Orkney 2009
Saturday 2nd May - The unwet day
Sat - Sun - Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri
This year we're riding up to Orkney in the far north east of Scotland for our big trip, hopefully the weather gods will smile on us and we'll have blistering sunshine all week, well, we can hope can't we!
Destination Orkney (Wiki) the largest island of around 70 islands making up this archipelago off northern Scotland.
Launch day
The riders are:
Ebbo BMW R1200RT
Dave Gilera GP800
Patto BMW R1200RT
Neil Honda Pan European
Gee Kawasaki GPZ500S
07.26 I left York to meet Dave just above the A1 on the A59 Harrogate road. As expected so early on a Saturday morning there was virtually no traffic and it took just 20 minutes to get there. Bang on 8am Dave motored up the ramp to meet me on his Gilera GP800 scooter.
N54 00 31.8 W1 22 41.9 (map)
Note: when clicking on the 'map' links, the green arrow is the true location not the red markers.
08.03 We set off North on the A1 to meet the rest of the gang at Patto's place in Bishop Auckland. It was cool, just 12c but the sun was shining and it should warm up a bit. As we made our way up the road we passed quite a few bikers and car drivers on the hard shoulder having been pulled over by the Police. It was obvious the Police were having a purge this morning and I counted at least 5 bikers who had been stopped in the 35 miles before we turned off the A1 again, I took this as a clear warning to take it easy throughout the whole trip.
8.54 After a steady run we rolled in to Patto's, and a few minutes later Gee followed us in on his venerable GPZ500.
I handed out a bundle of banners I'd made for the bikes and everyone got busy sticking them on, at least it will make it easier for the police to track us as we travel round :-)
Our trip banner. The reference to the 'Black Widows' is a really old joke from when I used to work at Leeds, all my bike gear was black so some joker said I was one of the Black Widows from the Clint Eastwood movies 'Every which way but loose' (yes, that long ago), Filo Beddo, remember him? I don't know which of us he's supposed to be, now where's my cane? :-)
09.21 So with banners firmly stuck we left Patto's and joined the excellent A68 heading North, here's our planned route and all the B&B's I'd booked for our route round.
10.44 And we're on the Scottish border on the A68. I'd had breakfast at 6am so was quite peckish by now, but there seemed no easy way to get to the burger van on the other side of the road without ether breaking a leg climbing the wall or getting left behind while I make the long trek around... sadly I remained hungry :-( Quite a few other bikers are here too (mostly on the other side noshing burgers). On our side of the road was another group of riders from the Netherlands (probably taking advantage of the exchange rate) also heading for Orkney, looks like its going to be a busy place! We're leaving the A68 here and taking a divisionary route between Edinburgh and Glasgow to avoid the speed cameras, motorway and traffic around Edinburgh.
N55 21 15.8 W2 28 40.8 (map)
12.34 Peebles, and time for a proper break with food! We managed to find a parking bay on the main street and used it all up, no parking charge here, well done Peebles!
N55 39 05.1 W3 11 27.9 (map)
The Tatler cafe on main street Peebles (which looks a a nice little town), Soup of the day was 'Tatty and Leek' (Potato and Leek), the deeply Scottish guy behind the counter had to say it 4 times before we finally grasped what he was saying. Good soup, good coffee, good cakes, just a bit tight for space.
N55 39 04.9 W3 11 29.7 (map)
15.12 Moving on to Gleneagles, fuel was needed. After topping up someone noticed the cafe attached so we had a quick coffee here too. My divisionary route between Edinburgh and Glasgow had worked reasonably well, we'd got caught up in a little traffic near Glasgow, but once clear of that it was fine, success I think!
N56 16 05.3 W3 44 35.9 (map)
The view from the cafe window, sunshine and lovely rolling Scottish hills, hopefully a precursor for even better things further North.
N56 16 05.3 W3 44 35.9 (map)
16.36 At last, Pitlochry and our first stop for the night at The Buttonboss Lodge. My waypoint was pretty close so the place was real easy to find, we rode straight around the back and parked up. This is the first of five B&B's we'll be staying in, all were found using ' Google Maps', just type in the name of the place you want to stay (town name) followed by 'B&B' and up they pop on the map, five phone calls later and it was all sorted, how easy is that!
N56 42 06.3 W3 43 49.3 (map)
The bikes were unpacked and luggage dropped off in the rooms, this seems a cosy place to stay, the very friendly owners made us a nice cup of coffee in the sitting room (plus there was the usual tea & coffee makings in the rooms too).
N56 42 06.3 W3 43 49.3 (map)
Its often a good idea to ask the proprietors of the B&B where they'd recommend dinning and one of the places ours mentioned was the Auld Smiddy Inn at the other end of town, so that's where we went. It was perhaps a bit posh for us and the food, though very good, lent more toward 'designer' than 'filler'. Still, it did what was required and we all left quite happy.
N56 42 15.5 W3 44 17.6 (map)
After a few more beers in The Old Mill Inn on the way back to our B&B we headed for bed and that brought an end to day one, tomorrow we'll be heading further in to the wilderness.
Sat - Sun - Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri
Today's tracklog and waypoints in Garmin .gdb format
Today's route in yellow, 295 miles
Today's temperature graph from data collected by the Garmin 276c and remote temperature sensor.
Sat - Sun - Mon - Tue - Wed - Thu - Fri