Kitty kat's mini tour of West Coast of Scotland (long)

[kitty kat]

Went to work on Friday morning of the bank holiday weekend, bike all packed with tent etc and a full tank of fuel. Luckily boss let me go early, so off to Glasgow I set for 1st stop of the weekend. Did the quickest route there, motorway. I was heading for Stepps on the outskirts, but managed to find the city centre Luckily 3 men playing on quads took pity on me studying the map and pointed me in the right direction. Found the site, in the middle of a housing estate, not a bad site, but very overpriced, £12.25 a night. Set up camp, cooked sausage, bacon & spaghetti for tea, then headed off to find cash point and local pub. OMG was I brave, I walked into a crowded pub on my own and sat at the bar with half a lager & lime. Thank god the locals were friendly towards a leather clad biker with ears & tail on her helmet. I only stayed for the 1 drink, then headed back up to the tent to get some much needed sleep.
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Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[kitty kat]

Woke up early, first one on the site to be moving around, had a shower (at least the showers were hot, even if they drain very slowly and end up flooding the toilet block ). Got back to tent to be greeted by a hippyish looking couple, had breakfast, sausage, bacon & spaghetti, then packed up to move on to Isle of Skye. Got a bit lost, I did want to go up the west side of Loch Lomond, but ended up on the motorway heading towards Stirling. Never mind, got onto the A84/A85 eventually, good roads if you can get past the motorhomes and saabs. travelled past Loch Lunaig, stopped to take some pictures, and eventually ended up on the road I originally meant to be on the A82, heading for Fort William. I stopped at an apparently famous bike stop, The Green Welly (can't remember where it is though). Sat with a cuppa and was told that I had to ride through Glen Coe as it is a good road. I was warned not to look too much at the mountains as they will take my concentration off the road. I set off again, and boy what a road. Fantastically fast and he was right about the scenery, breathtaking. You can easily do well over a ton on some of those stretches. I didn't, but the road almost forces you to ride it fast. All too soon I had reached my lunch stop at Fort William (I can recommend MacDonalds there )
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Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[kitty kat]

Onwards to the ferry at Mallaig on A830. The first 30+ miles are ok, then the road goes into single track although there are plenty of roadworks as they are re-routing parts of it and making it 2 lanes. once past the road works the last 5 or so miles are fast leading straight into the harbour. I was pre-booked on the 16.30 ferry and arrived just after 2.30pm. Luckily a couple of bikers were already there, but as the 15.05 crossing was full, they were on the same one as me. What the hell do you do in Mallaig for over an hour? I wandered around the village, took 5 minutes, then bumped into the 2 lads again, stood chatting for a while, then some more bikes turned up. A few cups of tea later and it was time to move the bikes into line, 7 of us altogether, 1 actually from Skye. Bikes were loaded and strapped down and we all went up to the viewing deck. it was really sunny as we set off, but 10 minutes into the crossing the weather changed and became dull and very windy. We all set off together, but soon got separated due to the different speeds we were riding at. I had just reached Luib when the heavens opened, it chucked it down and my waterproofs were under my seat on top of which my tent was attached. Luckily there was a big parking place, hasty stop to retrieve said waterproofs. Shame it was raining, the view would have been spectacular. the lads that were behind me passed and waved, leaving me to continue on my way, solo again. I turned off onto A863 up to Dunvegan where I was spending the night. again, fantastic road, shame it was so wet & windy. Arrived at the site, Kinloch campsite, £5 a night and they will charge mobiles for free. Apparently on a clear day you can see Harris from the reception, not when I was there though Luckily my tent survived the night, which is more than can be said for the one opposite me.
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Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[kitty kat]

After a good night's sleep, I awoke to a dry start, shower, then breakfast and time to think about packing up. Of course as soon as i start to take tent down it rains never mind another journey lies ahead, this time to Inverness via Kyle of Lochalsh and the bridge. I decided to use A850 and A87 to leave Skye and instead of taking the direct route to Inverness I went along the A890 onto AA832 and then onto A835 towards Dingwall. I have never come across an A road that is single track in parts, but the A890 is a good twisty road through the mountains and the A832 has some very long straight bits making it a very fast road. I thoroughly enjoyed this part of the journey, as it had finally stopped raining, meaning I made much better progress. Just before Dingwall I followed the tourist route to Inverness, taking me through Muir of Ord & Beauly, then onto A862 into Inverness. I got my first glimpse of the suspension bridge over the Firth and made mental note to ride across it later. Arrived at Auchnihillin campsite, just off A9, not too bad, £8.50 per night, but 20p for 5 minutes of warm shower and it was in the middle of nowhere!



this will be continued (I apologise for it being long)
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Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[Bikerchic1467]

Very nice pics we are heading that way at the end of September. Also taking the ferry at Malaig to the Isle of Skye.

Nice to see what we can expect.

[Tonka]

Top post and lovely pics, thank you - used to live that way, so very nostalgic!

I keep thinking I'll get up there again, one day!!
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'The core of a man's spirit comes from new experiences'
Suzuki SV650S (Clean); Yamaha XT250 Serow (Dirty)

[PeterNSR]

wow gr8 pics there .would like to do touring when im older
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Current: Honda NSR 125

My bike

[PeterNSR]

wow gr8 pics there .would like to do touring when im older
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Current: Honda NSR 125

My bike

[kitty kat]

Inverness was full of midges, so I decided to take tha bike out for a spin, minus the usual luggage and headed off for Loch Ness. I just had to ride over the suspension bridge on A9 though, so that was first port of call. What fantastic views from the top of it along the Moray Firth, I never took any pictures though, that would have meant parking the bike and walking over the bridge and I don't do walking I took the A82 along the west coast of the Loch, once you get through town it is a great road, shame about the motorhomes though, they slow you up. There are loads of parking places where you can get a good view of the Loch, I stopped in one and met up with 4 Harley riders who were at Thunder in the Glens rally in Aviemore after a quick natter I set off again and stopped at the nessie exhibition at Fort Augustus at the southern end of the Loch. and also stopped in the town, near the locks on the canal. Some good chippies here and a couple of pubs with seating on the canalside. I only paused to take a picture, then set off again, I took the B852 going up the east side, heading back for Inverness. Again, great road, about 25 miles long, single track, but very fast and through mountains filled with heather. There are plenty of passing places and I found that the few cars I met pulled over to let me pass. once tthe road was running alongside the Loch there were places you could stop to take pictures looking down on Loch Ness. You can actually see just how big the loch is from this road. back to the campsite, after a wrong turn and back over the suspension bridge again While I was in town I called for fuel and the local BP garage had a model of Nessie on a trailer, just had to take a picture The campsite was full of midges, so I decided to cook tea and zip myself in the tent for the evening to try and avoid them (sausage, tomatoes & midge - lovely ) As there was nothing to do on the site, I lay in my tent listening to a couple arguing until I fell asleep.
Monday morning - rain and lots of it never mind I was setting off home today I had a 300 mile run to get home. Packed up and hit the road by 9am rode the A9 to Pitlochry, stopped there to see the salmon ladder, saw 1 salmon in the middle of it (best time to go is Autumn). I was reliving a childhood memory, it hasn't changed in 30 years although there is an exhibition room with a video running telling you about the conservation that Scottish water do to protect the salmon. I only stopped to listen to dry out a bit. 11am time to head off. Still raining, well not raining, it was absolutely chucking it down, I have never seen such a downpour as this one. It didn't stop until I reached home, so there are no photos of the Grampian Mountains I passed through on A9. Paused for a loo break in Perth, then travelled along M90 to Edinburgh, over the Forth road bridge. it was exceptionally windy and I struggled to stay in my lane. The rail bridge is beautiful, nowhere to stop and take pictures and it was too wet anyway. I took the city by-pass south and headed for A702 towards Carlisle, stopping to re fuel just outsuide Edinburgh. Passed through Biggar and eventually reached A74M and M6 to go home. Final stop was at Southwaite services on M6 for a brew. Met up with 2 of the lads I had got the ferry over to Skye with. (They had to travel down to Scunthorpe, so if you ever come on here lads, was great to see you again, hope you got home safely.)
Had no hold-ups at all in 1000 miles of travelling, until I reached Lancaster, so a little detour was made through Cockerham, A588, into Garstang and eventually along a586 into Blackpool.

1053 miles from work to home, fantastic, only downside was I was totally on my own all weekend, so no one to ride with for about 1000 miles (all bikes seemed to be going opposite way to me) but well worth the trip and Scotland's roads are highly recommended.
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Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[kitty kat]

couldn't add the last few pictures, so here they are;

route I took
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Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[Grav]

Great pics and a great journey, KK. Urqhart castle is nice in June when the tourists are all over the place with their camera's and one cheeky scouser shouting,

" Hey, what's that on the Loch! "

I got some cracking looks of disgust for that little gem, especially when I said " Oh, it's a duck...."



I reckon everyone should do a bike tour of Scotland at least once, it's an outstanding part of the world.
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Dark Lord Of Custard

snigger.....

[kitty kat]

Just found this on youtube, it is the road from Glencoe to the Green Welly Stop. I did it going the opposite way to these bikers though.
____________________
Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[yandy_yay]

wow some really nice pics, and a good story to read, pity you had some bad weather, but you seem to hav enjoyed it non the less. Eevery time i read one of these tour writeups it really gets me thinking about doing one myself... maybe next year,


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past bikes: (20 years ago) cg-125 (wriiten off), C-50 (thrashed n' finnaly scrapped), CZ-125 (nicked - never recovered, insurance payout was more than i paid for it !!!)
Current bikes: GN 125(now sold), Divvy 600s.

[alt101uk]

Excellent write up, glad you enjoyed the trip up to skye. Enjoyed looking at the photo's not been up there in a long time. Nice one

[kitty kat]

[Charlie]

Yeah I agree, all of these write-ups really makes me want to take my motorbike to Scotland... maybe next year

Good write up though Kitty enjoyed reading it
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Past: Honda x8rs, Honda City fly, Honda Hornet 250, Honda VFR750, Yamaha xt600e.
Current: Honda CBR929RR & Yamaha XT660Z Tenere