A great but WET Scottish Adventure: Sept17

29th Sept17

(Click on all pics to enlarge)

Day 1 Home to Girvan 381miles

Bernard, Matt Colin and I met up at 9am for the long trek North…it was dry. Our route would take us up the infamous M6, rain was forecast by the time we reached Lancaster. Whole stretches of the Mway were governed by 60mph or even 50mph avg. speed cameras..boring! A long stretch of road works was clogged with traffic at a standstill, very narrow lanes made it difficult to filter but we pushed our way through. Lunch at Lancaster services, then the rain started 🙁 Off we went again and turned off through the Lake District to ease the boredom. Not that we saw much of it through the rain. Finally we headed West at Gretna Green..we are now in Scotland. The rain continued as we headed through Galloway Forrest Park on narrow twisty roads..good chance to discover our wet riding skills! Finally we arrived at our hotel just outside Girvan, by the sea on the West coast.

We were greeted by the owner, a big jolly Scotsman who let us put the bikes in one of his barns; his farm had been converted into a hotel complex. In the barn was a large punch bag.. that’s the wife’s he said! Hmmm 🙂 Dinner was good with beers followed by 2 bottles of Red and a couple of whiskies. We got talking to some Scottish bikers on the table next to us, discussing bikes and routes..just as we were planning to leave for bed they sent us over another bottle of red; who said Scots are mean?..we had to drink it!

Next morning started overcast with rain forecast as we set off for Fort William in the Highlands for our next night.

Day 2 Girvan to Fort William 228 miles..a short day

More 60mph avg speed cameras on the road to Glasgow slowed our progress, then we entered the Trossachs National Park. As we passed Loch Lomond the rain started and the skies were grey. We followed the coast up past Oban and then on to Glencoe and Fort William.. the scenery is now stunning and the roads twisty; shame about the rain all the way..we’re getting good at wet riding!

The hotel was a 4 star, but as Bernard emerged from the shower he complained that the water was cold..not what you need after a wet ride! I checked with the others and they had the same problem. I called reception and the man said they would turn on the “booster” and water would be hot within 30 mins. Shortly after there was a knock at the door and it was the guy from reception who had come to apologise..I told him in no uncertain terms that cold water in a 4 star hotel was unacceptable and expected him to reflect this in a reduced bill when we leave!! Bernard went for a beer, I waited for the hot water and had a nice shower 🙂

Dinner was good with the normal beer and red wine to wash it down. Colin had brought T shirts for us all to wear.. captioned the “Sons of Arthritis” a parody of the biker gang “Sons of Anarchy”…this caused some amusement and we had a laugh with the hotel staff 🙂

In the morning they did indeed reduce the room bill 🙂

Day 3 Fort William to Bettyhill..300 miles of very twisty narrow roads following the North Coast 500 route..a LONG day!

We set out early, in the rain again! The road from Invergarry to Kyle of Lochalsh is fast with stunning scenery, a pleasure even in the wet. We arrived at the “Pass of the Cattle” near Applecross..a sat nav moment showed my route going both ways at a junction! After some discussion we decided to do the Pass route..a brave decision in the circumstances..but its an Adventure, NOT a holiday !! 🙂

This Pass is narrow and rises to 2000+ feet ( see the signs and the pics). Very picturesque scenery, the road mostly single track with passing places. At the top we were in the clouds, visibility not much! We descended and stopped to take stock on the other side. After consulting the map we decided not to continue the coast route to Ullapool, but to take the fast route instead. That meant however going back over the Pass of the Cattle again in the rain!

Finally the rain stopped and we hit the good roads..fast, open and great scenery. Time for blast! We averaged 80 mph for over 80 miles and arrived in Ullapool for petrol and a sandwich. No speed cameras on the way, I think !

We continued on the coast road and the terrain got increasingly remote as we headed North to our destination, Bettyhill on the coast right at the top of Scotland. The rain eased and we were able to see the fantastic deserted beaches along the way. Hotels are few and far between up here; ours was at Farr Bay, remote and down a track full of holes and puddles..the hotel building looked like a haunted house under the dark skies..Hmmm was this a good choice?

Turned out that the place was run by a couple from Essex and was actually quiet OK, good food and OK rooms. More beer, wine and whisky then bed.

In the morning had a short walk to see the spectacular Farr Bay before the rain started again.

Day 4 Man Down! on the road from Bettyhill to Dunfermline via John O Groats 322 miles

As usual we set off in the morning with rain and dark skies. First stop was Dunnet Head, the most Northerly point in mainland Britain. It was blowing a gale but we stopped for pics, then on to John O Groats for coffee and a pic by the famous signpost..Lands End 837 miles away. A group of 20+ other bikers were there also, it was gone 12noon by then and we still had over 250 miles to go so we decided to get on the road again before them. We turned onto the A9 following the coast Southwards towards Inverness, soon we ran into quiet dense fog which slowed us down as lorries loomed out of the gloom coming towards us! Thankfully we passed through this stretch and the weather brightened up as we passed Inverness and headed into the Cairngorms National Park. The scenery was stunning again and the roads great and we made good progress.

As we left the Cairngorms the sky looked threatening again and the roads were wet. We were pushing on to make up time. Matt was leading, I was next with Colin behind me and Bernard at the back. In one right hand corner I felt the back wheel give a couple of twitches on the greasy surface, but got round OK. Shortly up the road we entered a village 3omph zone, I looked behind..where were Colin and Bernard? We rode slowly expecting the others to catch up, then stopped to wait. Deciding that something must be wrong Matt turned round; then Bernard turned up to announce that Colin had crashed! Thankfully he was OK, but the bike would need all 4 of us to recover it from the hedge!!

We arrived back at the scene; sure enough it was THAT corner! Colin hadn’t been so lucky as Matt and I in the corner and his bike went into a slide and somehow ended up in the hedge on the other side of the road, with Colin following it across the road on his backside! So now there we were stopped to recover the bike just before the bend (now a left hander) on a narrow road with traffic coming both ways, not ideal!

Turned out that Colin’s GS was being held by a small tree, without which it would have gone through the hedge and down a steep bank into the woods and very difficult to recover. 240Kg of dead GS weight represents a challenge with access from only one side. So bring on the long bike lock cable.. this was wrapped round one of the engine crash bars; 2 of us heaved on that with 1 on the handlebars and one at the tail..up she came 🙂 A quick check revealed a broken beak at the front and very little other damage..it started first time too! We left our precarious position as soon as we could and stopped in the village up the road for a full assessment. Conclusion was that the crash bars had done their job and the damage was slight and the bike fully ride able..as for Colin, just a bump on the leg and injured pride..all in all a good result in the circumstances. 🙂

We did the last 30+ miles on motorway and arrived at the hotel ready for shower, beer, wine and dinner. Another day done.

Day 5 Dunfermline to Chester via Kielder Forest, North Pennines & Yorkshire Dales 286 miles 

A dry start at last! We crossed the newly opened Queensferry Bridge and skirted Edinburgh heading South on the A68..speed cameras every few miles..boring! Thankfully they stopped as we entered Kielder Forest and Northumberland National Park and the speed picked up, then we turned off to cross the North Pennines AONB and things got interesting. Remote and great roads for a blast. Lunch was in a nice little country pub followed by a route through the Yorkshire Dales. Sun was out and the scenery and roads were great..don’t want to crash here through as dry stone walls on both sides of the roads!

We joined the M6 just South of Preston just as rush hour was building, but at least the traffic was flowing. Turned off on M56 heading for Chester. We are now back in the thick of it, such a difference from the remote areas we have travelled through.

We arrived at the hotel and parked up, noticing that it was £10 charge for overnight parking so we put the 4 bikes in one bay hoping that we would only pay a total of £10. At check in they told us it was £10 per vehicle!!…much moaning on our part, but no joy.

After a shower we met for a beer and Bernard announced he had managed to get them to agree to halve the price for us, well done 🙂 We then went for a Thai meal which made a pleasant change.

Day 6 Chester to Home via Wales 261 Miles

Breakfast at the hotel was the crazy price of £17 so we made an early start and headed for Wales to have breakfast in Bala on the outskirts of Snowdonia. We did some of the great Welsh roads on the way, which blew the cobwebs out! After coffee we headed for Newtown to do the fast twisty A483 from Newtown to Crossgates on the A44. A Tom Tom vs Garmin sat nav moment occurred; seemed that nobody wanted to turn around so the 3 Garmins got separated from Bernard with his Tom Tom..we met up again at Crossgates 🙂

It started to rain again so we headed off to try and keep ahead of it, which we managed apart from a few spots arriving home mainly dry.

1800 miles in all and another great Adventure..Scotland is a great place and one day I hope to go back when its dry and maybe enjoy the scenery at a more sedate pace..some chance! 🙂