The 'TOUR DE ECOSSE' via GS ( and a VFR )

It was with some trepidation that I set off to meet up with Nathan Harrow ( astride a GS) and Mark Charlesworth ( VFR) one sunny morning in June to meet them at Victoria Little Chef. I say this because I'd not ridden with either before, it was my first outing of any sort with the Cornwall IAM group, we planned to ride 470 miles on the first day ( to Moffat) and knew that Mark's satnav got him lost in Liskeard ! Other important questions plagued me - as there would be some sharing of rooms, who would snore the loudest ? ( Mark as it turned out)

Well what a trip it was ! The weather was unusually superb ( 7 consecutive days in Scotland without rain ) , the scenery spectacular and the roads largely empty and ideal for the GS ( and Mark coped OK ). The agreed highlight was the tiny hamlet of Applecross, set on the coast between sea-lochs, where we spent a happy lunchtime outside a pub with possibly the best view in the UK. The roads hugging the north-west coast in particular were awesome, either for scenery or winding things up a bit, and Glencoe never fails to impress. The whisky drinkers amongst us appreciated the visit to the Glenmorangie distillery and I'm sure the bikes travelled on air for a while afterwards ! The 'lowlight' was John O'Groats itself which bore an uncanny resemblance to Lands End. Stopovers were Moffat / Fort William / Ullapool / Wick / Fort William / Moffat.

We covered 2000 miles in all , averaging 200 miles a day between the start and end long hauls on the motorway. During those we made good progress and stopped every 100 miles or so, making it in 10 hours including some long hold-ups and nerve-wracking filtering .The only real problem we encountered was suicide sheep attacks, but as Mark led for the whole trip he bravely fought them off suffering minor swerves only. Oh, apart from the occasion when he lost a skirmish with a wayward coach driver and during an emergency manoeuvre smashed a car's indicator lamp. And I forgot my toothpaste and left my electric toothbrush behind at the first night's b & b. And the German and Dutch motorhome drivers who clearly believed they had right-of-way in every situation I found the GS perfect for the trip although maintaining constant high speed is tiring due to vibes / turbulence. Nathan was also upset not to see Nessie.

Mark did us proud with the planning and leading, and each night was spent recalling highs of the day , GS matters - much to Mark's boredom - or listening to Mark describing which telecoms tower he had climbed 'on-the-job'( what a sad bunch!).

As Mark summed it up, "CRACKIN" !! Book yourselves onto the 2007 trip now !