Storybikes Across Fife

This past summer, long-time storyteller and Edinburgh resident Andy Hunter started up an environmentally-friendly, narratively-informed, tourism business: Storybikes. His goal, to get people to slow down, get out in the fresh-air and re-learn how to see the world through stories.

At the moment, Andy runs tours in Fife and along Hadrian's Wall. Mike and I were busy all summer with visitors from Canada, so it wasn't until this past weekend that we were able to fit in some storied-cycling, joining Andy on a weekend trip around Fife. (He offers both week-long and weekend tours). The only other two people on this particular journey were a travel-journalist from the Guardian, Kevin Rushby, and his 6 and a half-year old daughter Maddy. Maddy rode behind her dad on a tag-a-long.

Public transit is fabulous over here and very accommodating of cyclists. On the local train routes, every second car seems to have a bicycle rack, so it was simple enough for Mike and I to get ourselves and our rented and borrowed bikes out to Kirkcaldy Saturday morning, where we met up with the rest of the group.

From the Kirkcaldy train station, Andy took us down to the banks of the Firth of Forth, to Ravenscraig Castle, where we had our first story, this one about the fair Rosabelle St. Clair. We followed the coastline for a wee while to Dysart, where monks used to retreat to their equivalent of the "desert". We had tea at a lovely little tearoom/info centre/community centre called the Harbour Master's House. From there we turned inland heading through Thornton and Glenrothes and then over to Vane Farm, one of the Royal Society for the Protection of Bird's nature reserves. We had lunch in the Vane Farm cafe, which overlooks Loch Leven and its marshes and meadows. There were several thousand pink-footed geese in temporary residence in the nature reserve. Every once in a while something would set them off and they would all take off squawking and wheel in a circle before settling down again.

After lunch we took a leisurely cycle around the Loch, stopping for stories about St. Serf and to watch the pirouettes of the local gliders. Not only is Loch Leven a destination for birds, it is also a destination for tourists, having two major historical sites: St. Serf's Inch, or Island, where he founded a priory; and Loch Leven Castle, one of the many places that Mary Queen of Scots was held prisoner, and one of the various places that she escaped from. As you can probably gather by now, this is a very storied landscape.

We spent the night in Kinross, which is a town that has definitely seen better days. You know you've hit on bad times when your beautiful old town hall is boarded up and on the market. We stayed in the Salutation Hotel right in downtown Kinross. The food was good and was served in a separate dining room, which was good since it was Karaoke night in the bar. We shared a few stories before taking our sore muscles to bed. The room was also fine, but the rowdy drunk and singing locals kept us up a bit later than we'd have liked. And the guy climbing the chain link fence onto the neighbouring roof, also kept us from falling asleep.

After a huge Scottish breakfast we set out away from Loch Leven up the Cleish Hills and then down to Dunfermline. At the top of the hills we had a small break to hear a traditional tale about a farmer outsmarting a highwayman and in Dunfermline there were tales of Saint Margaret. From Dunfermline, Mike and I caught the train back to Edinburgh. And that was our introduction to storybiking. I have to say that biking 40 miles in two days after not setting one's butt on a bike seat for at least 13 months, is not necessarily to be recommended : )