Demons on Speyside!

[africajim]

Well, following my spill on Saturday I thought I'd exorcise my demons and have a couple of jaunts offroad today. For the Tar part I decided to go up river from Fochabers (where Baxters products comes from) on the east side to Aberlour then on to Grantown on Spey, then down the west side by Knockando and over the hill to Dallas then home to Elgin.
The roads are affected by the heavy rain recently and have sand and rocks washed over them so word of warning to anyone touring around the NE to watch for poor road conditions.
The offroad parts I can't really mention as it's illegal to greenlane in Scotland but needless to say I found a couple of tracks to whet my appetite! A few rough patches were covered and a couple of powerslides soon put me back on form again!
The weather was lovely, blue skies, not too hot. The Spey valley is a lovely ride, whether it's the northern part I covered today or the southern area up General Wade's road at Laggan I covered last Saturday with Largewayround and Steve T.

Varaspeyside.JPG (80.6 KiB) Viewed 3888 times

[africajim]

Just like to add I love the Mighty Varadero, it's a great touring bike and the adventure just never ends, onroad, offroad (by that I mean hard tracks), check out this pic, is this not a handsome beast?

varahilltop.JPG (74.51 KiB) Viewed 3888 times

[LargeWayRound]

Great report Jim

And lovely pictures of your Vara ,.. especially by the river .
What a great shot ..

Thanks for sharing ......

[africajim]

Thanks LWR, Even funnier, those shots were taken on my phone! You've just got to love those Nokia's with a 5mp camera! No shudder on them and they look every bit as good as the 12mp from my kodak camera! And it surfs the net, it's my mp3 player and it's good for satnav! Who needs an iphone? LOL!

[LargeWayRound]

Wow, that is good for a phone camera ..

now which nokia was it you have .. might look at one for my next phone.

and does it still think its in germany?? LoL

[africajim]

Ha ha! No, it's now in Elgin, just checked! Once the sat locks in it eventually found itself!
It's the new Nokia X6, replaces the 8500xpressmusic. I posted on the XRV forum from it the other night, tapatalk seems to work fine as a high speed browser for forums. After the BBQ last night I was sitting in the garden surfing on the phone through my wifi connection! Recommended.

[Alun]

Those shots make my iphone look like a Box Brownie. Have to say though, having the facility to browse the web and download my emails in the Alps was very helpful but also bloody intrusive on times. Can't wait to get my next bill!

Good to see you're back out on the rough stuff AJ.

[Steve T]

Nice one Jim.

1st picture - Opposite bank from Cragganmore distillery, on the Tulcan estate side, if I'm not mistaken.

2nd picture - the hills behind Knockandu.

Did you, perchance, wander onto the logging road that they are using to extract the timber? Mid way between Dallas & Knockandu.

Did a bit on the big old bird up there the other week - much prefer the little Alp when pounding boulders

Steve T

B)

[africajim]

Hi SteveT, not much gets past you mate! Yes on all counts, had a tear up Ben Aigen first between Mulben and Craigellachie, then the grouse beat at the top of the hill above Knockando, then, yep, the logging road coming down towards Dallas! I find the Varadero fine offroad if you behave! Obviously the smaller the lighter, Fiona's BMW is better offroad, I see they're bringing it back! BMW have decide it was a mistake to change to the 800 twin so they're going back to the 650 single! Also the new Triumph test bike is registered at the DVLA as a 675 triple! The new offroad biased version is to have a 21" front wheel! Novel! (read the MCN in Asda's!)

Yes Alun, connectivity is handy, the Nokia has WAP, 3G and WIFI, also handles pop3 mail clients just like the iphone! I looked into it but decided the Nokia was the better deal.