I'd set my alarm for 6am.....my plan was very simple; to get up early, head to the local Coop to pick up some breakfast and head out on the bike before it got too hot.

Coop provided some delicious freshly baked pastries (and a meal deal or two for the day ahead) and I was soon showered / fed / packed up and able to get Red back out of the Harry Potter style under the stairs bike storage cupboard, sat nav once again programmed for the day ahead and off we set.

Pitlochry to Livingston (to the west of Edinburgh) was todays journey, via Perth to visit the football ground and hopefully the footie team shop, all at the home of St Johnstone (which is the team in Perth for those like me who don't know much about Scottish football).

Leaving Pitlochry I was soon back on a National Cycle route on minor roads, adjacent to rivers, all very traffic free. I crossed several beautiful bridges, climbed a few hills and continued to be spoilt with some amazing countryside through the middle of Scotland.

My route took me alongside the Tay Forest Park, more coniferous fragrance in the cool of the morning, then a switch back partially on the A9 back over yet another bridge, all crossing the River Tay, before dropping down onto a most amazing cycle route alongside the river past a stunning hotel and on through a castle like gateway!

This was close to Dunkeld, another town with a few coach loads of visitors, from which I continued heading in a roughly southerly direction towards Perth. This city was significant to me and my cycle journey. A few weeks before I packed up and caught a plane to start the ride I was talking to a fellow dog walker one morning on my local beach.

This dog walker was interested in my cycle ride and also had local knowledge being both a keen cyclist and previous resident of Scotland! Local knowledge is always useful, especially when planning a 620 mile cycle, but apart from this conversation I didn't think any more of this meeting...... until I bumped into him on another early morning beach dog walk where to my very great surprise he offered contact details for his brother who lives in Inverness and a very generous offer of support of any kind if I needed it whilst on my Scottish cycle adventure!

I was totally taken aback.....someone I hardly knew offering me a very practical and reassuring offer of assistance if needed is something I don't think I have encountered ever before in my life, and to cut a long story short previous conversations had mostly been about a shared mutual interest in football and his home team St Johnstone, who are located in Perth.

So cut back to my cycle along the banks of the River Tay I soon found myself entering the city of Perth with a mission to achieve. A re-setting of satnav and I set off across the city to find McDairmid Park, the home of St Johnstone with an aim to visit the club shop (I had not checked if it was open), pick up a thank you gift and maybe get a photo or two of myself or Red the bike with the stadium in the background.

Once again the weather was getting warmer as the morning progressed and once I had navigated my way into the car park at McDairmid Park it was hot, very hot! I headed down to the stadium, stopping to take a photo or two, and spotted the club shop in the corner of the stadium ahead of me.

Rolling down across the car park it appeared empty.....in fact the whole stadium appeared very quiet and as I stopped outside the shop entrance I was a little concerned that the shop was closed. However a lovely lady who was eating her breakfast in her car, the only car in the car park, walked towards me and soon informed me that the shop was open, brand new training kits had just been delivered and I would be the first customer to buy one at the shop.......which was a shame because I was planning on buying a scarf for my dog walking friend!

Footie scarf purchased and in its St Johnstone carrier bag carefully added to my bike bags I then noticed that a fire exit door was open allowing me a clear view into the stadium. I'd already explained to the lady running the club shop why I was here out of football season buying a scarf, and a few minutes later she very kindly agreed to let me into the stadium to get more photos and a video or two of the ground......on one very specific condition.....if we saw one of the grounds staff we would leg it away quickly as they are very , very protective of the newly sown football pitch.

Photos and videos taken, and no ground staff spotted, I said my thank you's and headed back towards Perth city centre to continue my journey south. Even the ten minutes or so it took to get from the stadium to the centre of the city was sufficient for my phone / sat nav to once again over heat so I took an opportunity to rest in the shade of the large Farm Foods store in the centre of Perth and eat some lunch, enjoyed with an accompaniment of Irn Bru .

The phone recovered quickly, sat nav talking again once the phone had cooled sufficiently and off we set once again. After the total peace and tranquility of the very north eastern part of Scotland the journey south was slowly becoming more and more urban in places.... lots of mountains and general countryside but this time following the general direction of the M90, on more minor roads but always within ear shot of the traffic heading up and down the motorway.

As I continued cycling the miles , keeping hydrated and ensuring the phone / sat nav also stayed cool before long I had cycled around Kinross, Cowdenbeath and soon saw my first long distance glimpse of the three bridges that cross the Forth. In fairness to the railway bridge and original road bridge it was the very distinctive and very reflective towers of the new road bridge that I saw first whilst enjoying yet more amazing cycle paths. With the exception of about two miles of the A9 I had so far cycled almost everywhere with very minimal traffic of any sort impacting my ride......which is pretty incredible as I was over 360 miles into the adventure.

As I got closer to the three bridges sat nav was very clear that it was the middle bridge I was aiming for; clearly the railway bridge was for trains, the newer bridge carries the motorway so I was happy with her choice. Less happy however when I realised that the bridge appeared to be the home to a very large number of road cones and signage giving me the impression the bridge was closed to traffic !!!

I cycled closer, up onto the slip road to the bridge looking for any obvious opportunity to continue cycling across the bridge. Luckily there was no vehicle traffic allowing me to cross the six lanes of the road onto what appeared to be the only open cycle lane / path on the western side of the bridge......possibly the only bit of the bridge I could cross, so I did!

The views from the bridge were incredible - its so high over the Forth the views of the other two bridges are amazing, the views beyond the bridges are also amazing and with only a couple of people walking across the bridge I was virtually alone whilst taking it all in. Something to be thankful for amidst all the road cones and general road work signage.

From the southern side of the bridge sat nav had to flex a few times to find a route which felt safe.....so the next mile or two was a slow process of carefully taking decisions to cycle on footpaths and cycle routes as I tried to pick up the route to Livingston, my next stopover for the night.

As you may have read in previous blogs I have a healthy nervousness (bordering on distrust) of sat nav, but so far she hadn't let me down and I continued to keep faith in her directions......what other choice did I have? Before long I was being taken along a concrete road which felt like private property past some industrial buildings. I was expecting to be shouted at at any point if I was actually trespassing, but before I knew it I was back on signed cycle paths once again following alongside a railway line headed into Livingston.

At the end of another long but enjoyable day on the bike I was dropped off the cycle route through a housing estate and brought to the car park of my hotel for the night, the Livingston Lodge. Thanks to a couple of the hotel / pub guests I managed to find the reception , check in and get the keys to my room for the night, which also turned out to be the storage space for my bike too......and really luckily the room wasn't on the fourth floor (especially as there was no lift!)

Showered and refreshed I decided to work out where I could eat some dinner, and after discovering the hotel kitchen was closed whilst being refitted I headed off to find alternative dinner locations, and found a local pizza takeaway adjacent to another Coop.

Pizza, dessert in the form of some excellent cakes and another bottle of Irn Bru was the basis of a not very balanced tea......but it all tasted incredible as I then spoke to Jan / updated social media and planned a relaxing evening / good nights sleep at my hotel room.

As I said earlier the increase in traffic and more urbanisation as I travelled south was a slight shock to the system, which was compounded further as I soon discovered that the fligh path to Edinburgh airport passed directly over the Livingston Lodge hotel.....specifically my room !

Not that the sound of approaching planes impacted my sleep too much - I drifted off to sleep to the sound of jet engines and woke again in the morning to more jet engines....... well rested and ready for another day in the saddle.

(this blog and the St Johnstone club visit is all a massive thank you to dog walker Norrie and his brother Dougal for their offer of support - might have been a simple offer to make, but had a massive positive impact to my level of apprehension before my cycling adventure, and proves once again that there are amazing people out there making a positive difference. Thank you both)