Scotlandshire on some old BMW’s

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Mrs Berin gets taken badly by midges.

Lovely ride today, off the end of the Raiders Road, then up on some tiny singletrack that would have only been bettered by being unpaved through the Galloway Forest, then picked up the A77, M8 and M898 over the Erskine bridge to get through Glasgow. Got sarnies at a Sainsbury fuel stop, then a bit of a
A82 till the turn off for Helensburgh then that single track Posh Pete mentioned over to Faslane. Great views from the top where I broke out the Helinox chair and we had a sarny and coffee.

I’ll have to look at the map to see where we went, but we did have some more lovely roads lochside, then a bit of up and down Loch Fyne, then when we got to Loch Awe we cut short and headed for our home for the night at the Falls of Lora hotel.
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Oh! Oh! And we saw a pine marten, not long after Raiders Road, first one I’ve ever seen.

like this one?
 

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In the wrong order. Ferry from Oban, the Otter pool, a gratuitous HP2 shot, and Grasspoiny on Mull.

We took the long way round from Craignure, it was about 80 miles all up and took most of the day after landing at 10.55. Most if not all is single track with passing places and we took a few detours.

We saw some big eagles and dozens of bird spotterists with telescopes as big as cars, all clogging up the passing places.

Weather was lovely. No midges!

Tobermory was quite quiet with a few places closed. Mishnish is still there, but now has an oyster bar.

And the fish and chip van is still there so tea for tonight taken care of.

And on the UKGSer celebrity hotline, Martin Clunes (apparently) is staying in our hotel and is filming something.


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Some more pics later, the shite Sony app for my RX6 is shite. And there’s no interweb most places although we went out today to see some standing stones at Coggan where there’s 4 houses and BT were stringing up full fibre to the houses!


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Two lovely sunny days exploring Mull. The island seems quiet, but in common with everywhere just now, finding a place to eat requires booking.

Wednesday dawned rainy, and we made our way about 200m from the Tobermory Hotel to the ferry terminal for an 11am sailing to Kilchoan. After a 35minute crossing we immediately stopped for coffee before heading off towards Glenfinnan for our overnight. It’s a lovely journey, down the sides of lochs, mostly single track. We did a detour up towards Ardnamuchnan lighthouse, currently closed.

I did have a possible unpaved detour planned, but with the bad weather and the fact it looked really unused we continued on the paved singletrack.

We arrived in Glenfinnan about 5, had a fabulous dinner (oysters to start and sea bream) and a wee dram before bed.

Today is another rainy day, but it was a short hop to Mallaig and the ferry to South Uist.

4 bikers turned up for the ferry but hadn’t booked so were turned away, and most of the accommodation is booked too. With all the Covid regs the ferry, hotels and restaurants are all running at much reduced capacity. Even the small cafe we stopped at for lunch were booked, though we got a table after a few minutes.

Anyway, we are due in 7.30 tonight, then 10 minutes to the hotel.


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Air head repairs so far:

1) the bike wasn’t going into to gear properly so Mrs Berin thought the best way to solve that was to stamp on it hard and repeatedly, unfortunately the reason it wasn’t going in is the was catching the big nut for the side stand. The gear lever had twisted and jammed and so I straightened it with pliers but it feels like it’s made of cheese, so a new gear lever will meet us in Stornaway.

2) Front brake lever graunchy. Disassembled then sorted the piston end with WD40. Seems fine now.

The biggest Hp2 problem is fuel range, light comes on at about 75miles. I’ve got another 6l or so in the rear tank but I’m trying to use that as a reserve as it’s seat off to fill.
Second biggest problem is it’s tall and needs a run up to get on, and 3rd biggest is it leans over too far on the side stand. Perfect, though otherwise


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10 minutes off the ferry last night to the Polochar Inn. Ferry seems pretty empty and one section was closed off. The Inn was also serving a reduced number of covers despite having to turn people away.

Anyway, not raining currently and en-route to Ardmore ferry terminal of Barra.


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Midge report:

Castle Douglas, no midges
Raiders Road, many midges
Mull, no midges
Glenfinnan, some midges
South Uist, no midges
Barra, no midges

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Well, we are now in Stornoway. Never get caught on Lewis or Harris on a Sunday needing fuel, food or a place to stay without checking as everything is closed - we met a cyclist who turned up on spec but couldn’t find anywhere.

Mrs Berin found an art gallery today I’m a shed miles from anywhere and invested a considerable sum in an acrylic painting, and I highly recommend the whisky shop in Stornoway where I’ve just returned from an extended tasting session.

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Another day, another ferry. Now on Skye, meandering our way to Portree from the ferry port in Uig. It’s overcast but not raining,

Skye already seems different to the Western Isles, far more bikers here I suppose due to the bridge.

Mrs Berin has gone to explore a castle but since it’s not possible to ride right up to it I’m staying by the bikes.
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Nice view though.


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