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]

OK, Day 5 should have actually been day 6 as we are now on Day 7, 16 May 2009 and making our way home.

One would have imagined that the climax of our adventure would be reaching our goal of John O' Groats. Although it was an exhilarating ride to get to JoG it was almost anti-climactic when we got there. I will attribute this to the fact that we were both pretty tired from fighting the wind most of the way up and I think the added tension on some of the single track also took a physical toll on us. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)

You don't quite realize the amount of physical energy it takes to ride a motorcycle a long distance until you finish the trip. Neither one of us are out of shape, no we are probably in better shape than most being military but motorcycle riding is different from any other activity in how you use your muscles. Not a lot of big muscle movement but a significant amount of small muscle and support muscle movement that drain your energy over long periods of time. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/slap.gif)

Good thing the Scots and Brits like to have pubs in their hotels because there is nothing better than drowning your weariness in beer! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif) Which is exactly what we did that evening as the day was turning to evening and along with it came rain, lots of it. After a beer or three we headed back to the room and prepped our helmets for what we assumed would be another wet day and discussed our return and our plans when we reached Amsterdam. Truth of it is we didn't really 'plan' anything; we were just going to wing it! Before we got that far however, we had a stopover in Forfar and Corbridge along the way.

The morning found things wet, and we had done some planning the night before that I would load up my bike and pull it out across the street and then Lee would ride his to the parking lot and load his gear there. The reason for this is the hotel management allowed us to put our bikes in a small narrow courtyard of sorts between the two buildings and there was very little room to maneuver. I was positioned the best as I brought my bike in after Lee so had room to load my bike but, I had to get it out of the way for Lee to ride his out of the courtyard. In addition, Lee needed to expand his panniers to load them but he wouldn't be able to get the bike through the small gate opening if the panniers were expanded.

In truth, with Lee's panniers, it was not a big deal as it took him no time at all to load what gear he had in his cases. It takes a bit longer to load my bike as I have to strap things on then zip them up then throw on the rain cover. We still got out by 0700 and were off and running, in the rain, and cold, and clouds. Clouds? What the hell are you talking about? OK, it wasn't really a cloud we rode through, no, it was fog so thick you couldn't see 2 feet in front of you!

We'll get to that in a minute but first, as is now customary, let’s look at the map!

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As you looked at the map, you will have noticed that we would cut through what looks to be a rather secluded and scenic road near Huntley. Remember that point as we will get to that bit of our tale a bit down the narrative.

As was also customary, we were out early so would find breakfast later on down the road; off we rode into the damp morning with a steady patter of rain beating upon us. As we began our trip down the eastern coast of Scotland we were greeted with vistas of waves crashing against the shore, some beaches scattered along the route and long tall grass bending with the wind. We could see this despite the rain and although it was wet, it was still pleasant as it wasn’t a torrential downpour. As we got closer to Helmsdale we began a decent into a valley and it was at this point that we ran into a mixture of rain, mist and then thick fog.

I had been flipping my visor up and down throughout the ride as it kept fogging up on me because of the slow speeds in some of the areas. Well, this had the effect of getting the inside of my visor misted up a bit along with the outside, add fog to the mix and I basically couldn’t see SHIT! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) I literally slowed down to a crawl and I could see that Lee had popped on his hazards to make sure people saw us. I finally saw what was meant to be a scenic pull off and pulled in with Lee following behind stopping with a bit of relief.

I took off my helmet and damn, It’s not just my helmet, the fog is thick as hell! I looked at Lee and said, ‘dude! I can’t see a F------ thing!’ He was pretty much in the same boat as his vision wasn’t much better. We talked about it a bit and Lee said, ‘whadya wanna do?’ Too which I replied, ‘well, we can’t stay here all day waiting for the fog to lift, but I’m a bit concerned about people flying up behind us.’ Almost as if it was scripted a big ass truck with a flatbed comes screaming down the road past us. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/new_shocked.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/new_shocked.gif)

We both kinda looked at it, looked at each other and mentally said, ‘fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!’ Well, I made a decision that we would just have to press on and told Lee to put his flashers on when we pulled out as I figured the fog would clear as we got further into the valley.

So off we went into the abyss of moisture; onward as brave souls or stark raving mad lunatics with a modicum of hope that the abyss would pass and our way would clear. Onward and downward we spiraled, I looking through what appeared to be a window of specks and distortion with Lee bravely serving as a beacon to two daft riders on a wet spring morning fervently hoping that no more behemoths of steel would pounce upon our vulnerable state. As fate would have it, the abyss parted within a mile as we got lower in the valley and we rode out triumphantly from the clouds of doom greatly allowing our nether regions to unpucker!

On retrospect, I wish I had gotten the camera out to take a shot of the crap we were in but it wasn’t just foggy, it was also still raining and I didn’t want to have to deal with it. As the road unraveled its mysteries we found ourselves closer to sea level which kept us out of the fog but, the rain continued to plague our trek lightening up a bit as we reached Dunrobin. It was at Dunrobin that I spotted a sign to the castle there and we took our first detour of the day. If you google the place you will see that it is a nice place but we didn’t do much more than stop and take a gander as the weather was crappy and we were getting hungry.

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Back on the road and in search of food! As we continued on we once again came to the Dornoch Firth and I did a side trip through Tain on the southern side of the Firth to see if we could find a place to eat with no luck. It wasn’t until we passed Allnes on the northern side of the Cromarthy Firth that we saw a sign for food in Evanton next to Novar Toll. We pulled off onto the B9176 and almost immediately saw a travel stop about a mile before Novar Toll. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/chowtime.gif) We gratefully pulled in, dismounted and made our way into the restaurant which was what we were not, warm and dry.

We both ordered the traditional big ass English breakfast with pork and beans and took turns finding the bathroom. It was at this point that Lee told me that his boots were wet. I had put on my rain overboots but Lee had not and although he had treated his boots, it wasn’t enough to defend his feet from an hour or more in constant rain. I offered my overboots to him as the rain seemed to be lightening up but he declined stating that his feet were wet but not cold, his choice.

Within short order our meals showed up and we began to feast like ravenous beasts which might be why people kinda looked at us funny and sat as far away from us as possible. Of course it might have also been the sight of Lee with his burgeoning beard and wild mountain man look or the feral look of the wet and crazed Chinaman next to him. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) In either case, no one bothered us and we basked in the warmth of the restaurant and the warmth that a full belly brought.

Feeling a bit warmer and recharged from the food we got back on the bikes and hit the road again. My original route had us stopping at Brodie Castle but we bypassed it instead and we came into Elgin at which point my GPS seemed to send us on a rather odd route. What the hell is going on? Well there must be a reason so let’s just see where it takes us. Suddenly, a set of ruins appears in front of us; oh yeah, I saw this on the internet and programmed it in to the GPS! I had forgotten that I had spotted what looked like a cool photo opportunity at a set of gothic stone gates. It was the ruins of Elgin Abbey which was built in the 13th century but fell into disuse and ruins in the 15th and 16th century. Quite a fascinating place that I recommend you see if you’re in the area.

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We got there a bit late and the place was closing for lunch so we just took pictures from the outside and walked around before mounting up and heading back out for Huntly. You remember my mentioning of Huntly earlier in the narrative? Well, we got to Huntly and the GPS began to take us on another rather odd route. I figured it had to do with my wanting to branch off of the A96 and head down the A97 instead. Well, it wasn’t until I looked more closely at the map today that I realized what happened.

As we got into Huntly we began going down a road that took us through a residential neighborhood and into what looked like a park area. The road went from pavement to gravel and potholes and my exhaust, according to Lee, did several dunks underwater when my tail hit the rather large and deep potholes. As we got to the waypoint on my TomTom we saw a sign that said, “Road Closed.” Guess we’re not going down THAT road! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) I had thought at the time that it was the secondary road, A97, that I had wanted to traverse. Nope turns out, it was actually a road leading towards a rather palatial residence and once we hit the waypoint, the TomTom rerouted us back along the A96. This was due in part to the fact that I chose the “fastest route” option when I loaded the route. Had I chosen the, “avoid highways” option it would have taken us down the A96 as I originally intended.

So off we went back down the gravel and pothole laden road with my street cruiser making my exhaust play submariner games. Lee on the other hand was having a grand ole time as this was exactly the type of roads the GS was made for. Back out onto the A96 and onward to Aberdeen eventually getting onto the A90 all the way into Forfar. It was our trip out of Elgin that gave me the most problems as my rear end broke loose twice on a couple of roundabouts. I think I hit a couple of patches of oil that the rain had brought up but it definitely ramps your pulse up a bit when your back end suddenly decides it wants to scoot out from under you!

As we came into Forfar we headed straight for our intended target, Glamis Castle. Glamis castle is actually about 3 to 4 miles southeast of Forfar along the A94 in the town of Glamis. As we pulled into Glamis and followed the signs to the castle we found a bed and breakfast about a 200 yards away from the castle gates called the Strathmore Arms Hotel. We decided to see how much they cost and figured we would bed down there for the evening rather than try to find a campsite. You can find them if you do a Yahoo or Google search but only as a reviewed hotel. The place was being remodeled and was affordable with a nice restaurant and pub on the property. We took a room that hadn’t been remodeled yet as it was cheaper.

The service was great and the management let us use their washer and dryer to do a load of laundry free of charge! Personally I would recommend them, if you read some of the reviews however, not everyone had as pleasant an experience as we did. After getting set up and dropping our load we walked on over to Glamis castle. Well, they were closed by this time so instead we muddled around the town, took some pictures then headed off to have dinner and a few beers. Our journey for today was done and tomorrow we would pack up an head out to the castle for a visit before heading off to Corbridge to meet Bongo, a fellow Vulcan Drifters Owners Group UK (VDOG UK) club member. I did give Bongo a call and made sure he was ready for us but the tale of our stay will have to wait until the next installment. To tide you over, here are some of the pictures that day before we got to see the castle proper.

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Next up, we visit the Queen Mum’s birthplace and say a teary eyed goodbye to Scotland.
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