Thursday 29 July 2010




Bit of an epic run today. I went past Crinan Harbour yesterday ad camped along Loch Awe. Once again, the place is sufferig from being too close to central glasgow, empty lager cans, smashed buckfast bottles being in evidence. Also a number of green branches lopped off trees with a bowsaw. I feel like putting up a sign saying that green wood and empty drinks containers do not burn, no matter how neat a circle of stones you put round them or how much petrol you pour on.

I however managed to find two nice standing dead birch trees within a five minute saunter of where I was camped and had a toasty fire all night with no midges and as much hot tea as I could drink.

Went up to Fort William today, with a brief stop at the corran ferry to bag the lighthouse landmark then took a long run across to Inverness via the south loch ness road to Fortrose. It's a bit out of the way but the landmark is worth 50 points (most of the english ones are worth 15 or 20).

Just two to do in Scotlanhd now. One at Loch Clunie and one at the point of stour. I'm off down to Blair Athol tomorrow to camp with the club, then we're up to skye. I'll pass clunie on the way and Skye is near enough to pop up to stour in one night. Then it's heading south again.

I'm camping on a club site on dingwall tonight. Need a shower as much as anything, I couldn't quite face a dook in the loch this morning.

Wednesday 28 July 2010



Heading back up to the highlands now. Stopped near Loch Katrine last night, found a nice camig spot but I suspect it gets pretty busy there at weekends, several cars slowed then drove off again when they saw I was already camped up.

A couple of lads came over too, i got the impression I was being sized-up because they were showing a lot of interest in what i had with me. I did my best to look not worth the effort and started chopping logs with my perang and they soon left. A nice place to camp but perhaps a bit too near the city of Glasgow for my liking, althugh it didn't seem to be suffering from the same rubbish problems that are plaguing popular roadside camping spots elsewhere.

Off down to Crinnan today, possibly camp somewhere on the Mull of Kintyre tonight.

Got the Enfild engine and primary oil changed again this morning, I've done 4,000 miles since I left Silloth. Morrissons seems to be the plce to get oil. A 2l bottle for £2.99.

Monday 26 July 2010


Quick trip out to the Museum of flight near Haddington today via a checkpoint. Route card displayed by my beautiful assistant

Saturday 24 July 2010





Well, after the incessant dunking I got in Braemar, it turned into a fantastic day for a motorbike ride. That's Scotland for you. I really do think it is the most beautiful country in the world when it chooses to show itself off.

After getting a picture of the church and standing stone at Spittal of Glenshee, I headed on up to Glen Lyon off Loch Tay. Probably the most scenic campsite I know of. The river got up a bit through the night which taught me a lesson about camping on islands (as in, just because you got on it with dry feet, doesn't mean you'll get off it the same way. No risk of it flooding totally mind, it's as high as the road but the convenient stepping stones landed up under 8" of water come morning).

Went on over to Dumbarton the next morning to get a picture of the overtoun dog suicide bridge. Inexplicably, a large number of dogs have jumped off this bridge over the years, it's a 60 foot drop. There have been several theories as to why but nothng conclusive.

Got myself a bit hot and bothered trying to find my way through Glasgow, it's a bit of a jungle and i landed up going through the Clyde tunnel which means I went badly wrong somewhere. That's the trouble with the M8 though, it has a tendancy to spit you off somewhere unintended if you aren't paying 100% attention to the signs.

I'm in Edinburgh for a few days now, got my 10 year college reunion tonight which should be entertaining. I need to go out shopping because it's black tie and I just have bike gear. I'll cobble together something respectable looking from the charity shops in Edinburgh though.

Wednesday 21 July 2010




Well, typically in Scotland, a bit of everything weather-wise.Fantastic sunny weather for the trip up through Aberdeenshire. Found a lovely spot to camp near Plusgarden. Had the tent up and the fire lit when the heavens opened, absolutely threw it down all night.

So 10 points to Vangos fine tent which didn't let in a drop of water all night. I had worried that the inner touchs the flysheet very easily, not a worry as it turns out the flysheet is 100% totally waterproof, you could hapily lean against the inside of the tent and stay dry.

I had worried about taking my big army surplus tarpaulin, thinking it was unecessary weight and bulk. I'm glad I did take it though, last night would have been totally miserable without it. Set it up between two trees and sat in the dry, eating a hot cooked dinner, reading a book and watching the rain lashing down. While the tent is good, it is also small. I could probably manage to cook in the porch in an absolute emergency but it would be tricky, uncomfortable and the condensation would mean I would have been as well off outside.

The run across from Fochabers to Braemar via Tomintoul is probably one of the best motorcycle runs in the country if the weather is fine, one of the worst if it isn't. A combination of driving rain, floods, patches of gravel and limited visability made this one of the more challenging runs over there I have done.

10 points also to Royal Enfield for manufacturing a bike that starts first kick and runs in the most torrential downpour without missng a beat (despite an 18" HT lead, exposed electrics and a pod air filter, treating the electrics with ACF50 was time and money well spent I think).

Checked into a bunkhouse in Braemar for tonight, I may even have fish and chips for my tea.

I've got a checkpoint at Spittal of Glenshee tomorrow, if the weather is as bad, I may even stay here for another night. If it's better, I'll head over to Loch Tay/Glen Lyon where some friends re suposed to be camping for the night too.

Monday 19 July 2010


Today has been a bit of a stinker, enthusiastic rain all day. Checkpoint down near St Andrews was also a tricky one, the large volume of open golf related traffic notwithstanding. It is a tower up in some woodlands but you can't get to it without going on private estate roads.

I missed it the first time past because it ws hidden in rainclouds but if you look carefully on the picture, you can see the top part of the tower. Encountered the same rallyist I met at southport loking equally as impressed.

Came up to the North East area via Cairn o Mount, bit of a waste of time because most of the road was in low cloud.

Kept myself and me gear largely dry though and I'm camped up at a very nice site near Tarland, currently sat under my tarp on the mobile internet, there's no mobile phone coverage on my network though.

Thre is a certain satisfaction about being able to ride all day through weather like that and finishing the day warm and dry.

Heading up to Portsoy and Elgin tomorrow, hopefully going to wild camp somewhere around there or on Speyside if the weather is a bit more pleasant before heading over towards Glenshee. If it's going to be miserable again, I might try to find a bunkhouse somewhere near a pub.

As it is, at least the rain keeps the midges away.

Something I've noticed about campsites, there is always someone hammerng something. Now I've learned that if you can't push your tentpegs in, the ground is too hard to take a tentpeg. You can't hammer an aluminium peg through a stone. These people must all have tentpegs that resemble paperclips.

Sunday 18 July 2010






Haven't posted for a while. I've been off staying with my folks in Glenluce for a couple of days. Had a good days fishing at Port Logan with Dad, we caught some good sized Ballan Wrasse, pollock, colefish, a couple of flatfish and a gurnard. Best catch of the day was a huge edible crab that Dad got, it was stealing his bait and got its leg tangled in the line. Made for some very good eating. It must have been sitting there stealing fishermens bait for years.

Popped up through Glentrool to Ayreshire, picture of a statue of Robert Burns wife. Then on to Douglas for a picture of the oldest working clock in Scotland, gifted to the town by Mary Queen of Scots.

Then on to Glamis for a picture of a pictish standing stone. There are actually two in the vicinity of Glamis. The obvious one is in the garden of Glamis manse. Less obvious and probably more interesting is the St. Orlando stone which is in a field on the outskirts of town. It was a bit of a hike to get there. This stone has a picture of a viking longship on it. It's less well preserved but more authentically pictish.

I'm in Forfar just now, had a night out with my brother and his mates. All very sociable. I'll stay tonight then onwards tomorrow.

Wednesday 14 July 2010



Wild camped up in the forestry comission near the Southern upland way last night.

Quick checkpoint at Dalry (covenanters memorial statue) and I'm going to spend the next couple of nights at Glenluce with my folks.

Monday 12 July 2010


Just a quick run through the borders today. The weather has bucked its ideas up considerably. A trip into hawick for the checkpoint and camping up in Jedburgh, somewhere I've passed through many times but never visited. The club site is very nice, down next to the river.

Sunday 11 July 2010







I've been stayin with Mole and Julie on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Their housewarming party which is still going on. The weather is a bit poor, very windy so I'll stay put here today. Maybe head over to Hawick tomorrow.

Stayed in a nice campsite near Otterburn on Friday night and had a good run over the hills into the Scottish Borders.

Also visited the saltire visitors centre where the Scottish flag was first thought of during a skirmish between two groups of cattle thieves.

Thursday 8 July 2010




Just a short update tody to get the pictures online. I'm staying at York tonight so don't want to be rude.

For those from that area, the standing stone with a view is at High Sutton, just up the road from Macclesfield (which would be to the right of the picture)





A long slog yesterday round the outskirts of birmingham but three checkpoints done, had a puncture on my back tyre, simple nail in it. I had tyre levers and a spare tube but forgot to take a pump. A kind bloke saw me walking up the road and gave me a lift to a garage for an airline. I now have a pump.

Derbyshire today. land of the unecessary rural speed limit. If I was't on the Enfield it would be very frustrating sitting at 50mph on fantastic windy roads. I'll stop at the cat and fiddle for my lunch then onwards to York for this evening.

Tuesday 6 July 2010



Did Worcester today. Found the landmark surprisingly easily although my efforts to time my picture with me jumping in the air on the timer weren't quite as sucessful. Also took a picture of the (Boer?) war memorial outside the cathedral to show I got the bike there.

Bit of an epic day planned tomorrow. Three landmarks, to polish off the West Midlands area. The third one is in Dudley so it's going to be a case of in then out, I don't fancy camping in Birmingham. Hopefully make it up to Derbyshire for the night which puts me within striking distance of Scotland for Saturday so I can go to a friends housewarming.

The bike seems to have used a fair bit less oil than usual today. I used castrol GTX in it this time (on offer in tesco). Maybe I should keep this up.

It's amazingly dry and warm still. I'm having problems with lens flare on my camera and gettig the rally control card to come out on the shots as anything but a white square. In fairness, that's what it looks like in direct sunlight with no sunglasses on. Can't fit a polarising filter to a handheld digital camera though. Annoying, because I have one on my SLR but it takes up a hell of a lot of space if you want to take it on a motorbike.

Monday 5 July 2010





Well, that was a thoroughly relaxing stay at the hostel. They even sold local cider. Changed days, i remember when being caught with alcohol in a YHA hostel would have seen you out on your ear! Very handy for the forest and canoeing, may well have to come back some time.
hostel website

Todays checkpoint was tricky. The roundhouse is a private dwelling ad there was nowhere to get parked and have a decent view of it. Got it sorted in the end though.

Changed the oil on the Enfield today. Dropped it outside a civic amenities site. They are the same the country over. I was informed that there was no way I could walk in with my tub of used sump oil. I had to decant it into the old bottle, get on the motorbike and ride the 20 yards between the front gate and the oil disposal tank, where I then tipped it in and threw away the bottle before getting back on the bike and riding out again. I have taken a picture, the oil disposal bin is to the left of the picture with a number 5 over it. No ay on earth was he going to let me walk from the gate to there.

I'm stayin on one of the camping and caravan clubs own sites at Chipping Norton tonight. It's very pleasant, surrounded by trees. Off into Worcester tomrrow. the landmark may be a bit tricky to locate as it's in the grounds of the cathedral.

Sunday 4 July 2010

Went to the Moon Rally, hosted by the Rusty Sprockets MCC on Friday and Saturday night. Rather over-achieved on the cider front on the Friday night, although I feel my hangover was disproportionately large even for the amout I drink. The only cider they had in was strongbow which is loaded with aspartame sweetners, something I have been actively avoiding for a while now. That's what I'm blaming in any case.

Met up with a couple from the Black Jacks MCC, Chris Hunt and his lovly wife. They are up for doing the dragon Rally next february so I'll maybe meet them again.

I'm currently sitting outside a youth Hostel In Welsh Bickerton in the Forest of Deane waiting for the office to open at 5pm. I can get a slow internet connection but no phone signal, technology is a funny thing. It's a very picturesque place, quite and pacefull with a good view over the River Wye.

I made the mistake of going to Ross on Wye earlier in the day. I'd booked onto the campsite there and had my tent half up before getting a feeling this wasn't the place I wanted to be. Now I'm not superstitious, but the whole place gave me a "bad vibe", it was making the hairs on my neck stand up. I packed the tent and left forthwith. The feeling persisted until I was a good 5 miles out of town. Weird but who am I to argue with the hairs on the back of my neck?

Middle England is a funny old place. I'm sure it's about to sink beneath the weight of prohibitary notices. Don't park here, no camping here, THIS IS PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!. It makes you realise how Scotland and England really are different countries, the whole attitude to land ownership has become totally overbearing. I could never see something like the Land reform Act coming in down here. Not when you have people who get SO anoyed by someone who's become lost occasionally turning their car in the end of their drive that they went to the time and effort of errecting a sign telling people not to. Then went about placing a row of large, white-painted rocks in the way which they have to undo a chain off every time they want to get in and out of their drive.

I feel like wild camping somewhere just to get up someones nose. When they come to tall me to get off and it's private land, I'll just tell them that noone was using it when I came along and it'll still be there when I've finished with it.

The road signs are as bad. Earlier today I drove past a 20ft x 10ft illuminated matrix sign with flashng amber lights on. I was expecting it to be carrying essential information about roadworks ahead or an accident or lane closures. No. "DRIVE CAREFULLY!" it screamed. Well, good job they put that up, it would never have occurred to me otherwise.

I must slow down, drive carefully, keep out of private property (tresspassers will apparently be prosecuted, for what exactly it didn't say) and stick to the footpath more. I almost feel like I should have a dog to keep on its lead at all times.

Gloustershire tomorrow, hopefully via a council tip so I can change the oil on the bike.

Thursday 1 July 2010





Just a quick post because my battery is getting low. I'm camping near Mortimers cross tonight. I did three checkpoints getting here so I'm going to do a rally this weekend. There is one down at Penarth near Cardiff. Backtracking a little but I've got penty of time in hand




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