Page 2
Scotland
2005
Page 2
Jack was unable to join us for the whole 2005 Scotland tour because he was drumming with his band the day we left, so the poor lad had dipped out on Lockwood Farm and the outdoor jacuzzi. Bit of a shame that really because a powerful jet of water up his rectum would have done him the world of good.
The arrangement was that he would ride up to Scotland on his own from Guildford and meet up with us at the Coran Ferry on the Tuesday. It's a bit of a haul in one go that, especially if you're like Jack and nearer your pension than your first wage packet ! To break the journey he booked a room at the Trigony Hotel which is just north of Dumfries. I must say it looks like a brilliant place, but for the full "low down" on it, it's over to Jack himself .................
Trigony Hotel Dumfrieshire
(Photo Jack...... Photoshop corrections me!)
"For what you get, the price is quite reasonable. The night I stayed they also had some classic car buffs there, with whom I spent a very pleasant evening talking nonsense about cars and bikes - and drinking too much beer - and the odd whisky, of which they had more varieties as I recall (dimly) than you could reasonably shake a stick at! Petrol heads always congregate and it seems they do specialist vintage car weekends and such now.
The rooms are superb, clean and handsome, if a little compact on occasion and the house and gardens
themselves are beautiful. The place is spotless and plays to its 'old country house' strengths, you could
pretend that you are the Lord of the Manor - or is that the Laird in these parts?
It really would be a great touring base as both Edinburgh and Glasgow are not too far away, and the Borders,
Ayrshire, the lower lochs and even the Lake District are quite reasonably accessible for day runs from here.
It's set well back off the road, 75 metres or so through thick woodland if memory serves and the car park, albeit
gravel (deep - you have been warned), was secure enough. You wouldn't know it was there if you weren't
looking. The nearest town is definitely a cab ride.
The food was very good and very reasonably priced, as was the beer, which was largely bottled - but of
good quality. Breakfast was terrific - worth going just for that, I'm now a confirmed haggis fan.
I can highly recommend this friendly and cheerful establishment, who will probably welcome the well
mannered and courteous motorcyclist with open arms". (That means us lot can never stay there then? - O.G.B.)
Jack "The Hat".
Ferry leaving Mallaig for Skye
Approaching Armadale on The Isle of Skye
After
meeting up with Jack, our run
through the Arisaig Peninsular was as good as Scotland gets. We took it easy through
here, as he'd
already ridden a good way to meet up with us and was a bit
stressed out because of road works on the way up, which had delayed him.......Well that was his story
for turning up late...... but he does ride one of those weird BMW thingies - so
draw your own conclusions!!
We
stopped off at
Strontian for some lunch
and ordered a few pies from a cafe there. Wesley cut into his only to
find it had it's own little eco culture system
going on inside - it was green with mould, so he took it back and asked if he could have the maggots as
well because they appeared to be missing. It turned out they were fresh
out of maggots so we carried on
to Mallaig and the ferry to Skye, and pondered upon just why it is that there are so many cases of E.Coli in Scotland.
We bought our tickets and boarded the ferry, this was the first one where they
asked us to tie the bikes down. The 1/2 hour crossing was ok and we soon landed on Skye and were on
our way to Kyleakin, our destination for the next nights stopover.
Bikes on the Skye ferry
(Photo: Jack)
We arrived at the The
White Heather Hotel in
glorious evening sunshine. Kyleakin is in a great spot, it's where the old ferry over to Skye used to leave from, before the bridge was
built. I remember years ago - about 1976, Wee Jimmy and me just after
we were married using it to get to Portree when we had our old
MG Midget. Not sure I like the bridge as much as the old ferry but that's progress I suppose. The view
from our hotel window was pure undiluted Scotland, it overlooked the harbour and we
had a great view all the way down Loch Alsh. The staff were very friendly there and the rooms
were spick and span. Once showered (it had one of those power showers that was like being beaten with a loaded
pincushion - lovely!) and changed out of our bike gear, we popped out to have a mooch about and take
some photos.
Bikes parked up outside the The White Heather hotel in
Kyleakin
(Photo
Jack)
Kyleakin Harbour and
the ruins of Castle Moil from our hotel window
Loch Alsh from the
ferry slip
The Skye Bridge late afternoon
......................And at
Sunset
After wandering about Kyleakin for a while with Dez and discussing the merits of buying an old disused public bog and turning it into a bar, we decided to get a bus over the bridge into the village of Lochalsh. This cost us all of 15p ..............return. Obviously city public transport pricing hasn't arrived in Western Scotland yet. After eating we got ourselves back to Kyleakin to catch a few beers in a local bar.
If the weather was good when we landed on Skye, then it made up for it by being
equally as bad when we left......... It pissed down!
The intention was to ride the Wester Ross Trail, but the
rain was so heavy that by the time we reached Strathcarron the roads were
getting flooded, our rain gear kept most of
it out but the rain had found it's way through my gloves and was now making a damned good job of invading
my boots as well. At that point it was decided to turn right and head for the main A835 up to
Ullapool instead of left in to Lochcarron and through Wester Ross.
By the time we'd reached Loch
Glasarnoch we were freezing as well as wet. My feet had now decided not to bother with all that
circulation nonsense and had entered into an independent state all of their own, I couldn't feel them at
all. We stopped at a roadside cafe and ordered ourselves some hot tomato soup and thawed out for an hour.
Eventually we arrived at Ullapool and thankfully had no trouble finding our
B&B the exceptional Eileen
Donan Guest
House in
Market Street. The poor landlady must have wondered what the hell she was getting when she invited 5 piss wet through bikers inside to drip all
over her lovely expensive hall floor. She was brilliant though and never complained at all. We
parked the bikes in the little car park at the rear of the house and went in for a cuppa and nice hot shower.
Feeling a lot better in dry clothes, we headed down to the Ferry Boat Inn
(see link on Scotland 2003 page 2) for some fine beer and a bite to eat. I had a beef
stew thing in a huge
Yorkshire Pudding - tremendous and no plate it saves on the washing up! It
was all washed down with several pints of McEwans 80/- ....Smashin'.
Leaving the Ferryboat Inn a bit happier than when we went in, we wandered down the road to
see if we could find some live music, and sure enough there was a folk band playing at the Seaforth (again, see
link on Scotland 2003 page 2) It was as good as anywhere to get ratted and have fun!
Dinner time Drumnadrochit
Next morning, it was still heaving down with rain. Fortunately we'd booked 2 nights at Ullapool so we didn't have to ride in it. It was a disappointment though, because Dez, Pete and Jack had planned to ride up to Cape Wrath and Wes & me had decided we wanted to get a ferry over to one of the islands for a pub lunch. In the event the weather was so unbelievably bad that we ended up just mooching about Ullapool and reading papers in the B&B lounge. It really was foul ........and that's why there are no photos!
The following day dawned dull but dryer than the previous day, which wouldn't be hard. We left the B&B and started on our way to our next stopover which was to be the little village of Killin in the Trosachs. We stopped off at Drumnadrochit for a spot of lunch and then did a wee detour to see Urquart Castle on the shore of Loch Ness....Not an ugly monster in sight, (fill in own insulting remark .....................)
Urquart Castle, Loch Ness
The
next leg of the run to Killin took us through the awesome Glen Coe, we stopped
for a photo session there and Dez discovered his bike was making an odd noise. Diagnosis - gearbox
bearing. Concensus of opinion - take it easy it'll be ok.
Riding through Glen
Coe
(Photo Dez)
A rain cloud just about to empty it's contents all over us....Again!
Following a slightly damp run from Glen Coe we eventually arrived at Killin. Fairview House is a great B&B but it has a steep shingle path which made riding up it to get to the parking area at the back a bit troublesome, especially for a guy with little legs. We got settled in and the kind landlady offered us the use of a garage to park the bikes in. Dez took the opportunity to see if he could find where the gearbox noise on his bike was coming from. More head scratching and it was decided that it was an output shaft bearing..... Take it easy it'll be ok!
We wandered around the village and went to see the Falls of
Dochart. We then
found somewhere to get some food before heading off for a night in the "Coach House".
Killin is a strange little village, on the surface it looks dead, but scratch away a bit and it will reveal a totally
different place to anyone who takes the time to do so. A few of the pubs there have live music and the Coach
House Bar was no exception, playing tonight were a local folk duo called "Full Steam Ahead."
Not only were they superb musicians but they were also very bloody funny.
About hour after we arrived, the pub started to get packed. This could
only happen to us, but the reason for the increase in population? A coach load of German homosexuals
had fallen in throught the door. Of course the piss taking started, led by Dez who was insisting that
the "Pooftwaffe" had landed .......It went downhill from there.
Bridge over the Falls of
Dochart Killin
The following morning we were
splitting up. Dez, Wes & Jack were off to Glasgow. I was going home because it was my wedding anniversary and Pete had to be back at work so he came
with me. We had a good run down as far as Loch Lomond where the rain started again and
stayed with us all the way home.
The others went to Glasgow but weren't that impressed. When they got
up to leave for home the next day, Dez's gear box was really noisy, so a Breakdown truck was called to
take him home. In the end it turned out to be nothing more than his chain that was causing the
trouble. Pete and I managed a couple of photos of Loch Lomond on the way past.
It had been a good weeks
riding although a "little" wet in parts, but now it was time for home
and for Wesley and me to think about our forthcoming tour of Europe in
July...........