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 8, 17 May 2009 – Hello your Majesty!

It’s been a long while since I updated our trip, I’ve been somewhat busy with other things to include a vacation back in the UK and Ireland and then having to work on the Teener to solve the oil leak problem. Nevertheless, here is the second to the last post for this journey.

So today would be an easy day for the most part but a lot longer than anticipated but, we’ll get to that. The morning found us up early with the soft patter of rain outside our window at the Strathmore Arms Hotel. First order of business was to pack up and then go and find a bite to eat. Didn’t take us long to load everything up and I took the time to see if I could find a place to eat not far from the castle with the TomTom.

Since Glamis is not far from Dundee and Dundee is a fairly decent size city I located a Little Chef about 12 miles from Glamis on the A90 on the outskirts of Dundee. As a bonus, we were able to take a back route to get to the restaurant and played the game of counting pheasants along the route. We literally stumbled across a passel of pheasants both on the road, on the side of the road and in the fields as they were doing their early morning meal seeking. I counted about 7 of the birds and they kinda made me hungry!

I would have stopped to get pictures but there was no real shoulder to pull over too and I am pretty sure they would have bolted before I could get a camera out. We also stumbled on a couple of rather sharp turns that caught us by surprise and were not well marked! It was one of those, ‘OH SHIT’ moments when you suddenly find yourself coming in a bit too hot and having to adjust so you don’t cross over into the other lane. We ran the same route back but we were ready for it the second time! To complicate things, the roads were still a bit damp and slick but thankfully, the rain had pretty much abated by the time we got to the Little Chef.

Breakfast was uneventful and we took our time as Glamis didn’t open until 1000 and we had pushed out at about 0730. Many coffees later we finally got back on the road and headed back to Glamis castle. This time the sharp turn was fun as we chose a good line and leaned hard into it slinging out quickly on the other end. Well, at least I thought it was fun, whether Lee did or not is debatable. We still arrived at the castle early and took the time to get some photos of the gates with us in it. As you will see, the sun had come out and it was getting quite warm!

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After a bit of waiting the gates opened up and we motored on down to the castle, paid our tour price and got what I call Porn Star Parking right next to the castle. It’s not Star parking as that would put us at the door step but it is good enough to be Porn Star parking and here are the pictures to prove it!

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Well, after walking around a bit we went on the tour and then came out and took pictures. Unfortunately, there is no photo taking allowed in the castle so you just get views of the outside. For those that don’t know, Glamis Castle is the home to the late Queen Elizabeth, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon or Queen Mother as she is affectionately called by the British. It was a great tour and a beautiful place; I highly recommend paying a visit if you’re in the area. Here is their website if you want more info; http://www.glamis-castle.co.uk/

Front side of Glamis
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Backside of Glamis
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Hello? Anyone wanna let us in???
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After a thoroughly enjoyable time at Glamis it was time to be on our way to meet up with Bongo in Corbridge and say our tearful goodbyes to Scotland. Before we departed Scotland though, we intended to stop at Edinburgh for a visit then push on to Corbridge. I had adjusted our route to come straight down the A68 per Bongo’s suggestion as it would take us straight into Corbridge and would be a scenic route. Unfortunately, I don’t have a shot of our route this time around as I programmed it in segments on the GPS.

The ride down to Edinburgh was an easy ride with gentle turns and some pretty scenery and since the rain had dissipated the sun did a good job of drying the roads as we made our way down. Once we got into Edinburgh we ran into a bit of trouble as the road that normally goes up to the castle was closed for some work and there was no easy way to get to where we wanted. The other issue was finding a place to park our bikes in the middle of a very busy city where we could keep an eye on them and eat lunch! We lucked out on a parking spot for motorcycles that had a direct line of site into the Hard Rock Café, Edinburgh. So off we went for a bite to eat.

Before leaving we asked a waitress how to get to the castle. She said it was easy, just go here, turn left there, run up here and your there….yeah, right! Edinburgh traffic is horrendous if you’ve never been there and add to it the influx of tourist buses and the fact that it was lunch time and you have the making of anarchy at its best! We rode around the damn place pretending we were artillery rounds as we bracketed the castle but couldn’t quite hit it! I finally pulled over and talked to Lee and made the decision that we would bail on seeing Edinburgh as we were starting to run late and I had told Bongo that we would get there between 1500 and 1700. 1700 would be closer to the time we finally arrived.

Disappointedly, we began our navigation out of Edinburgh and surprisingly, neither one of us were killed as we tried to make sense of the different lanes of traffic and some rather interesting intersections. I think riding uphill in gravel, with large rocks would have been easier than trying to find our way out of Edinburgh! We eventually made it out and began our run out of beautiful Scotland. Although I was excited to meet up with a fellow Drifter rider I was saddened that we were departing what had truly been an amazing location to ride with the friendliest people we could ever hope to meet.

Evidently today was also a day for a local car club as we came across a line of Ferarris and Porsches that were also motoring down the A68. It was amusing as we got stuck behind a rather large truck with the Ferarri on the tail end of the group and in front of us. As a spot opened up, all the Porsches and other cars zipped around the truck but the poor Ferarri was left stuck behind him motoring along at about 40 mph and unable to pass. His buddies didn’t seem to care as they were long gone by the time we were able to get around the truck. The Ferarri hammered the pedal and left us in the dust shortly after getting clear road ahead but we were just happy take our time and move along at a good clip enjoying the ride.

Scotland had one last trick to throw at us as we made our way back into England, about 1 kilometer from the border of Scotland and England at a point called the Carter Bar along the A68, we hit an ‘S’ turn that kinda snuck up on us a bit. Not that there weren’t any warnings, no, we just didn’t expect it to be as sharp as it was nor did we expect it to be as steep as it was as we gained altitude fast! Still, it was a great little trick to throw at us right before we crossed back into England; just a bit of amusement for the Scots as we cross over back into England.

Hey who the F*** put that there??!!
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Carter Bar
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As you hit the border you come across a little rest area. This is where you get to say goodbye to Scotland and hello to England. Oh yeah, they got a cool rock and you can get pictures too!

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As you can see, we had to stop! Photo op done, we once again mounted up and headed out. The A68 runs through the Northumberland National Park and is a beautiful little ride with little traffic and peaceful scenery. We passed through many small towns that had the old colonial feel to them once we got out of the park and had just a great time cruising down the road in no particular hurry enjoying the scenery.

We did find a peculiar sign as we began our final push past Bingfield towards Corbridge. A sign that said, ‘Blind summit.’ Hmm, so exactly what does this mean? Well, it means steep hill AND, you can’t see over to the other side! Think of it this way, take two playing cards, now, balance them to make a little mountain. Next, imagine that you are on one side going up it and have no friggin clue what the hell is on the other side! That my friend is a blind summit. You get to experience the stomach in the chest sensation as you top the summit and suddenly start flying down the hill. It is almost like being on a roller coaster and just as fun!

Soon enough we rode into Corbridge and it was now time to figure out where the heck Bongo lived. Well, we literally got to a point where we were in front of his house but my TomTom was telling me he was on the other side of the road. Bongo evidently heard us, or me, and came out of his house and flagged us down; we were there. Good thing too as the weather was turning a bit cold and rain clouds were moving in. I didn’t get any pictures of Bongo until the next day but here is a picture of our gracious host. It is unfortunate that I didn’t get any pictures of Bongo’s lovely wife Jay.

Bongo’s Officially Sanctioned Roman Motorcycle Helmet
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First order of business, unload the bikes and put them in the garage! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Bongo was quite happy to see that my whitewall tires were no longer white! Malcolm had taken a picture of the bike when we met him in London and had posted it and Bongo was trying to figure out how the hell I had kept my whitewalls white for over 600 miles.

After getting things unloaded and changing out of our riding gear, it was time to start up the grill and start drinking beer! Our plan for the next day was NOT to get an early start as the only thing we had to do was be at the ferry to Amsterdam by 1400. Before then we would head over to visit Hadrian’s wall then let Bongo lead us around.

So the grill got started and beer got opened and somewhere around midnight, after a thoroughly enjoyable evening, we finally headed off to bed. Bongo and Jay were the most gracious and entertaining hosts that I have had in quite a long time and the camaraderie is sorely missed.

So ended our second to the last day in the UK as we would be boarding a ferry tomorrow for the Netherlands and debarking in Amsterdam. Before we were to leave however, we had just a bit more riding in the UK to do.

Ahh yes, ponder the might of the oh wall middle aged jedi for on the other side lies the vicious and savage Picts! And they make a damn fine Whisky too! (IMG:http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj217/stephenaki/Scotland%20Ride/IMG_0697.jpg)