Cycling Across the Kingdom of Fife

We first crossed the Tay and rode through Tentsmuir Forest to Leuchars, and were then joined by Rich Webster from the Fife Countryside Trust on our way to Glenrothes.

From there we climbed into the Lomond Hills & enjoyed the rest of the route to North Queensferry in the darkness, including a short chippy stop. And to round the journey up, we cycled into Edinburgh.

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It's about cycling, but is I think it's also very important for me to have things that people can like either people can learn about the place through history or by meeting interesting people, going to nice places to eat, um having nice place to stay and there's loads of that in five. Um so yeah, I was really curious and and my base is Edinburgh. So the new book's basically Edinburgh and the stuff you can explore around Edinburgh which is like it's a little bit driven by um a lot of the work I did during lockdown um when you kind of like I think um in a positive way we were kind of confined and really forced to do stuff on the doorstep where there was no opportunity to travel much further. Um, and ever since then, I think I I love going abroad and I love to do the big stuff, but I also really really interested in just jumping on my bike, going over over a bridge, um, and exploring and finds beautiful. Morning, Marcus. >> Morning. Where are we going today? >> We're just heading to George Street and then we're going to jump on the Ember bus with our bikes and head to Li. And then from Dundee over the Tape Bridge to Tental Forest to Koopa and then across the Kingdom of Five. Heat up here. Heat. Heat. I'm back up in Scot. Scotland for another route. I'm with Marcus and we're just south of Dundee in Ten's Mir Forest going on one of his routes for his new book. We're heading to uh Lucas through Tenmir Forest. Um and then uh from there to to there to part with one route and then we're skipping um over to Kooper and then from Kooper to North Perry then from this side you'll see the logos on the postCT logo. >> I am the education officer for five coast to countryside trust. I've been working with these guys for just 4 years. Um, and my role uh sees me out and about working with primary school children um and older children, secondary schools, and then also I'm the branching art coordinator for F. Um, and this is a program for a referral program for people who um have poor mental health overall well-being. Um, and it's a program that gets people out and about in the woods once a week for 12 weeks. And the link to cycling here is that I'm hoping that soon we'll have a program put together where based very much on the branching out framework is a cycle trail therapy to get people out and about in the woods. I have one of Marcus' books and I've used it to do some of the routes. Um I'm also in and out of work keen cyclist. So yeah um heard about Marcus through through his books basically. >> And you're local to this sort of area? >> Yeah. So I live in Octi which is about 10 milesi outside of Cooper. What's special about this area and why is it good for riding a bike? >> I think this place is amazing for riding a bike. Uh we're currently on the Pilgrim Way which is managed by the Five Coast Countryside Trust. Uh and for me really it's so varied. That's the sort of pull. Um and you can ride the whole of the Pilgrim Way on a bike. It's uh 67 mi in total and uh you can get all the way out to St. Andrews. What what's special about this bit of woodland? So we're at Craig called Den in series and um this is a tripi a site a specific scientific interest for semi semi-natural ancient woodland. Um I love it here. There's so many different trees some big trees and it's tucked out the way. So, a lot of people know about series, but uh unless you're a local, it's uh it's not well known. Sounds like seaweed. It >> does. >> So, we're just in Lower Lago at the moment. Um, and we are just about to head back up onto the coast path. Um, and heading down this way is Leven and Leven, Methyl, uh, Buck Haven is sort of widely regarded as one of the poorer parts of F. And as I was saying to you earlier, the program, the branching out program's been running out of Leven. See, you've ridden all across the world. I know that you've ridden at single speeds all over the place um through Australia and other places. So, I just wanted to know why you picked five for your next book. >> So, I think I'm I'm generally for for all the work I'm doing in Scotland, I'm generally interested in the parts of Scotland which don't get like a massive bulk of tourism. Um because I do think for traveling by bike um and exploring it's I I personally love going to places which um are very authentic um and um not like overrun by people and and and then there's a few places in destinations in Scotland where I think which which are where people normally travel through when they when they go by car. Um, and I think five is one of those places like you head over the bridge and um there's I've been through here many times. Um, I so my training for the round of training, not like not official training, but um I cycled um from um Sterling to Edinburgh um pretty much every day um when I was working in Sterling. Um and there was two routes. There was one side um of the for south side or the north side and then you go to the north side you come to place like kat um and then um to burn you mills those places and that was my favorite commute basically um and then I also um started exploring um a bit further north and and I think tri has a lot of like I mean the history here is is amazing um there's so many interesting places and a lot of my work is narrative based wonder how deep it is for For me, cycling is a great escape. So, um there's a a very well-known quote from a British cyclist called Sarah Bentley. You're only one ride away from a good mood. And if you ask my wife, she would definitely say that. Um having two young children at home, getting out on the bike is really important for me. Um I find when I get in the saddle, I just forget about all of my worries and anything else that's going on. It just evaporates. Heat. Heat. Excellent. What is going on? Marcus, we finished the route now. >> Yeah. Where where does the route finish? >> Uh down there. No, not technically not technically at the train station in North Queens. Um we finished a bit further down right at the in the village. >> Yeah. When on the 4th, when can we expect it to come out in a book? >> Uh, it will be out I would say April, May time next year. Yeah. >> Looking forward to it.