Route Out – Temple to Gladhouse Reservoir. For route map click here.
Route Back – Gladhouse Reservoir to Rosebery Reservoir to Temple. For route map click here.
- Weather – mainly cloudy, dry and light winds.
- Distance travelled – 10.01 miles
- Riding time – 58 minutes
- Maximum speed – 27.5 mph
- Average speed – 10.4 mph
On thursday morning Dad and I took a special guest with us when we went for a short cycle run. The special guest was my sister Isla who is 6 years old and is already quite a good cyclist (but not as good as me obviously…). To shorten the route, we took the car to Temple and started from there. We parked next to a nice old boat believe it or not.
The first part of the route is along a narrow road with a nice smooth surface. It’s also very quiet and we saw only one vehicle all the way to Gladhouse. The road starts to climb steeply uphill about halfway along, near to Yorkston Farm but soon we reached the high point and got a good view over to the Moorfoot Hills as we sped downhill towards the reservoir. We stopped next to the water for some photos and a bag of crisps.
Cycling along the road alongside the reservoir is very pleasant and is mostly flat. The view across the reservoir towards the hills is quite nice too. Eventually, we came to a junction and turned right to head back uphill in the direction of Temple. This road was a little bit busier as it is the back road to Peebles (we saw about 4 cars in a mile!) but it’s safe enough for us and is popular with cyclists (we saw lots of them on this stretch of road). We then joined onto the B6372 which was also a bit busier but still a good cycling road and the mile or 2 we cycled on was mostly downhill so was good fun.
When we saw a signpost for Rosebery Reservoir we turned right onto a very narrow road. There’s a very steep downhill section just before the reservoir and that’s where I reached my fastest speed of the day. I was going so fast that I forgot to stop at the reservoir but Dad and Isla managed to get a quick photo before racing off after me. After the reservoir is a slow uphill section which takes you right through Yorkston Farm where we saw loads of sheep in the farmyard. I think they had been getting their fleeces cut off. Then it’s a lovely smooth ride downhill back to Temple on another quiet single track road. At a secret location somewhere on the road back, we stopped to forage for wild raspberries. Unfortunately though, there weren’t any ripe yet so we were not able to stuff our faces and headed back to the car with empty stomachs…
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