King Charlesis full of surprises!
A group of cyclists were left stunned after bumping into the royal hiking alone on theBalmoral Estatein Scotland and captured the moment on a GoPro video shared to McTrail Rider’s YouTube channel on Monday.
In thevideo, the three cyclists can be seen meeting Charles, 74, on a path on the royal estate, which is home to Balmoral Castle. Charles can be seen wearing a flat cap and khaki coat in the footage, as well as carrying his trusty walking stick.
When asked if he was on his “summer vacation to Balmoral,” Charles replied, “Yes. It is wonderful up here.”
“It’s typical,” he added of the wet weather evident in the video. “The midges are horrendous. It’s typical.”
King Charles meets cyclists while hiking on Scotland.McTrail Rider/Youtube
McTrail Rider/Youtube
The cyclists then commented on how the King was out walking solo. “Oh yes but I like my walking,” laughed Charles. “I want to see quite a few things on the way down.”
“Oh you are? Oh good,” Charles replied. “I’m so glad it works all right I think because we renovated it a bit with help … but I’m trying to get more trees to grow around it.”
One of the cyclists then asked Charles if he ever stays in the estate house near the bothy.
King Charles meets cyclists while hiking solo in Scotland.McTrail Rider/Youtube
“Well, it’s not very day that you bump into the King!" the description section of the video read in part. “But that’s exactly what happened on this bike ride. We were riding on Balmoral estate, and there were plenty of Range Rovers and guards with guns, but we didn’t actually expect to see or speak to the King in the way that we did.”
The cyclist’s run-in with the King came after former royal protection officer Richard Griffin revealed howQueen Elizabeth IIonce bumped into some U.S. tourists while walking around Balmoral and played a joke on them.
Speaking toSky Newsfollowing the former monarch’s death in September 2022, Griffin shared how she played a prank on the hikers after they didn’t recognize her in the grounds of her Scottish holiday home.
“There were two hikers coming towards us, and the Queen would always stop and say hello,” he said. “And it was clear from the moment we first stopped that they hadn’t recognized the Queen.”
Griffin said one of the walkers began telling Queen Elizabeth where they were from and the sights they’d seen in the U.K., before asking her where she lived.
“She said, ‘Well I live in London, but I’ve got a holiday home just on the other side of the hills.’ And he said, ‘How often have you been coming up here?’ " Griffin recalled.
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Balmoral Castle in Scotland.Anwar Hussein/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth then told the tourists she had been visiting Balmoral Castle for over 80 years, prompting the hiker to ask if she had ever met the Queen.
“Well I haven’t, but Dick here meets her regularly,” she responded, referring to Griffin.
The tourist then asked Griffin what the Queen was like. “Because I was with her a long time and I knew I could pull her leg, I said, ‘Oh, she can be very cantankerous at times, but she’s got a lovely sense of humor,’ " he recalled.
“The next thing I knew this guy comes around, puts his arm around my shoulder and before I could see what was happening he gets his camera, gives it to the Queen and says, ‘Can you take a picture of the two of us?’ "
King Charles and Queen Camilla in Paris.Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Since wrapping up his summer in Balmoral, Charles and his wifeQueen Camillahave resumed their royal duties, most recentlyvisiting Parisduring a state visit to France that started Wednesday.
source: people.com
