LWR and Raymo gathered at my place near Elgin on Thursday morning, so’s we could form our own little convoy up to the camp site via a very scenic route. Got bored following traffic within 15 miles after leaving Elgin, so back roads it was to Inverness and a fuel stop. I had considered taking the road through Beauly & Dingwall, onto the old A9, but the weather wasn’t that great, so I headed straight up the modern A9, with the Skiach services as our next stop, for some proper adventure bike riding man food – all day breakfast it is then!
Once fed. We headed north to Ullapool via the Struie, Bonar Bridge & Lairg. The weather got better as we headed north west, so spirits were high when we finally got to the camp site to find a small gathering of early callers already on site . . . .
Friday arrived after a relatively calm night (compared to the rest of the weekend’s weather) and the hardy early arrivals awoke to blustery winds and some squally showers. LWR and I decided that we’d go cloud dodging and just head where there was a patch of blue sky – north it was then. We rode into some really heavy showers as we headed out, but we were always looking for that blue bit of sky. Here you see the bikes drip drying next to Kylesku bridge after a particularly heavy deluge.
Onwards to Durness and some sunshine . . . . . . . . . . which we eventually found. But not before we found some decent coffee & cakes at the Cocoa Mountain café. Here we see LWR visualising his diet flying out the window . . . .
And onto the views across the beach beyond Balnakeil.
The beach is the route the military take to get to Farad Head, the control tower you can see in the distance beyond the bikes, on top of the headland. From there they control the ground to ground, ship to shore and air to ground ordinance delivery onto Cape Wrath range.
Here we see LWR considering his lot as he stares north, over the beach beyond Durness.
We rode round Loch Eriboll in more sunshine, and then took the itsy-bitsy little road down past Ben Hope to Altnaharra. We encountered a little more precipitation as we covered the miles down this grass filled road. Here we see LWR trying to spot a break in the weather, so’s we can head for it . . .
From Altnaharra headed for Lairg and a fuel stop for the bikes, then the Falls of Shin for a coffee stop for the riders. Once man & machines were fed, we took the usual route back to Ullapool via Ledmore junction. The wind on the last leg was horrendous – a head wind all the way after Ledmore had me crouching over the front panels of the F8GS like some demented sports rider, trying hard to reduce my co-efficient of drag down to a level that would allow me to go forwards!
On our arrival back at the camp site we were confronted by a much increased tent count . . .
On Saturday, after a horrendous night of truly gale force winds and heavy rain which saw even more tents totalled and many people packing up and heading home, 3 of the 4 ride outs were cancelled due to the weather. I decided to change the route of my ride out, in an attempt to “out-run” the weather. It took us about 50 miles to achieve that objective – Strathnaver to be precise. Whilst the roads were drying out, they were, in places, covered in chippings. These little devils took their toll on one of the riders, who had the front end of his machine slip away from him, only to have the tyre grip and high side him into the undergrowth. The bike – a nice little lightweight Honda XL1000V Varadero, kingly followed it’s rider into the green stuff and promptly pinned him face down! The tail end Charlie was there in a flash and lifted the errant machine off of its rider – not bad for a man with an acute heart condition. The faller had sprained his shoulder and elected to RTB, with the TEC as escort.
The remainder of the riders headed for Helmsdale and some really remote, barren landscape that abounds on the east coast of the Highlands. Here are the riders in the middle of no-where, with the road as the only man made thing in sight . . . .
I think we didn’t see another vehicle on the road for approx. 15 miles, then, once we headed a bit higher up another glen, we stopped and took in this view . . . .
. . . . . . . only to have to shift the bikes for 2 vehicles within 2 minutes!
On we rode, with the Falls of Shin as our next stop after fuelling the bikes at Lairg. We crossed from the A9 towards Lairg via the A839 Strath Fleet road. This is where one man’s angle was definatly flying faster than its rider. So glad that the rider ended up being un-scathed, even if his machine, on first sight, left me cold, it was that messed up!
Once those left standing had fuelled up their machines and themselves at the Falls of Shin, we headed for the campsite at Ullapool. I personally felt totally detached from reality on that ride back to camp, after the seeing the remnants of the accident riders bike and not knowing what the riders condition actually was, even though he’d managed to walk to the ambulance! As it was, he was fine. The hospital in inverness had given him a clean bill of health, and before 9pm that evening he was quaffing ale in the Arch. You cannot imagine how happy I was to see him standing in front of me.
Sunday dawned after a quieter night, weather wise, and most of those left at the camp site were packing up in prep for some very long rides home. Some of us, however, were prepping our steeds for a little dirty excursion courtesy of AustinW. That ride write up I’ll leave to Austin, cos it left me truly speechless, such was the quality of the vistas thrust upon the 6 riders that ventured forth.
Oh, and this was the site that greeted us on our return to the camp site . . . .
Now, who do we need to talk to get the weather sorted for next years rally?
Steve T
B)
