As a Scottish virgin, I was however blown away by the spectacular and diverse scenery and my ability to effect a puncture repair. I neither had the opportunity to visit a distillery nor eat haggis.
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| Business started at Moffat and took a clockwise turn around west and east finishing at Wetherall on the River Eden near Carlisle, a border outpost only just on the safe side of Hadrian's Wall |
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| Gear explosion #1 ! at the Buccleuch Arms Hotel in Moffat |
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| Slow drizzle setting in nicely |
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| Motorcycle garages provided by devoted Hotel owner John, a GS rider |
Whilst the rain had abated at Moffat overnight, I decided to leg it past Glasgow on the motorways and hit the sunny banks of Loch Lomond as soon as possible before the forecast afternoon rain came. Two things went wrong with that plan.
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| My companions Roger and Mike enjoy dripping over nice furnishings whilst coffee drinking - Hotel overlooking Loch Lomond |
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| Loch Lomond |
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| Further to the prolonged coffee stop, the MV Agusta suffered a rear tyre deflation and we waited some 3 hours for "recovery" on a dangerous off camber bend in the driving rain. Whilst Mike had come prepared with a puncture repair kit there was no discernible hole to fill.. |
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| It turns out the deflation had been caused by a hard to find piece of glass emedded in the tread |
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| Some time later I drip into the Alexandra Hotel Fort William to dry my boots with the supplied hair dryer |
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| Fort William scenic view |
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| For the record - Hotel Alexandra the next sunny morning |
To Ullapool
This was to be a mostly fine and puncture free day.
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| The Ben Nevis hugging bike friendly Thistle Stop at Invergarry on the A82 just before Loch Ness |
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| By some misunderstanding of the intended route I navigate down the most superb road the A87 and arrive at Dornie, Loch Alsh on the right and Loch Duich on the left |
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| Dornie Disney castle |
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| Inspection of the Michelin reveals that we are on the west coast |
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| The ride further North to Ullapool on the A835 was memorable for it's views and pounding rain which soon cleared having passed Loch Glascarnoch - here is Loch Broom |
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| A modest fishing fleet - sometimes Russian boats park here. |
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| A nice new car ferry made by Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft MBH and Co KG - Loch Seaforth - a whole load of new ferries to spot up here under the CalMac flag. |
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| Looking out to the island of Stornoway |
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| The end of the road, more or less |
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| The Royal |
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| Passing Inverness we look for a coffee stop - this scrapheap challenge location at Inverness Airport did not have a cafe so we proceeded East along the A96 |
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| ..to Ozzy's place just before Nairn |
The A939 windswept and torrential with cyclists of all shapes and psychotic illnesses took us in single track fashion up dale and down glen - no photos due to water ingress danger - through the Cairngorms.
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| Emerging at Braemar the rain subsided and the Hungry Highlander served deep fried mozarella sticks. At this juncture the MV Agusta has another puncture....this time we find a nail and so I make a repair using a plastic plug and some sealant from Roger's rusty can. We arrive late at the hotel wondering what to do next. |
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| The Tayside hotel at Stanley |
The next day at Perth....
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| Talk about customer service - a pair of tyres supplied on a Sunday? |
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| Inside view of the defective tyre - Believe it or not this plastic tyre repair plug actually worked. |
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| A new tyre! |
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| Waterproof stop - I follow Mike newly shod over the River Forth, around Edinburgh and down along the A701 to Moffat |
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| I explode again at The Crown Hotel Wetherall |
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| Back in Knutsford - total trip 956.3 puncture proof miles. |
