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Published: October 12th 2006
Hi All
We hope this blog finds you all well!
A few weeks back we embarked on a 2 week 'holiday' up to 'sunny' Scotland. We decided to make things interesting by travelling on our motorbike! Needless to say it turned out to be a challenge, particularly with regards to packing. Regardless we had an adventure that we will long remember. An account of our trip is outlined below......or you can just flick through the pics!
London to Newcastle Friday 18th Aug D-day for our long awaited journey. We had prayed for good weather for weeks, and in the days leading up to departure it looked promising. But alas - We departed London at 6.30am in rain.....and 7hrs later as we pulled into the hotel in Newcastle it was still raining. I guess you could say it was a good test of our gear and our character! We stopped every 1 ½ hrs to stretch, re-fuel, warm up, and gain feeling back in our numb bums. Needless to say we were pretty tired when we arrived and we not up for much sight seeing around Newcastle. At least we had a nice hotel booked - Justin was able
Justin microlighting....
Does this thing really fly?to book staff rates at a number of 4 star hotels during the journey.
Edinburgh 19th/20th Aug We headed off early towards Edinburgh and found the going easy - no rain! Rach requested a stop at North Berwick (30 mins from Edinburgh) to spring a surprise of Justin - we were going microlighting (or ultralighting as they say in Aus - see pics)! What a fantastic experience - we each had ½ hour in the air with the pilot sitting directly in front of you and an open cockpit. As flimsy as they look, these things are quite stable and easy to fly as we found out when the pilot handed us the controls! They can also climb at 1000 feet/min - what a rush.
After that excitement it was back on the road to Edinburgh. We dumped the gear at our hostel and headed straight into town to explore Calton Hill, Princes St and the Royal Mile. After dinner at a trendy tapas joint, followed by chocolate soup….mmmm....we headed to the Military Tattoo held at Edinburgh Castle which was fantastic! The New Zealand regiment was particularly amusing with their comical actions and covers of modern music like
the Austin Powers theme. The performance was topped off by a great fireworks display. At the end of the night we decided to take a souvineir - one of the hire cushions for the chairs…..it helped minimise the bum numbing for the rest of our motorbike travels……!
The next day we walked up Authers Seat (a hill that looks over Edinburgh) before heading back to town to buy random tickets for a comedy show the fringe festival. Titled 'Fat Tongue', the sketch comedy show turned out to be very funny. After spending some more time walking around town (and eating!) we decided to visit Roslin Chapel (from The Da Vinci Code) located just outside the city. The church was crowded, buy definitely had an eiry feeling about it!
Edinburgh to Aberdeen Monday 21st Aug Before leaving Edinburgh we took a tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia which was decommissioned in 1997 and is now a floating tourist attraction in Edinburgh. Charles and Dianna had their honeymoon on this yacht, amongst other things! It has done a few miles....it averaged 1 million miles each year....but still looks the goods.
We left Edinburgh and headed north, stopping for lunch
The view from 2000 ft
Just East of Edinburgh in Dundee before heading on our way towards Aberdeen. We also stopped at Dunnottar Castle ruins, perched on a cliff built in the 1600’s. The crown jewels were once hidden here for 9 yrs (in case you wondered). After locating our hotel in Aberdeen we went for dinner at the oldest pub in town and had a few well earned drinks.
Aberdeen to Inverness Tuesday 22nd Aug Heading north-west towards Inverness, we detoured via the infamous whisky trail. We stopped at Glenfiddich Distillary and took a tour. We discovered 'Glenfiddich' means 'valley of the deer' in Gaelic - hence the dear on the bottle! After the tour we had some tastings which brought back some memories for Rach (Crystal, Mel and Louise on SJS oval…ah - sweet 16!). The tour was very well done and we would recommend a visit to anyone. Pushing on, we experienced some great roads with very little traffic - a real pleasure on a bike. By this time we had left the motorways behind and were winding our way around the edges of the Cairngorm Mountains. We arrived Inverness mid afternoon and immediately went for a ride out along Loch Ness. We even spotted
what we thought was Nessie, but as we watched him get closer and closer to us he turned out to be a retired American life guard paddling on a surf ski. We had planned to have a lovely picnic by the Loch but quickly discovered the infamous midges (much like the sand flies back home) were on the prowl, so we headed back to town.
Inverness to Carbisdale Castle Wednesday 23rd Aug After a stroll over the lovely Ness Islands we took the opportunity to get a local bike mechanic to sort out some minor bike issues. Bike-less for the day we decided to take a bus/boat tour around Loch Ness. Some interesting facts about Loch Ness: it holds more fresh water than all the lakes and reservoirs in England and Wales combined; it is situated on a major fault line; its deepest point is 230m. We ended up at Urquhart Castle (apparently could have been Rach’s inheritance - a distant family link on her Mothers side!?) which is now just ruins on the edge of Loch Ness. At one time it was the 3rd most important castle in Scotland after Edinburgh and Stirling. We had a picnic in
the grounds of the castle for lunch before heading to a Nessie museum. After collecting the bike we headed further north to Carbisdale Castle - an actual castle which has been converted into a youth hostel (located in Sutherland). This place was AMAZING and we would recommend it to anyone travelling this far north. The collection of original paintings and sculptures were mind blowing - combined with the high ceilings, spectacular stair case, the views, and the dinning room……this was not your average hostel! This also marked the most northerly point of our trip.
Carbisdale Castle to Isle of Skye 24th/25th Aug One night was not enough for the castle, but unfortunately we had to push on to our next destination - Isle of Skye. As the crows fly it wasn't that far, but the roads were very twisty and quite often single lanes. This made for enjoyable but slow riding across to the West Coast of Scotland. We stopped off at some amazing waterfalls which were 45m below a wobbly suspension bridge hanging across a gorge. If the narrow roads were not enough, we had to negotiate around lazy sheep that were walking along the roads, and sometimes
sitting in the middle! The scenery was just magnificent - rugged mountains, green fields and random waterfalls. The sheep have tails and the cows have fringes - another world I tell you!! We stopped in Torridon to visit a pub Isaac (Rach’s brother) used to work in and had a quick drink. One of the elderly locals was sitting at the bar in his kilt - extremely intoxicated - asking the barmaid to marry him…..quite amusing. We rode on through Plocton and other picturesque villages till we arrived at the town of Kylekin on the Isle of Skye. We checked into our hostel and went to the local pub for a feed and a few drinks.
The following day we headed off first thing to circumnavigate the Isle of Skye in a clockwise direction. We checked out the breathtaking scenery - more cliffs, mountains, waterfalls. We were hindered with a few bike issue, but luckily it turned out to be a loose battery connection. We visited Dunveagan Castle and gardens which is still inhabited by the Mcleod Clan. We stopped off at Uig for a quick bite to eat for lunch. Next stop was the Kilt Falls which is
a 50m cliff with a waterfall spewing straight into the ocean - Awesome. However, as great as the view was, we didn't hang around long...the midgies were again out in numbers and were soon attacking us! The next stop was the town of Portree - one of the largest towns on Skye. Then finally we headed back to Kyleakin after a long day in the saddle. The battery terminal issue was solved using a paperclip (seriously!) before heading for another well-earning pint of ale.
Skye to Fort William Saturday 26th Aug Today we packed our things and prepared to move on from Skye, but not before we took an RIB boat tour for 3hrs. The boat got up to 30knots (60km/hr) in some choppy seas so we had a ball wave jumping, before settling down a bit for some wildlife spotting. We saw seals, sea birds, and a few dolphins. We also saw wild dear and goats as we passed some uninhabited areas of land. Unfortunately the rain had returned today so we got saturated, but the motorbike waterproof gear came in handy on the boat. We stopped at a pub for hot chocolate and scones (bit cold for
a pint) in what is said to be the most remote pub in Scotland - its in a town only really accessible by boat. After the tour we caught the car ferry from Armadale (on Skye) to Mallaig (back on the mainland). From here we made our way to Fort William where we had booked a beautiful B&B which was an old school and rectory built in 1880.
Fort William to Glasgow Sunday 27th Aug We tried haggis for breakfast this morning which is a traditional Scottish dish made from pork lung, liver, oatmeal, herbs and spices. It tastes similar to a spicy sausage. The owner of the B&B was also the local butcher. After breakfast we rode out to the ski fields (no snow of course) and caught a gondola up to the top of a mountain which on a clear day has a good view of Ben Nevis (Britain’s highest mountain). Wilst they dont ski all year round, the area is very popular with mountain bikers and hikers. Unfortunately it was windy and freezing up there, even in summer, and Justin was getting a few strange looks as he was in shorts! Never the less we went
for a walk and checked out the view, then raced back for a coffee in the 'ski lodge' to warm up. Upon our return it was time to pack and head south to Glasgow. The roads were good so we made fairly good time, stopping a few times along the way for a photo or 2. Arriving is Glasgow we quickly found our hotel (back to a 4* for this night!) then went for a wander through Scotland's largest city. This 'wander' turned into some-what of a pub crawl as we looked for somewhere to eat dinner - We found an astounding bar called Asta which was full of candles and sculptures and had an incredible atmosphere (not to mention good cocktails), and also a pub that was a converted bank which served bundy - heaven! We eventually found an Italian restaurant for dinner at about 9:30pm.
Windamere - Lake District Monday 28th Aug Today was a sad day as we departed Scotland and crossed the boarder back to England.
Trying to avoid motorways (which are quicker but really boring), we decided to take the long way round to the Lake District and visit Culzean Castle on our way.
This is the Scottish Tourism Boards 'flagship' property because of the condition it’s in. It is situated on a cliff and surrounded by manicured gardens, a deer park, and a swan lake. The Kennedy Clan lived in the castle until they handed it over to the tourism board, they now live in a nearby castle. General Eisenhower (US Army) was given part of the castle for his services as commander of allied forces during World War II. As always there was heaps of history - far too much to absorb. From here we crossed the boarder and made our way to the town Windermere in the Lake District, said to be one of the most beautiful areas of England. We arrived quite late in the evening so we had to wait until the next day to see this for ourselves.
Haydock Tuesday 29th Aug We wandered around Bowness-on-Windermere, taking in the scenery of rolling hills and gorgeous villages lining the lakes. We caught the car ferry over the lake to Hawkshead where we had another look around, before heading to Ambleside to a famous pie shop for lunch. The roads were mainly single lanes lined with trees and/or lakes,
and the odd sheep. After a full day roaming the area we headed south - this time via motorway - towards Haydock. This stop was planned just as a break an the way back to London, with the hotel located next to the motorway. We were able to relax for 24 hours without any sightseeing or riding before heading back to London on the last leg of the journey.
........Back to London.......Wednesday 30th Aug Arriving back our hearts sank a little as we were faced with the reality of London traffic, pollution, and thoughts of going back to work. We reflected on 6 months of planning and 2 weeks on the road in which we covered over 2000 miles. It was certainly a trip that will live long in the memory.
If you have read all of the above we sincerely congratulate you!! Sorry it was so long. We look forward to sending you our next update after we have been to the U.S.A! Stay tuned and take care.
Justin and Rach xo
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Ally
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Wow brings back memories
I'm looking at your pictures of the royal mile and edinburgh castle and it brings back some awesome memories.... the picture you have looking towards the castle of the royal mile skyline... Lou Hopey and I lived just to the left of those first few white cottage style houses there.... walking home from work each day was like walking into a fairy tale book... you could easily imagine rapunzel staring out the wiindow or the shining knights on white horses riding along!! I hiked the west highland way from Glasgow to Fort William.... Scotland was so beautiful...... one of the places I'd actually go back to see again! Glad you made it there guys... Talk to you soon Love Ally