Over the Pentlands (and back again)

Baz and I set off just after 5.30 am this morning armed with a map of the tracks over the Pentland Hills, (courtesy of Clive), and not the slightest idea if we would find our way in the dark. It was also snowing just to add to the fun. We eventually reached the village of Carlops and began the search for the beginning of the track we wanted. Our first foray up what we thought was the track ended by being surrounded by a herd (?) of Icelandic horses and the thought that someone would think we were rustlers and take a potshot at us. A hurried retreat from there and a reappraisal of the situation saw us ride back the road a couple of hundred yards and discover the opening we were looking for. The climb up into the hills wasn't actually too steep though it continued to snow but not too heavily. At some point we became separated from the main track and seemed to be riding on what can only be described as sheep tracks, through the occasional bog, but at least going in the right direction and at last we joined up with the track again. The ride down to Balerno was quite exciting as parts of the track were run ice and there were a few hairy moments.
After we reached Balerno we were faced with a 3 mile climb up to the track back through the Pentlands to Flotterstone, but with the assistance of a banana and an energy bar this was achieved reasonably quickly. The descent back down to Flotterstone is a cracker but the ice again kept our speed down.
Only mishap today was about 4 miles from home when we were coming down the road to Roslin Glen , we hit ice and Baz did a rather spectacular imitation of a speedway rider as he broadsided down the road for about 20 yards!
We rode 41 miles today in roughly 5 hours , a combination of road and cross country , and if we do it again in the spring in better weather I think we could knock 45 minutes off our time.