Left the Ibis in Aberdeen in drab weather but sun soon came out when I started along the 12km Deeside rail trail.

Cute way of getting to the countryside from downtown.

This was my first day without a target destination. That is so long as I get to Dalwhinnie tomorrow, 120 miles from Aberdeen.

I could just ride and see where I ended up.

Upset to see lots of litter on the side swathes all along some of the rural roads I travelled along today. Some of them are linear rubbish dumps, with trash clearly thrown from car windows. Trash like vapes, large bottles of pop, fag packets. Not the kind of trash cyclists carry. (I saw one discarded gel packet so that was probably from a cyclist. Grrr.)

I have little carrying spare capacity on the bike yet keep all my rubbish. Lots of motorists — with ample storage space — throw theirs out of their windows.

Where are the flag-shagging politicians on this? We need a new Keep Britain Tidy push not sodding national service.

Anyway, it was very wet and therefore cold today but I warmed up on the steep climbs from Cock Bridge to the Lecht ski centre.

Raining most of the way up but there was a brief reprise on the descent so I was able to fly the drone, briefly. Will add those pix to the gallery.