OT Short Way Up or....Two Yanks in Scotland, The FINAL Chapter...Last post Options

[stephenaki]

Every great adventure starts with an idea that somehow or another blossoms into a grand scheme that sends our minds on a whirlwind of anticipation and visions, or delusions, of grandeur. Burly men and lusty wenches, beer, rum and…oh wait, that’s the other delusion I had…never mind. Back on topic, as the title would loan itself too, it is a play on the Long Way Down (motorcycle documentary of Ewing McGregor and Charley Boorman as they rode from John O' Groats Scotland to South Africa on BMW GS1200 motorcycles) and not even a 10th of the mileage; one, neither Lee or I are rich and have a full fledged support crew and two, neither Lee and I are rich and have a full fledged support crew. Did I mention that neither Lee nor I are rich and have a full fledged support crew? I won’t bore you with the details but after several discussions and then Lee’s acquisition of a shiny new GS1200 we finally settled on taking a 10 day trip to Scotland from our little slice of Deutschland. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/piratenanner.gif)

I don’t remember exactly how it came to pass but I do recall looking at the big map in our cubicle and discussing options of where to go and by the end, the destination was Scotland. With the general destination now set it was time to determine where and when. Over the course of the next few months it evolved from Glasgow to Inverness and then one fine day Lee said, “hey, why don’t we ride up to John O’ Groats?” At first the idea didn’t quite register as to why in the hell anyone would want to ride up to the top of nowhere but, after some thought, the hamster powered dimly lit light bulb in my mind flickered and remembrances of Charley and Ewan’s starting point in the Long Way Down played across the back of my mind like an old 8mm film that had past its time and flickered a lot. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

So I thought to myself, sure, why the hell not? I hear the country is beautiful and they speak English…of a sort. Now what? Oh yeah, I guess ‘we’(which really means ‘I’) should plan a route up and a route down. This would also lend itself to an ever changing plan of attack with no rhyme or reason as the only input I really got from Lee was, ‘dude, I just wanna ride.’ Gee thanks bro, you’re about as helpful as financial advice from Madoff. Oh yeah, we also settled on 10 to 20 May as our target date for the trip and no, we didn’t realize we were leaving on Mother’s day until later on.

I will have to say though that Lee did insist that there were at least two things he wanted to see and visit, Ace Café in London and Stonehenge. I was a bit worried about Stonehenge as he kept referencing Pagan rituals and furry goatskin pants…At six plus feet tall that would be a curious site to see.

Goatskin pants aside, we had also decided that we would visit a friend of mine up in Warwick to have a look at his 1920s era British motorcycle then visit the National Transport Museum in Coventry where Charley Boorman’s bike is supposedly on display. Since our interest was primarily on riding in Scotland we sorta decided to keep to the main roads on up towards Glasgow before disembarking from the ‘M’ series highways to the smaller country roads.

The original plan also called for a trip up to Bastogne, Belgium then across Northern France to the coast and then north to Calais. I then set to work using Google Map as my planning tool and using the terrain and satellite feature with the photos option flipped on and off intermittently to develop a first draft plan. Once I had a draft I posted our route to my Vulcan Drifters Owners Group UK (VDOG) to get some feedback and sent it off to my friend Alan in Warwick as well. Several things happened when I did this, Alan was reminded by his wife that the time we were coming they would be in Spain watching a formula one race and several members of my VDOG UK group offered some suggested changes as well as lodging for us.

After several discussions with Lee and route changes based on feedback as well as input into Google to gauge riding time and overall trip impact, we axed Bastogne and the country roads through France. Instead, we opted to avoid the toll roads in France and make it to Dover on day one of the trip with a stay in Dover that night. In case you’re wondering, Stuttgart, Germany to Calais France via autobahn is approximately 757 KM or 470 MI; reality is we did 500 miles that day with an unintended side trip into Luxembourg but that will come later. We had also decided that we would push on to the southeast perimeter of London if we felt up to in on that first day to buy us some additional time for the next day’s activities.

The other change was that we would cut over to Rhayader, England and take the A470 up through Wales to Conway before pressing on to Scotland. This was recommended by Andy, a VDOG UK member who offered us a place to stay and met us at Stonehenge. We did not stay with Andy but pushed on to Rhayader instead; never the less I did bring Andy a bottle of wine and 4 bottles of Andechs Doppel Boch for his offered hospitality.

Of course, as the Army says, no plan survives first contact and some minor changes would be made along the way but, the initial route was set and our accommodations would be campgrounds and a night at Bongos (yes, I’ll get to Bongos as well).

Now the only thing that remained was to try out my new sissy bar travel luggage and get used to using a GPS. For this we planned several rides whereby I would construct a route using Google then transfer it to my TomTom via a program called TYRE or Track Your Route Everywhere. TYRE allows you to import a route from Google maps, adjust it to suit your needs and save it to an ITN file that the TomTom can pull up as a programmed itinerary. Great little program and it is free.

Several rides later we were comfortable with each others riding styles, use of the GPS and how my bike felt with a full load. Lee tested his panniers and additional load on a business trip to Garmisch from Stuttgart in April as well. So lets meet our intrepid adventurers, get to some pre-trip photos, and close out the first chapter in this little adventure.

Lee on his brand new BMW GS1200
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Yours truly on a vehicle that is actually running as opposed to my 914.
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Finally the first draft load out of the bike with my Riggpack sissy bar system. Final adjustments would be done later to clean it all up.
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The following installments will have much more pictures I promise. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beerchug.gif)

[stephenaki]

Day 5, 14 May 09, Hey! Where'd that wall come from??!!

Today would be the day that Lee hit the wall, figuratively speaking that is. By day 4 we have ridden over a 1000 miles of which at least 800 was through brisk to gale force winds. Lee has been put through his paces on a new bike with a different riding position in less than optimal riding conditions and this is, I believe, the first time he has tackled a trip of this magnitude on a motorcycle. It is amazing how these things add up and eventually rear their head to remind you of your mortality.

The morning started like all the others, up early, pack up, Lee starts his bike, I roll mine down the hill till we are out of earshot of our immediate tent mates and, off we go. As stated in my day 4 post, we didn't get the opportunity to visit McCaig tower on our arrival to Oban so; we took the time now to visit. Here are a couple more shots of the inside of the tower.

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So whats our plan for today? Well, the original plan is as shown below.

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What happened however is that before we embarked on our journey I had a thought. Instead of running the entire route, let’s just run up to Fort Augustus, drop our gear and ride the route with unencumbered bikes. Since Fort Augustus was on the route and only about 31 miles from where we intended to turn westward it shouldn’t really impact the day much. Lee thought it was a good idea so this became the new plan.

As we set off we knew that the first part of the ride would be a short one and we could then take our time on the second part during the day. We would discover the joys of the 'Little Chef' restaurant chain this day as happened upon a Little Chef in the middle of nowhere and stopped for breakfast. For the Americans on the forum, think IHOP or Waffle House and this is basically what a Little Chef is. Inexpensive food, served hot and quick and, we could get the large English breakfast that we had come to love.

Fueled with food and caffeine we pushed on towards Fort Augustus but just had to stop along Loch Linnhe to get some pictures as the day was turning out to be quite beautiful. We also found that we could see Scotland’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, from along our route to Fort Augustus.

Lee pulling up to turn off
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Ben Nevis
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Views across Loch Linnhe
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Giddy with excitement the views provided I couldn’t wait to see what was in store later in the day and in short order we pulled into Fort Augustus and found the tourist info center. To our dismay, there were no longer any campsites in the Fort Augustus area that allowed tenting. There was a new one being built but it wasn't ready yet. No problem, I had scoped out another campsite in Drumnadrochit on the western side of Loch Ness called Borlum Farms http://www.borlum.co.uk/ before we had departed on our trip. It didn't take long to get there and the roads were great with gorgeous views of Loch Ness, no Nessie sightings from my side and I don't believe Lee saw her either.

As we zipped around corners, Urqhart castle came into view and since Lee had gotten stuck behind a rather large truck, I pulled into the parking area to let him catch up. We looked at the place and decided that we would come back later after we pitched camp. As it turned out, the Borlum campsite was less than 5 miles up the road from the castle. Within 5 minutes we were there and shortly after our arrival we were set up and I was ready to roll out. BAM!! What the hell was that?! BAM! BAM! Oh, I think Lee just hit the wall!

It was bound to happen; the question was who would hit it first. Lee won. After setting up camp Lee looked over at me and said something to the effect of, 'dude, I just don't feel like fucking riding anymore today.' Well, that was that. The day was done. Well, not quite done but paired down quite a bit more. Instead of running the route west then north and back around, we opted for closer attractions and visited Urqhart castle instead. They don’t have a website that I could find but here is a site that has some history and info on the place, http://www.aboutscotland.com/ness/urquhart.html.

We decided that this would also be where we got lunch as we had seen a café sign on the entry into the castle when we pulled into their parking area. However, we didn’t anticipate having to deal with a passel of French teenage girls who also happened to be visiting the castle at the same time when we got there. They were a bit annoying at times but we both have kids and patience and, in reality, they were fairly well behaved. We took quite a lot of pictures and Urqhart is a bit deceiving in how big it is, it may be in ruins but it is a series of ruins that is spread out quite a bit. Still a great place to visit if you’re in the area. I would ask that someone tell me why they thought it was a strategic location. If you read the history you will find that they got their asses kicked repeatedly. I just don’t think being on the low ground with you back against the water is very strategic.

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Damn that’s a big Trebuchet!
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Hey! Watch me lift this thing!
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I told you not to touch the balls! Now look where they put you!
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Loch Ness…Anyone see Nessie?
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After the castle we loitered on the curb and tried to figure out what to do next. I had grabbed a brochure of local attractions and one of them was the Glen Ord distillery in Muir of Ord with another being the Loch Ness monster museum in the opposite direction of the campsite. Hmm, Loch Ness monster museum or single malt Scotch whisky? Yeah, not much of a decision, off to find some Scotch! Muir of Ord was only 19 miles from Urqhart and the ride to it was a complete blast! Great curves up into the hills and beautiful views the entire way there!

As we came into Muir of Ord it was clear that we would need some assistance finding the distillery so we pulled over and I went into a little shop and asked the clerk where it was. We were close! OH SO CLOSE! She told us to continue down the road a bit, go over the bridge and we would see the sign; probably less than a mile from where we stopped to ask directions.

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We just missed the one tour so opted for the one that started in 30 minutes and, would be the last one of the day. By the time the tour started we were joined by two elderly couples that were traveling together. In all there were 6 of us on the tour and it was quite nice with such a small group. If you have never done a distillery tour, take the time to do one. It is absolutely fascinating and amazing how they get such an incredible drink out of barley. Here is a site that has info about the distillery as I could not find a site that was their own, http://www.discovering-distilleries.com/glenord.

At the end of the tour was a tasting but, being on motorcycles, we only tasted the one that they primarily made. It was incredible! I don't normally care for Scotch but, I have only had the blended stuff, this was a 12 year old single malt called Singleton and it was damn good! Unfortunately, it is currently only sold at the distillery and in the Asian market sector; guess I just have to go back to get a case. I did buy a bottle of Singleton and a bottle of Cao Ila which I also found that I liked.

We talked a bit to the tour guide who was an interesting fellow; he was following in his father’s footsteps as his father had also worked in a distillery and he regaled us with stories his father told about smuggling whisky out of the distillery. Very entertaining and quite enjoyable but, our time was up so, we headed back to camp. We had a nice surprise when we got back! Another camper had shown up when we go there and the young woman who was just finishing setting up was HOT! Seriously, she was a looker! Too bad she was with a bunch of bicyclists of which one was her boyfriend; I think we could have taken them! Oh well, not like either of us could take advantage of it anyway; at least we confirmed on our ride back that there was a nice little restaurant about a tenth of a mile down the street on the edge of Drumnadrochit proper called Loch Ness Inn.

Nice place, great beer and attractive staff, the women that is.
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I pulled the picture off a site that gave info on the Inn, that weblink is:
http://www.laterooms.com/en/hotel-reservat...-inverness.aspx

We enjoyed a good meal, several beers and then walked back fat and happy to our campsite where we prepared for the next day’s ride before turning in. Although we didn't do the long ride originally intended it was still a good day and a needed break. Urqhart was enthralling and the distillery absorbing so the day was still a great day. Before we close out this chapter, let’s get a couple of photos of the campsite. Sorry, we didn't get any of the hot chick.

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Next installment...Happy Birthday too me!
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