The Pentland Hills circumnavigated (well sort of)

First mishap today was Baz sleeping in. I had to phone him when he hadn't arrived at his usual ungodly hour only to be answered by an obviously still in bed biker! However to his credit he arrived in half an hour and we set off at just after 6am to try a new course for us, a mixture of road and cross country, cycling by road to Flotterstone and then up the track by the reservoirs to finally follow the footpath over the Pentland Hills to Balerno. Second mishap was my sense of direction when I led us all astray by about 2 miles! However we eventually got to Flotterstone and started the long haul into the gale force wind up into the Pentlands. At one point all three of us were blown of the track by the force of the wind which seemed to blow into our faces no matter which way we were going.Eventually we reached the top and it was some relief to get the downhill road to Balerno where we got onto the Water of Leith cycleway to keep us of the main road.We got back to base at about 9.30am to be greeted with calls of "what are you doing back already?". Some folk are never pleased..... The trip including the wayward part was just over 30 miles, not bad for a January morning as most of my neighbours were still in bed when we returned!