Thursday 11th June - The Outward leg.
Route – BP, M6, M74, M8, A82, A87 mileage approx 380.
Weather – Dry, couple of 5 min showers, sunny spells.
Journey time – approx 9hrs - Leave BP 9:45 arrive Sheil bridge approx 19:00
Evening meal - Kintail Lodge, 12 mins 0.8 mile walk from B&B, Fish & Chips plus x pints Red Cuillin Skye beer – excellent.
B&B - Newly decorated, rooms clean, good cooked breakfast including cereals fruit juice, toast, tea and coffee. Situated alongside stream/river (burn?) In sight of bridge from which Sheil Bridge takes it’s name. B&B Dog (black lab) very friendly. Rooms not en-suite, only one guest bathroom plus use of household bathroom, but at £20pp B&B, ain’t exactly Hilton Hotel prices! Good value for money. Mandy our host German/Scottish girl very helpful… scrambled eggs with onions, how odd, but tasty!!
Friday 12th June - Isle Of Skye
Route – Sheil Br, Kyle Of Lochalsh, Portree, Dunvegan, Talisker beach, Kylerhea, Ferry, Glenelg, Sheil Br. mileage approx 149 (on M/cycle) 2 on foot (but felt like a lot more) less than 0.5 on ferry.
Weather – flags cracking all around us all day.
Portree – Cute harbour, fair coffee & cake (spray cream !!)
Dunvegan –“Highland Ordnance - for all your shooting needs” Air rifle, 12 bore AK47 Vickers water cooled GPMG, Dave(M) woulda loved it. Plus they sold Motorcycle accessories: helmets to mopeds.
Talisker – Distillery (obviously) £5 each. Mad Mancunian “Uisge Beatha” sold me a bottle of whisky (£50 yikes! only available at distillery) and a tee shirt. Scrounged a lapel badge though. Told us about Talisker (Talis Ger) beach where the sea otters played worth every bit of the 10 minutes walk (ha!) good tour though. Krozzies distillery starts soon ……
KyleRhea – Glenelg – swivel deck ferry £5 each, a bit steep but he is trying to fight the bridge and commercially can’t win so is screwing the tourists, worth the trip…once. Intriguingly another large boat (ship?) passed by whilst crossing the sound, requiring us all to hang onto our bikes as the wash from the ship hit the ferry. Roads to and from the ferry especially nadgery, but again worth the trip.
Evening meal - Kintail Lodge again Mussels, Pasta Carbonara plus x pints Red Cuillin Skye beer – excellent again.
Saturday 13th June - Applecross-Gairloch
Route – Sheil Br, Auchtertyre, Strome ferry (no ferry), Lochcarron, Applecross, Fearnmore, Sheildaig, Kinlochewe, Badachro, Gairloch, Kinlochewe, Achnasheen, strathcarron, Kyle of Lochalsh (CP), Sheil Br. mileage approx 188.
Weather – Dry all day, high thin cloud, sunny spells.
Roads and road going fauna (lambs, deer) were the feature today. Usual Scottish fare UNITL we hit the mini/scottish version of the Stelvio pass between Tornapress and Applecross. Zigzags, vertical hairpins … fantastic but a little scary when confronted on the right by a knobhead in a Mondeo and on the left by a 400foot drop … tell me again passing places are for what?
Applecross Inn, Coffee and excellent date cake. Plus Scottish Harley driver…more of him later…..
Trip around the coast usual single track fare. Where do we put the passing place? right on the vanishing point, to confuse and slow down the bikers!! Nearly killed me a lamb which was trying to chase it’s mother across the road, stopped in time though, far too many of the new Japanese sheep breed in Scotland – the “Kamikaze whiteface”
Kinlochewe, petrol stop, who pulls up? … the Harley driver from Applecross, Steve’s new friend … tells us about the “most picturesque pub in the highlands” and otters playing (sounds familiar this) in the water at a place called Badachro. Visited anyway, good coffee.
Gairloch – furthest point north of this trip. No big boats moored up made a mental note to try Gareloch (Faslane) 200 miles to the south on the way home.
Kinlochewe to Achnasheen road on the way back, Bambi (young red Doe) jogs alongside Ian for a few yards. Ian, having been here before and bought the tee shirt (well Nigel actually paid for it), backs off just as bambi turns right in front of him… must be the midges which turn the local fauna suicidal.
Called into Kyle on the way back to make sure we had enough cash to pay for the B&B, only a 16 mile detour (!!), still don’t time fly when you’re having fun.
Evening meal - Kintail lodge yet again Scallops, Steak (8 oz but looked more like 12 maybe Scottish ounces are Biggar) chips, plus x pints Red Cuillin Skye beer – still, excellent.
Steve and Val went for a romantic midnight stroll back to the pub, under the pretence of searching for Steve’s allegedly lost wallet, which turned out to be in their bedroom all the time. Steve tells a good story though. Kintail Lodge staff offered to loan money … and if anyone else had offered, we’d have been able to fund Krozzies distillery (and they say the people of Scotland are careful with money, it’s a lie)
Sunday 14th June – Homeward bound
Route – Sheil Br, Invergarry, Fort William, Oban, Lochgilphead, Inveraray, Arrochar, Gareloch(Faslane),Helensburgh, Erskine Br, M8, M74, M6, split for home, mileage approx 450.
Weather – Started Dry & Sunny, until Inverary cloudy threatening, put on wets couple of showers nothing scary, spot of rain (!!) just before Erskine bridge though.
Paid off Mandy she looked a bit worried when Ian paid his £60 then walked away before I paid my £60, then all was well again. All packed VERY carefully (remember the £50 bottle of whisky from Friday) and away by 09:00 (ish).
Always sad to be on the way home from holiday. No dramas though. Stopped for a Coffee and scone (best of the trip) at Castle Stalker on Loch Laich just north of Oban, sat in the sun on their patio.
Onward to Lochgilphead, petrol stop.
Onward to Inveraray, relief and ice cream stop. Weather now heavy cloud, rained a bit, but by Arrochar had stopped.
Onward past Faslane (peace camp, damned hippies) no military craft moored up – sadly, to Helensburgh bright sunshine again contemplating taking wets off.
In Dumbarton Steve points out a very dark sky “we may get a bit of a sun shower” says he just as we watched an impressive forked lightning bolt. Bit further on heavens opened, decided to take refuge under the canopy of a petrol station along with many of the Scottish Sunday riders. 45 mins later rain stopped, road flooded foot and a half deep, closed by StrathClyde Plod … no viable alternative route (Plod suggested a 32 mile detour!! via Drymen!!). Gave up went for coffee which turned into a carvery at the pub (that was lucky stranded in a petrol station with adjoining pub). 2 hour hold up, eventually local council came and unblocked the drains, road cleared.
This meant motorway all the way home 200 miles, last 146 miles of it none stop!! Still had to be done, work Monday, arrived home 23:05
Mileage recorded before trip 49121
Mileage recorded on arrival home 50288
Total Honda miles 1167.
Note:
BMW miles are in Euros so you get more or less depending on the prevailing exchange rate,
Yamaha miles specially adjusted by -30% to improve servicing life
Suzuki miles same length as Honda miles, they just move quicker, left unchecked