Off to Scotland
So, it was some kind of decided that I had to go and see my godson, and his mom and dad at some point, and as I anyway haven’t been to Scotland (that is outside Edinburgh) why not take the bike and spend some time in the highlands.
There was a few places I wanted to see;
- Applecross, which is mostly due to Monty Halls’ Great Escape, and the famous road going across the mountain
- John O’Groats, which is mainly due to Ewan & Charley
- The west coast, as it’s supposed to be stunning.
After the silly question; “where to go” on ukgser.com, and getting a few hints, reading a couple of ride reports, and playing around with Roadtrip to plan a route, which would take me to the places I wanted to see I booked the tunnel. Right there is always something which goes wrong, and I had to postpone my depature a few days, and ended up taking the ferry from IJmuiden (Amsterdam) to Newcastle.
Day 1 (Sep ‘8) -- 87km
Nothing special except for the normal unpleasantness of driving on the highways in Holland.
Day 2 (Sep 9) -- 699km (incl. ferry)
Right, so this thing about riding on the left side… what is that about, oooohhhh shit it real… well hey I can do this, roundabout what the f… I hope I figure out how to do this or I’ll be dead shortly.
Finally found a main road of off to north it went, still with a bit of wobbling, but I got as far as the Scottish border.
And finally to Edinburgh. Someone forgot to tell me that parking in that City is kind of a mess, but got the beast put a side, and hey we are here, and no scratches!….
Day 3,4 (Sep 10,11) -- 0km
Just hanging around, walking, pub’s and photos
Day 5 (Sep 12) -- 226km (from noon)
I did pass through Stirling, and yes I did think about the castle, but could not really be bothered to stop, maybe next time. Otherwise not a bad day, except that getting used to this ‘left side thing’ seams to be more difficult than I expected.
Day 6 (Sep 13) -- 347km
Up not too early, and off the the ferry to Skye, got to the ferry and a very nice gentleman asked if I was there for the ferry to Skye, and very politely told me that there might not be enough space…. turned out to be fine
45 minutes later I was on Skye. There have always (in my memory) been a lot of talk about Skye, the black mountains, etc, etc, I am sorry to say that I was a bit disappointed, but it was nice though, like the back mountains.
Off Skye using the bridge, hummm, almost as fun as a slice of bread (yo, me from Denmark, we know how to do big bridges:-)), and it seams that now the fun really started -- welcome to vacation driving.. hummm relaxed not really but fun it was.
Now lots of people have talked about that famous road going to Applecross, and as one have to have as much fun in life as possible why not.
Now there are limits to my likings of silly roads, I have to admit that this was kind of on the edge of being mad, but the view towards Skye was awesome.
I had kind of hoped that it would be possible to get a room at the Inn, but no such luck. Ended up at the camping in one of the hut’s -- which by accident I shared with a personality who snorred like I don’t know what.
The good thing about that was that I ran in to another tosser by the name Gary -- which made the whole thing worth while.
Day 7 (Sep 14) -- 313km
Up early after having slept 3 hours, note to one self; next time bring tent!.
Sunset at Applecross can give a nice opportunity for a great photo or two
Now roads are small, winding, and in some cases right on the edge to the sea, and in many cases 200ft up, and no railing to stop one from taking a plunge into the sea, but it’s the “small” rocks which stops one from trying to see if it’s possible.
So driving north from Applecross, I did my best to find every little road possible, and was mostly successful as there isn’t much else.
The view was in many cases quite amazing
Found this really neat small hotel, which for ~£90 servered both dinner and breakfast, the dinner was something which could make me go back -- the best I’ve had for years.
Day 8 (Sep 15) -- 331km
Off fairly early, which in my world is before 9am.. and that is only while I’m on vacation.
Up north there is lots of nothing, and ruins.
Followed the wee small roads (one of them was B871) a bit south (ran in to Gary again!), and then back up to the road going to John O’Groats, well now I was there why not to got the most northenly point of Scotland which is Dunnet Head (I didn’t know that either -- but there was a sign).
Coming up next John O’Groats, which by the way closes down 5pm in the afternoon….
Still wonder why Ewan & Charley got to the idea of starting Long Way Down from there and no Dunnet Head… guess we’ll never know.
Ended up staying at a not too pleasent (but cheap Hotel in Wick -- £40 incl. dinner and breakfeast)
Day 9 (Sep 16) -- 383km
Lock Ness here we come, well I was in for a disappointment, but why not go explorer the small roads..
One can find some stunning views even down “south”.
Ended up staying in a B&B in Carbridge -- the owner had to point out that they did not have single rooms, and a double would be expensive; £30….
Ended up sitting in the local Pub getting fairly drunk talking to some Irish bus drivers… not a bad way to end a day….
Day 10 (Sep 17) -- 453km
Yet even more small roads around the different distilleries, didn’t stop at one, until I got to Dalwhinnie, and this is where one find out that there is a bad thing to bikes -- not enough room for all the bottles one wants to buy at a distillery. Ended up getting 4 small bottles instead, which is not too bad at all -- more things to try.
Also by accident ran in to another tosser (Tunip), I can’t really say where as I was utterly lost at that point. Funny enough Tunip was one of the people who had something to say about where to go in Scotland when I asked around.
Ended up in Edinburgh, where well, that is a completely different story.
Day 11 (Sep 18) -- 825km
Imagine, getting woken up by a 21 months old baby… not good at all.
Right Calais here we come (or as far as possible), that was the plan.
First off to Lancashire to see some friends, took the small roads down from Edinburgh, got on the motorway, and off I went.
Got kind of delayed in Lancashire, and did not really get away until 7pm, and still had to get my head around thing thing of driving on the left side on motorways -- in England (a bit different from Scotland).
Got to Birmingham where the signs started to give indications of major road work around London (M25 is supposed to be the longest parking in the world), well it was going fine, so I decided to continue….
Got around London, and then suddenly there was Folkestone, where I figured out it’s the exit before the Euro Tunnel where the hotel(s) are.. and the next train was in ~40 minutes, so why not (the time at that point was 1.12am -- UK time)….
And on top of the long, and tedious ride… so I got the check in, I asked to get my departure date changed, they asked for my ticket, handed over my reservation, they asked for the ticket, I told them that they had that, they told me that without an outbound ticket the return ticket is invalid…. ended up getting a new return ticket….. grrrr…..
Finally got on the train, booorrrrriiinnnngggg
Got to Calais, went to the Ibis, asked for a room (local time 3.10am), and did not have any problems sleeping.
Day 12 (Sep 19) -- 311km
Got up around 9am, went to Tescos in the shopping mall to see if I could get some tea -- now way, they only deal in alcohol -- oh well…
Almost an uneventful ride home, except for the shitty Dutch drivers….
More photos here
Including ferry, 3975km in 12 days…. (excluding ferry ~3500km)
69.7km/h in avg. 50 hours, 17 minutes.
Would I go back, yep with out a doubt, maybe next year. After I’ve done Ireland…
(update 01-01-2010: added video)
technorati tags: Scotland, Applecross, John O’Groats