Friday 31 October 2014

18 Off to Bonnie Scotland

No sooner do we land home from France, and Al has his maps out.  Seems he's been watching the 'Escape to the Country' show where they showed the Moray area of Scotland saying how it has the lowest rainfall in all of the often wet country.  Seems we don't need a passport to go there now, though it was distinct possibility a couple of months ago!

Al's tried out  a new feature on iMovie to make a 'trailer' for trips and came up with this bit of a taster....  He thinks he's a movie maestro now...



Anyway, plans made and Al has decided that we'll be wild camping (what on earth is that?) and using youth hostels (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ouch, that'll be another rib broken!).


Sunday 26th October 2014
We set off at daft o-clock, well not really, quite a modest 9.30 in the morning and head slowly north.  The plan is to take in a few sights using a scenic route up the A1 too.  I know, I thought that as well, the A1 - scenic??? but actually he's right, not bad at all.

Once north of Tyneside it is typically one lane each way and diversions off are easily tempting.  Here's our brief stop at Warkworth Castle



You know it's not that cold considering the time of year,  It was 6deg C when we set off, but soon warmed (!) to 14deg C  - steaming!

Up the Northumbrian coast coast was stunning.  The views as you navigate the coastline of the north sea are beautiful and at first you don't realise it because we're so close to the sea, the main rail line is between you and the sea.  Must do that line sometime as it must be terrific on a good day.

Up through into Scotland and the wind is getting up, as the clouds get lower.  Al's getting bounced round quite a lot and I just hide in the panniers.  It's lashing with rain as we head out of the Edinburgh area and all the signs are warning that the Forth Bridge is shut to 'high siders' due to wind.  Al says 'it'll be fine, I'll just ride alongside a van as we cross over.  It doesn't say we can't go over.....yet'.

Sure enough, the signs start to include 'no motorbikes' so we divert and get lost!!! At least it stops raining.  Al thinks he can do better that the suggested route and although we find some lovely roads we also find Grangemouth too.  What a shit-hole (oops sorry, but it is)  One h-u-g-e- oil complex, at least the petrol's cheap, so we fill up nearby.



Once over the bridge (not sure which one) we head on; the sun comes out and the views return, fantastic!

We head onwards and upwards.  The weather stays clear and we join the A93 from Perth.  What a cracking road!  At Braemar we see the light is starting to fade and the temperature starts to drop, but then we are really climbing....

Into the Cairngorms proper, now.  The last run towards Tomintoul was terrific but whoa was it windy....  At one point Al had the bike leaning to the right, but heading round a sharp left bend with a severe drop to the left... the wind was trying to push us over the edge.  Al made out that it was fine, but I could tell it had been a strain as he later complained about having stiff arms and shoulders from this ride, blaming the extra weight from my luggage - cheeky so and so!

We arrive at Tomintoul for a night in the Youth Hostel, it's dark now.  It gets darker up this far north a lot quicker than it does down south.  Al sneaks me in so we only have to pay the £10 per night fee once!

We don't get ourselves organised properly to go out for our tea.  Al is too busy chatting to two of the others stopping here tonight, so it ends up being packet savoury rice, quite tasty really.

One of our new friends was a guy from down south, he'd booked for five nights here.  Using the train he'd brought his pedal cycle here for a ride/walk holiday based round here (bit hilly me thinks!),  the other is a girl from,Belgium, or was it Holland?  She was on a motoring holiday in a hired Fiat 500 (ha good luck on the uphill stretches then!).  She seemed to live for travel and only worked long enough to scrape enough together to get away once more.

Off to bed to find our dorm stank... the cyclist guy clearly sweats in his cycling kit during the day and so it 'dries' off in the dorm, hanging over the bunk bed ends.  'No worries' says Al, it reminded him of his trip in 2000 (when????), on the ferry back after a couple of weeks of hard travel to and from Nordkap, camping, but with few showers.  He'd shared a small berth on the ferry and could even tell that his own boots stank so much, he made himself feel ill! - something about pay back he thinks.

Up early doors and we're off.  I hear Al tell the hostel woman that he'll see her later.  It seems we're doing a round trip today....





Monday 27th October 2014 
We head  back down towards Braemar.  The roads and the weather are great.  Heading up we pass by those ski-lifts for the winter weather, but it's still too warm, thankfully.



We stop at the Lochnagar Distillery...

Phew... worried for a moment, thought we were popping next door into Balmoral!  I have helmet hair, can't meet HRH looking like that!

We stumped up for a tour.  It turns out to be quite a small set up, but is used as a training centre for the distillers.

Gordon Muir lead us around.  There were a group of Dutch tourists in the group.  What they didn't know about whisky blimey!

A good tour, with wonderful heady aromas,  mmmmmmm



We carry on, but I'm a bit concerned... Al had no breakfast and now he's had a wee taster dram... that can't be right can it?

On towards Aberdeen we go.  It's a big town, seems friendly but we happy to get out the other end and hit the coastline heading north.

We stop in Cruden Bay, Sandy's got rellys that live here, but it's a short stop as were running a bit late.  Bright sharp sunshine is making this a fine day

We carry on northwards.

The roads are fantastic as they hug this coastline, up and down, twisting one way and then the other.

A young lad in a scooby-doo is making the most of it behind us and Al keeps him up to the challenge, yet we are seriously loaded!  Weeeee!


Our last target for the day was to get to the Scottish Dolphin Centre.

It's open until 5pm and we get there with just 10 minutes to go.  The cafe is shut although the lady at the counter did her best to get the boiler fired up for us.  She was really nice and stayed open for another 20 minutes, just chatting to us about the centre.

It'd be nice to come back here again when we've more time.  Outside it is now really dark.


We head back to the hostel in Tomintoul for the evening.  The weather is drizzling, but it's still mild.  A long day but a great one.  Tired, but happy, and an early turn in tonight.



Tuesday 28th October 2014

Today we travel further north.  The plan is to go to the Culloden museum before hitting the are of Inverness, but we are running late even before we set off.  Don't know why, we're just not up early enough or with the energy for a swift get away.

We do head off and beyond Grantown-on-Spey we make a turn off the road onto a small side road. I spot Al's GPS telling him it's a cup-de-sac but Al knows better, ah that's what he was doing this morning, looking at the maps.  I'd forgotten that until now we were doing routes that Al had planned and put into the sat nav last week.

We come across Dulsie Bridge, and this one is worth a stop at all right.  It's high up and the water crashing about below is fun to watch.



After a few more miles on the quiet back lanes we arrive at the Culloden museum.  In we go but it's clear that the expensive entry fee would not be worthwhile for the time we've got.  The clock is ticking and Al says we're camping tonight.  As it gets dark early this far north we need to be at the camp area by not long after 3pm if we're to get set up properly in daylight.  Perhaps we can fit in a visit on the way back south later in the week, it looks to be worth it.





We spot this bridge just before Culloden and I was dead excited, it's the Harry Potter Bridge isn't it?

No, says Al, that bridge is the Glenfinnan Viaduct towards the west coast.  This one is at Newlands on the B9006.  I'm so disappointed because it looks just like it.






After soup, coffee cake and a coffee we're off again.  Al's bought a broach in the shop at the museum for Sandy.  He had to pay 5p for the smallest paper bag, the charge is a legal requirement up here now, just like Wales.

Into Inverness and Al stops at a McDonalds!  Seems like we'd only just set off but when it's lunchtime, it seems you have to have lunch!

From there we join the A9, up the slip road and then a bit of a wobble.... Al is looking down.  It seems that he'd not properly zipped up the tank bag and something fell out and hit him before bouncing away onto the road at 70mph.  We do a circuit of 5 miles before we get back to the same point.  Ali's spitting feathers for being so stupid.  A check fails to find whatever it was.  A check of the contents shows that the iPhone, iPad and Kindle are still there... so what did fall out?  It seems to have been Sandy's present.  The paper bag had caught the wind and been whipped out of  tank bag as a result.  That 5p paper bag seems much more expensive now  :-(

The A9 views are enough to cheer Al up though. This is the bridge we cross as we go over the Moray Firth - spectacular!


On wards up the A9 we go.  The road hugs the coastline bit like the A1 does in Northumberland but better, closer and with more impressive views.  This is really a good road to ride and we don't stop at all being so toed up in the thrill of it.

We arrive at our site for the night and start to set up the tent, having called in at a shop for food goodies (we're camping remember?)

Al spent some time working out where to pitch the tent... he had done this before hasn't he?

It seems that where we've chosen is only just off the beach, behind a concrete block that's used to protect the shore from big waves.  Now is it just me, but is this really a good place to pitch a tent?  Al's looking hard at the waves, the state of the tide, the weather and then states confidently, "It'll be fine, doesn't look like these blocks have been pushed around by the waves too much"


Time will tell I guess!

All sorted then Al realises he must have lost the lighter to fire up the stove, along with Sandy's present, so he's off muttering about catching that shop, 8 miles away, before it shuts.

We get the stove off and running and soon there's a good tea going, fried sausage (quorn) buns and a large cup of tea - wonderful.  The beach is ours alone and it's getting dark, storms are brewing in them skies.....

Al wanders off to find a phone signal and has gone a mile when he finally gets one.  Then starts the most frustrating session of maybe 25 calls made with signal-lost signal, one sided calls and dropped calls.  It takes a further five calls just to say forget it, we'll try again tomorrow!

Back to the tent and it's dark.  Really dark, properly dark,  There is no light pollution here and the clouds stoop the stars too.  All you can hear are the waves crashing away.....

Ah well, might as well go to bed then... hang on, it's only 6.30pm.! But what else is there to do?

It's going to be a l-o-n-g night.... Out comes the Kindle and Al's really pleased that he didn't lose this earlier.  He's reading Hornblower, very topical what with the sea just outside!

The night passes slowly.  I keep thinking, that was a loud crashing wave, was it a big one, or was it just close?  - or big and close?

Out of the tent for a natural, or so says Al, not checking the surf eh?   "Wow!" he shouts,  not about the waves though (phew...), the sky is huge, zillions of bright stars on cloudless sky now.  Beautiful.







Anyway the night passes and we're up in time for dawn.




Stove lit to get some heat going.  Warmed hand round the flames and soon a steaming cup of tea is on the go.



Al fires the bike up (so he knows it's fine and spots the temperature gauge - it's 3deg C).  No wonder it felt cold!











A walk along the beach (ours remember) and we're stalked by a curious seal, bobbing up and down about 50m away in the gentle swell.  We don't mind sharing our beach with you mate

Monday 13 October 2014

17 Homeward bound

It is going to be a l-o-n-g day I hear.... we're up early and on the bike before daylight.  It's 380 miles the way we're going before we arrive at Calais because we're going to use a scenic and non-motorway route.   Then..... we'll head north for the rest of the280 miles home!!  I've done the decent thing of course and offered to split the ride but Al won't hear of it, says he'll be  fine.

One last view of our hotel;


So no more pictures I'm afraid. We headed off and made a good day of it.  Almost all riding and arrived home at 11pm some 660 miles done - phew!

Al says he's going to make up some map images to put on my blog pages so you can see where we've been each day, but don't hold your breath, seems like he's getting the bug and off again soon on the bike, muttering something about jocks and sassenachs - whatever they are!

Sunday 12 October 2014

16 Day 7 and Day 8 Avallon

Don't know why but 'Avallon' just makes me break out with Peter Kay's rendition of 'Amarillo'... oh well, never said I made sense....!

Not quite sure where we are, Al says it's central France somewhere.  Seems nice enough and we're here for a couple of nights.  Richard I had routed us to go somewhere else tomorrow but then couldn't remember why he'd chosen there... must be age says Al.  HA! he can talk  : )

We spend our first day here having a good beat round the roads.  Al says these are the best roads of the holiday as they have good views (no pesky trees hiding what's round the bend) and some excellent road surfaces, something about a good 'flow' to the riding he said, all O know is we was motoring!

Stop for lunch and we have an interesting mistake as we only intend to grab a sari and head off somewhere else, but by default you get a load of chips with your sandwich at this establishment, so scoff it all down in the square before we depart....









Big portions!














I can't eat any more So I sit it out on the bike.  Richard I says 'I've got just a bit of room left'







So back to our hotel for the night, weather's been great today, we were lucky!

Saturday 11 October 2014

15 Day 6 Haslach (Germany) to Avallon (France)

A great start to the day that would prove to be even longer than planned.  This was a 280 mile trip, due west into France, putting us in just about the centre of the country.

It started out well but we lost Paul quite soon.  This was expected, as he was travelling back up north into Northern Germany where he lives, and then there were five (sorry, 6 including me!)

The weather was wonderful but grew steadily worse as the day went on....  Into France with about 100 miles to go and Richard the 2nd's bike failed.  He was just coming off a speed hump when he heard a clatter and a loud 'clacking' sound.  Al hd spotted that a bike was missing and headed off after our leader, but he'd got too far ahead.  Al hid under a bridge and spent the next 10 minutes with missed calls and left messages until finally our leader got the message.

Now it really started to rain.

Back to the scene and the lads were getting well wet (watched it all peeping out of the pannier). Ricard the 2nd thought that the gearbox had failed.  We all had ideas about what was wrong...  I said it was the dog that done it, but no one was listening  : (

A chap stopped in his car and was clearly wanted us to go back to some premises with him; but of course we didn't want to intrude (being English and reserved don't you know, but the rain got the better of us.  Al got his brolly out, much to the amusement of the others, who after a millisecond of thought agreed it was an excellent idea and wished they'd got one.


Richard the 1st took this picture and put it on the BMW forum and it started a 3 page set of comments ranging from 'aghast' and 'what's the world coming to...' to those who proudly showed their own brollies in various pictures!

Anyway, the chap returned and we were persuaded to follow him and wait for the recovery services.  Nice man, made us coffee, fed us and gave us the run of his garage whist we waited.


He had lots of images of passing cars, that he'd fixed, shown proudly on his wall.  I did wonder just how much work he got from those speed humps and whether he put them there in the first place....

Recovery arrives and the broken bike is put on.  Richard the 2nd wearing his Honda hat (sacrilege on a BMW outing, though it was reliable however and never broke down.....


 Whilst pushing the bike to the garage he'd had another mishap and dropped it, a bike that had never been on it's side.  Al said he wished he'd got a photo but I said that would have been cruel.... wouldn't it??

Richard the 2nd is pragmatic and not too down.  Al admits he couldn't have given this pose for a photo had our bike failed like this.



And then there was 4 (5 including me)

The weather got worse, then got better and was dry and sunny as we arrived at Avallon.  We'd lost some time so we hit the motorway and goth up to 90-100 mph.  I felt like I was being shaken to bits.  We made good time and arrived at the hotel in Avallon.  Can't get the tune with Peter Kay out of my head,  I know it's 'Amarillo' - but it still sticks!

We hope to see Richard the 2nd again before we head home but it's looking unlikely.  Initial reports from the BMW garage suggest a terminal failure in the gearbox.   Sadly a good test of the recovery system back to Sheffield with hotels and hire car provision for Richard  : (

The remaining group head out for the evening.  Food at a local cafe that only serves meat involved a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in French by our leader before success and a vegetarian meal created.

A good end to a long day.  Sad to lose Richard from the group of course.  Al says he is an excellent rider and was a delight to follow.  Still, no one was hurt and a failed gearbox that happens on the move often involves a loss of control, so we were lucky.

Al finishes off the evening with a brolly shot of the guys;




Thursday 9 October 2014

14 Day 5 Haslach to Haslach

Well the lads waylaid Al last night and introduced him to wheat beer even after he said ‘No I’ve had enough…. Okay I’ll try one….’  Anyway it was past midnight before he turned in and of course was snoring like a trooper; why he felt the need to keep CNN news on ALL NIGHT is beyond me. Certainly I was jaded when the alarm went off this morning even if Al was fine – not fair!

The weather is better, but it had rained a lot over night, I guess there’s a reason why there are so many rivers around here in the Black Forest…  speaking of which, where’s my gateaux?

We set off in light rain but it stopped soon afterwards, but Al’s complaining, wishing the roads were either wet or dry, not both.  It seems it makes it harder to work out where the grip is.  The team work well but one is showing cause for concern.  Al says he just doesn’t want to follow him and witness what might happen.  The lad is friendly and seems to know a lot about everything.  Al said that the lad even has a box to put it all in too, but I can’t work out what he means.



We stopped in a lay-by so high I though my ears would pop, the hills below us were covered in grape vines and the smell of grape juice from one place we passed was almost overpowering.




This video shows the panorama finishing with, in order, Paul, Alan, Richard the 1st, Adam, Richard the 2nd and Me!    video clip

When we'd set off this morning Al tried to hand his key in, muttering something about how he can lose any keys he’s responsible for, but he had to keep them. The receptionist would not accept them and the only thing they could agree on was that Al ‘nicht sprechen deutsch’!  We found out later when we came back why he had to keep the key.  This hotel shuts on Wednesdays…. Oh sure, you can get to your room, if you can get in, but there is no reception, bar, food or staff.  It is their day off!  I might have expected this in France, but not Germany!

Anyway it was a cracking day, 200  miles of twisting, climbing and dropping roads – hard work I hear but fun too. 

Wednesday 8 October 2014

13 Day 4 trip to Pforzheim

Up early after a good nights sleep.  Al went for a walk into town before breakfast but was immediately  joined by Adam so the peace and quiet sought was not found…

Breakfast started with Al knocking over Richard the 1st’s orange juice, all over the table, what a mess! - really, can't take him anywhere!

Off and out on the bikes for a 200 mile route today.  Al took me with him, but did take off a lot of the bike luggage, seeing as we are going to be based here for three nights.  The moment we climbed any height the fog came in.  I wasn't reassured when Al says 'What you can't see can't hurt you'...

We stopped at the top of a mountain for a coffee and then it really began to rain.  You couldn’t see for the fog and it was cats and dogs at the same time.

After stretching the coffee break until almost lunch time we realised we might as well just set off, it was getting no better….

We ended up in Pforzheim and Alan had a bit of a moment.... we were manoeuvring between bollards to park up on the free bit of the car park and he crunched his panniers on a bollard.  Just minor damage but it was a shame as the bike was immaculate.  Here he is looking at the damage;




We wandered off into town for lunch, one vegetarian falafel doner kebab later (delicious) we set off agin in the rain.  At least the fog was now gone for good and the rain now just occasional.


Arriving back (in the rain of course) it was a pleasant surprise to find Al’s suit was completely waterproof.  I of course had tucked myself away in the top box.  I can’t do water, I just go to pieces!

Tuesday 7 October 2014

12 Day 3 Journey to Germany

Up early-ish today, but seeing as we’re in France the breakfast starts ½ hour later on a Monday (to stretch the weekend off for the workers it seems!).  

On the bikes and off by 8.30 and it’s still trying to hang onto the dark of the night. Milder today, but overcast and threatening rain.

That promise stays with us, but is never realised, so that by late morning the sun comes out and the road start to dry nicely.  Dogs all under control today and Richard the 1st even stops to allow a lady to pick up her dog and walk across the road.  Richard was telling us yesterday how he was bitten recently by a dog in Germany and just how incredibly painful that experience was.

We stopped in St Die en Vosges for lunch, guess what Al had…. Not difficult is it? …. Pizza a ‘vegetarianne’ version.  Al was taken by surprise, he was convinced that the French didn’t have a word for mushroom-munching-tree-hugging-yoghurt-knitter types in their vocabulary  : )

We cross over into Germany and we’ve passed over a big dam (River Mosell) and hydro electric station  I swear I heard Al singing the dam-busters theme tune and saying how ‘ha we could sort this one out’…

The roads start to get very interesting and technical now as we start to enter the Black Forest area. Sharp hair-pin bends, steep hills, wet patches on the roads, shadows from overhanging trees gravel patches and mud…. Oh and did I mention the placing of cobbles on the hairpin bends (no warnings either!!)?

One of the guys says to Al ‘You were enjoying yourself there on the hills and bends weren’t you? – making some good progress’  Al said, ‘actually no, I hate roads like that, bend, bend, bend and no view of what’s around them, or what’s coming at you’  The guy looked surprised, as if the mystery of what is around the corner was part of the attraction….

We land in Haslach for our first of three nights at the ‘Storchen’ hotel.  I think that means Stork in english.








It’s a bit of a strange one.  Our room has orange rag-painted walls with blue doors. The doors are painted with images of dragons, butterflies, snails and water creatures. There are children night-time story books on the desk, a music centre and a TV.  Are we in a child’s room?  It looked a perfect candidate for one of those ‘Hotel Inspector’ programmes you see.  We chat the next day about our different themed rooms.





















The bikes are all tucked away in a local lock-up for the night and we meet up with our new arrival ‘Paul08’.  He’s joined us late as he lives in Germany, he’s English and his wife is German.  Al said at least we now have a cultural ambassador with us who can speak the language,  er not me he says, hardly anyone understands my german, not even the wife!

After the evening meal and a coupe of pints it’s an early night.  Richard the 1st is plotting something for tomorrow, though I don’t know what he means.  He explains that German is a very precise language and no room for understanding is given at times.  He said ‘take the time you’ve arranged breakfast – half-eight;  that could mean half of eight, so 4am, or more likely they’ll see it as half prior to eight, so that’ll be 7.30am…!’ – so who knows what we’re going to get, or when!


Long day 250 miles or so, but a good one.   : )