A nice day out

[Enduro Numpty]

At last, a weather window!!

It seems like a life time since we got back from Europe and every time we've went to get a decent day out on the bike the weather has been horrendous. Days out have either been cut short or abandoned altogether. I know, real bikers go out in the rain but 400 miles of pissing rain holds no appeal and going out for a couple of hours just isn't enough.

Anyway, the original plan was Ullapool for lunch then possibly up to Lochinver but the forecast for slightly south was much better so we set off with no real plan other than head to Fort William and see what happened. We left Aberdeenshire on my favourite local roads - A939, A97 and A944, through Alford Strathdon and over the Lecht to Tomintoul and into Speyside. We took the Nethy Bridge turning off the A939 before Grantown. It's fairly bumpy and little more than single track but we both enjoy it and it brings us out at Coylumbridge which misses all the Aviemore tourist traffic. As usual the A9 is avoided like the plague and we take the B9152 to Kingussie. For once this lovely stretch of road is busy and we don't get to do the flowing bends justice. Hey - ho, it's early in the day and much more to come. The A86 is fairly quiet with just enough traffic to make the ride that bit more interesting. We take a left at Spean Bridge heading for Fort William and very soon it's decision time. We spoke about heading back to Lochgilphead where we had a puncture a couple of months ago but neither of us could work up much enthusiasm so in the interests of avoiding towns we took a right as we arrived in Fort William. The A830, or The Road to the Isles holds a lot of good memories for both me and Colette as we spent a lot of time on it before we were married and I always enjoy it on a bike. We headed for Arisaig and had lunch at the Crofters Bar, the venue for many great nights in days gone by. We even sat outside (jackets on - the weather wasn't that good!). We about turned and headed East again but turned onto Ardnamurchan at Lochailort. Through Glenuig - the scene of one of my worst ever hangovers 30 odd years ago . Through Acharacle, Strontian and on towards the Corran Ferry. The Ferry was quiet on our side but the queues were on to the road on the A82 side. Another bonus, if the ride through Arnamurchan wasn't enough in itself, was that we missed most of the double white line misery from Fort William. The A82 was busy going into Glencoe with traffic down to 25-30mph and nose to tail. We came across the modern day phenomenon of 2 wheeled motorists - bikers who appear to have never mastered overtaking and are happy enough to sit in traffic when there's miles of empty road just right of the white lines. Old habits die hard and I pass a couple of miles of cars in no time and pass the cause of it all - a clapped out camper van. On the plus side, after passing all the traffic we had the road more or less to ourselves till close to Bridge of Orchy. We rode past Tyndrum and Crianlarich and followed Glen Dochart down to Loch Tay, Aberfeldy and a brief 5 mile section of the A9 to Pitlochry. Conveniently there was a police car in front of us for this section so there was no urge to go too fast and gain more points. From there we cut across to the A93 and had a brief stop at Spittal of Glenshee where the rain that had been threatening got quite heavy. As we rode down from the ski centre towards Braemar the rain eased and we had a great ride on the deserted North Deeside road till Dinnet where we turned off. We arrived home in glorious sunshine.
A superb day on superb roads and while it wasn't the warmest we've ever been, we didn't get wet

As usual we didn't get many photos but here's what I've got


The Route
https://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/old--git/230716_zpsa8sifogk.jpg



The Coran Ferry
https://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/old--git/20160723_154148_zpsdo4lscxx.jpg


"What do you mean there's no bar on board!"
https://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r310/old--git/20160723_154837_zpsso1usvyg.jpg

[RodneyE]

the pics looks great.

[Enduro Numpty]

Thanks, we never stop enough to take decent photos - the roads are just too much fun

[arry]

[MCN]

I hawd them awe up to take phoaties awe the time. 😎
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Gone but not forgotten]

Great photos & thnx for sharing!!!!

l've always wanted to do a bike trip to Scotland but never got around to it & when l was able to it was the monsoon season.
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Mick