle a bit of a headwind on the “downhill” crossing of the Tay Road Bridge, before taking the lift down to Discovery Point where we spotted our first penguin of the day – Fundeeland at Discovery point.

This is a real hub of the City of Discovery with the three masts of the wooden Royal Research Ship Discovery, which was captained by Robert Falcon Scott on his first journey to the Antarctic in 1902, creating an interesting old and new backdrop with the soon-to-be-opened V&A Dundee design museum which has been built to look like a giant ship.

We headed south out of Dundee along Riverside Drive at the start of the NCN Rt77 but quickly stopped at the eye-catching Yoda Pengiun – from the Star Wars movie franchise – which has been imaginatively sponsored by Specsavers!

Here I am with the eye-catching Yoda penguin – sponsored by Specsavers!

I Believe I can Fly penguin with me and the “old gal” at Dundee Airport!

We tandemed on towards Dundee Airport where the “old gal” couldn’t resist having her photo taken with I Believe I can Fly penguin – suitably painted in old-fashioned flying gear!

Into Invergowrie – passing the station – before the path comes out beside the Tay giving impressive views of the river which is some 4.5 kilometres wide at this point. Interestingly the NCN Rt77, which links Dundee with Pitlochry, is also known as the salmon run – and it was easy to see why at this point.

The spectacular Firth of Tay is 4.5 kilometres wide at this point near Invergowrie!

On out into the Carse of Gowrie – one of the country’s prime growing areas for strawberries and raspberries – where the “old git” and the “old gal” found themselves pedalling hard against that headwind. But it was a lovely relatively flat route though and the scenery is amazing. We passed the old Errol airfield before an uphill stretch into the village of Errol itself – which retains a feel from years gone past. We tandemed on for another mile to our planned picnic spot at Port Allen.

Little remains of what was once a principal local harbour in the Victorian times at Port Allen.

Although nothing but a picturesque bridge remains now, Port Allen was one of the principal local harbours in Victorian times. Given how quiet and tranquil it was on our visit, and its rural location, it is hard to imagine it as a bustling port area.

The beautiful old bridge is all that is left of any harbour area at Port Allen.

The area – known as the Tay reed beds – form the largest continuous area of reeds in the UK and are an internationally recognised habitat for breeding and overwintering birds. It certainly provided a tranquil spot for my dynamic crew to enjoy their picnic on a lovely hand crafted bench.

Ideal hand-crafted picnic bench – deep in the Carse of Gowrie by the Tay at Port Allen.

Re-fuelled by the picnic – and a bit of warm sunny relaxation – it was time to start the return journey … with the additional carrot of the visit to the winery! Tandeming back thru Errol we took a detour to the Cairn O’Mohr fruit winery. The cycle-conscious owners have even created their own cycle path off NCN Rt77 to their farm base to make it easier for visitors to get there.

That’s a big bottle! There is no doubt about the kind of operation going on at Cairn o’Mohr.

The operation has grown in recent years and now has huge vats to mature the fruit wine.

The winery has been producing its well-known brand of Scottish fruit wines since 1987 and is a key visitor attraction in the area – offering various tours and tastings. The AliBob Cafe offers a huge range of memorable treats – and of course the opportunity to sample the produce.

The “old git” and “old gal” treated themselves to sample the range of sparkling wines – including a very tasty strawberry fizz! Naturally there was also a sozzled fruit scone – with the raisins soaked in the wine before baking! And a far too tempting range of cakes – which my dynamic crew decided it would have been rude not to taste!

Fruit fizz, scones, cakes and coffee! What’s not to like?!

Having consumed far too may calories (but very enjoyably!) the “old git” upped the pace on the ride back to Dundee in a vain attempt to burn some of them off! It really was blissful tandeming in the warm sunshine, and with the wind behind us, as we pedalled across some fantastic countryside.

The scenery we tandemed past was stunning – like this impressive tree lined avenue.

We flashed thru Invergowrie and past the airport back into Dundee via Riverside Drive where we took a few minutes to stop at the impressive Tay Bridge Disaster Memorial. It is a moving tribute to the victims of the disaster back in 1879 when the central navigation spans of the Tay Bridge collapsed into the Firth of Tay, taking with them a train, 6 carriages and 75 souls to their fate.

A shot looking towards the Tay Rail Bridge – from just beside the memorial stones to the 1879 disaster.

Just time to tick off two more penguins on our pedal back to the lift onto the Tay Road Bridge. First up was Poppy the penguin and the last one of our ride was The Baltic Builder penguin – complete in Bob the Builder artwork clevery placed beside all the construction work which is being finished off near Discovery Point.

The “old gal” with Poppy the Penguin easily spotted from the cycle path.

The Baltic Builder penguin – aka Bob the Builder – with the “old git”.

The last part of our ride was the “uphill” crossing of the Tay Road Bridge – a stretch which always seems to come at the end of a long ride and therefore not one to bring shouts of enthusiasm from my dynamic crew! In truth it always seems a bit of a grind. But today the wind was blowing in the correct direction and the “old git” set the “old gal” a challenge of trying to break Team Matilda’s record for the “Killer Tay Bridge” segment of 6 minutes 46 seconds set just the week before!

And my dynamic crew were euphoric when they reached the other side of the Tay – well they would have been if they weren’t so out of puff – to discover that they had smashed their own record by over half a minute to a new Team Matilda record of 6 minutes 12 seconds. I was most impressed and am now wondering if they can beat that the next time we do this route!

After calming down and getting his breath back at Matilda Transport the “old git” checked Strava which officially recorded the ride as showing my dynamic crew tandemed a distance of 34.4 miles with a moving time of 2 hours 52 minutes. The average speed was a healthy 12 miles an hour while the elevation was 983 feet. The maximum speed was 30.9 mph and Team Matilda managed to burn up 1682 calories and produce an average power output of 146 W.

As always the route is brought to life in our Relive 3D video – so take a look below.

Again a fantastic de-stressing memorable day out and escape for my dynamic crew in glorious sunshine. I guess with the weather and the winery we really could have been tandeming on one of Team Matilda’s fabulous Tours de France …

Well almost!