I met up with Africajim in Elgin, then we headed west to meet up in Inverness with the tour guide for the weekend, Lowflyer.
The scenic route down the side of Loch Ness was taken, seeing as there aren’t too many tourist this far north yet . . . .or so we thought! Suprising the number of hire cars about plus quite a few foreign plated vehicles. Anyway, we enjoyed the thrash along the lochside too Invermoriston, then headed north towards Loch Cluanie.
Whilst the temperature never got above 5 degrees the whole trip, the weather was stunning – crystal clear skies with the occasional fluffy white cloud slowly meandering across the blueness. It gave the whole area a surreal look, it was that bright and vivid! Loch Cluanie was our first stop, just to take in the views and suck some of that pure highland air into our lungs.
Northwards between the 5 Sisters range of hills, capped white the whitest of white snow that gleamed in the sunshine. We detoured along the Glen Elg road, up the hill to a view point. More stunning views. . . . .
Met up with Rick frae Skye . . . . on Skye! He led us to the café run by his Boss and some lovely coffee and rolls were consumed before he snogged the Boss
and we headed further onto the island, with Dunvegan as our destination / base for the weekend. Stopped off at Sligachan for a photo or two. Jims got an ace one of his bike with the Cuillins as a back drop, but in the mean time, here are mine . . .
Onwards we rode on roads clear of traffic and free from salt . . . .well wet salt anyway . . . plenty of corrosive salt dust being kicked up as our wheels crossed the centre of the carriageway.
Finally rolled into the camp site at Dunvegan and once pitched, what a stunning view we had from our little perch overlooking the site and the sea loch . . .
Some happy campers. . .
Once the tents were up we headed out on a roundabout route to Portee for fuel for us & the bikes, then back via a different route to get a brew on the go and start burning some offerings to the Gods of good weather . . . .
A shot from the village across the loch to the campsite taken the following morning . . .
Saturday, after a very cold night under flimsy canvas, and after some warming breakfast, we were once again playing follow the leader, with Lowflyer at the head of the column. We headed for the north of the island where John is currently working. First stop was on his favourite road leading from Uig towards Staffin. Stunning does not do the view justice, nor do my photo’s. You really do need to go and see for yourself!
One of Jim “on the edge”
From Staffin we headed for the top of the island, to find some tracks that John has to use for work. One led us to a view across a bog to Johns office – it’s away in the distance in this picture.
Next was what our leader described as an easy track with a slightly boggy bit somewhere along it. Famous last words from the front I fear . . .
This is the others heading from the gate up into the hills, just before the bog monster struck . . .
Ohhh, bog monsters . . . . .
After lifting and tugging the beast out of the bog . . . . and then doing the same with the bike, we managed to get the machine turned round and onto a slightly drier patch of bog. Jims bike need a bit of co-ercing as well to get it onto a more manageable bit of ground, but we managed.
It was as we left this little de-tour that I had my mishap – short legs and long suspension are not really good bed-fellows! Lets just say that a little bit of rutted track and my side stand had a bit of a too-do and the ensuing off balance had me entangled in a wire fence, with a re-cumbent F800GS at my feet. The lift back to the vertical, with the bike past the horizontal as it lay towards the lowered verge, got the better of my back
. But not before I’d got the pig upright though 
!From this point my Skye weekend was over, as John had several more tracks and bogs to introduce the guys too. I left them to it and headed back to base, after knocking back some anti- inflamitories and pain killers.
Thanks for a cracking day out John – really looking forward to finishing what you started.
Steve T
B)
