Chairman's Blog

As most of you are aware Jan and I were unable to make the trip to Germany this year due to a family bereavement. As a bit of a break Jan and I took a trip to Inverness instead a couple of weeks later.

I have always wanted to visit the Inverness area as my grandmother was from the Grantown on Spey – Boat of Garten area and often used to talk about the area and what it was like.

Similarly I have heard from other bikers the more Northern parts of Scotland are well worth visiting.

It turned out that our daughter and family were booked to go away on holiday the same week as our son and family were also away. This gave Jan a week when there were no grandchildren to mind.

I discussed with Jan the option of a Scottish trip and after a little persuasion she agreed to us going. (I think she still had visions of our last Scottish trip to Fort William which was a tad ‘damp’).

A search on the internet found a very handy little B&B in Inverness which was highly rated on Trip-advisor and at a suitable price (I have Scottish roots and others are sure there is some Yorkshireman in me). A phone call later direct to the guest house showed that there was room available for us so I booked a room for 4 nights.

I was aware that the trip to Inverness is a fair distance and as neither of us were set for a single journey of that length without a bit of preparation first, we decided to break the journey with a stop-over at a Holiday Inn at Glasgow.

Again the internet had us booked in to the Express By Holiday Inn at Hamilton within minutes. This was chosen as the hotel is just off the motorway on the approach to Glasgow from the south with very easy access.

Having already practised packing for the aborted German trip, we had no issues finding room for our clothes in the panniers and top-box and the overnight bag on the top-rack.

After the rush hour traffic had disappeared on Monday morning, we left Buckley and filled up at ASDA, where I set the trip meter to zero.

We made steady progress up the M6 and M74 to Glasgow. We kept the speed down a bit to about 65mph most of the way with regular stops for coffee and loo visits. I did not want to suffer on the first day from saddle soreness, neither did Jan, as it may have spoiled the rest of the week’s riding.

Coming off the Motorway at Hamilton, we came down the slip to the roundabout and on riding three quarters of the way round it and there was the hotel entrance right in front of us. After booking in, we went to our room to find that we couldn’t open the window due to traffic noise from the motorway.

After a meal at the next door Toby Carvery we went for a walk along side the adjacent Strathclyde Loch which was a marvellous place for exercising and walking, well used by the locals.

The following morning we has a rather unexceptional breakfast then made our way to the A80/M80 and onto the A9 for Pitlochry.

A refuelling and comfort-stop was called for at Little Dunkeld where we had a nice coffee at the Birnam Hotel, a real old fashioned hotel which I might find an excuse for us to stay at when we come back this way again. We resumed after coffee and continued up the A9.

By this time I was really appreciating the scenery which meant that I had to take my time to see it properly. I had been warned that the scenery got better the further north we travelled. My informant was right.

The A9 road is a wonderful road to travel up (unless you are local, in which case regular roadworks/improvements make it a much cursed road).

As a first time visitor to this area I can understand why many people rave about the area. By this stage I am sure that Jan was becoming blasé about the scenery and my gushing on about it.

We stopped in Aviemore to buy some lunch and I have to admit I was taken back about how small and plain the town is in summer. It is apparently completely changed in the winter months when it becomes a centre of activities in the area.

We eventually made it to Inverness and quickly located the B&B.

After unloading and parking the bike for the night (in the neighbour’s back yard as arranged with the landlord of the B&B), we went for a walk around Inverness and found out that our B&B was only a couple of minutes walk from the City Centre and all the normal city life.

The following day we decided to visit Boat of Garten, Nethy Bridge and Grantown on Spey, the area where my grandmother grew up. The area is very scenic and I found myself wondering about the changes since my grandmother lived there.

We were lucky enough to time our visit to the RSPB Osprey Observatory at Loch Garten to coincide with daddy Osprey returning home with the fish for mummy Osprey to dissect and distribute between the 3 kids, which we watched live on video link to the observatory. Great stuff.

The afternoon saw us visiting the Tomatin Distillery and Culloden Battlefield, before returning back to base.

Thursday turned out to be one of those memorable days. We set off under grey clouds along the A835 to visit Ullapool. I had originally intended to then follow the A835 further north and make a big circuit back via the A837 to Inverness.

Our landlord on hearing this and knowing our mode of transport suggested I amend the route and after visiting Ullapool to retrace our route back a bit then follow the A832 to Poolewe and Gairloch then follow the A832 back to the junction with the A835 at Garve. Lucklily we took his advice!

The weather turned quite cool and damp but thanks to over-suits it did not spoil the day at all. The route suggested by our landlord was a very scenic and memorable road with plenty of viewing points, topped off with a 45 mile run along an absolutely magnificent motorcycle road, ( I stayed at 60 mph most of the way and overtook about 9 cars and was overtaken by 1 car in 45 miles!).

I want to go back and do it again (and again).

The A832 road from Gairloch to Garve is one that I recommend to any motorcycle rider visiting Scotland.

Friday saw Jan and I heading down the side of Loch Ness and up to Cannick then onto Glen Affric, centre of the Caledonian Forest. The latter 10 miles of this road is along a single track road with passing places.

We have previously visited Glen Affric, which contains one of the largest surviving native pinewoods in the United Kingdom and is to me, one of the highlights of visiting the area.

Having made it to the end of the road we parked up in the car park and followed a circuit trail through part of the forest. Having nearly returned to the car-park we had another of those worthy moments and Jan nearly had a heart attack.

A large Red Deer Stag decided to jump out of the bushes right in front of us and move a bit further down the forest. He was a fine example having 6 points on each side of his antlers, but he did initially make Jan think her time had come!

A stop at Urqhart Castle was then made and followed by a run to Cawdor Castle before returning to base.

Having spent some considerable time looking for a hotel to stop at on the Saturday night we were unable to find one readily available close to the motorway around the Glasgow area for our return trip. This meant looking further south so we made some tentative arrangements and on Saturday morning we set off back down the A82 to Fort William and across Glencoe to Loch Lomond.

The weather was very kind to us and although we had clouds we did not encounter any rain. A coffee/comfort stop at Fort William was made and then we carried on to Glencoe . Traffic was not light and progress was a little slow but steady.

We stopped for lunch at a little cafe we knew on the side of Loch Lomond, before continuing and dispatching Glasgow. Once south of Glasgow, we were making reasonable progress . Jan and I decided that we both felt fine at this time, so we decided to head for home and miss out another overnight stop.

The M6 was relatively quiet for a Saturday and after many stops for toilet/petrol/coffee we made it home 9 hours after leaving Inverness – 420 miles in one go – the most we have done in 1 day (and my bum knew it!!!).

Total Mileage for the trip – 1259 miles.

Would I go again? – Tomorrow if I could afford the time and money.

Dave T