Scotland 2002

Day1 - Day2 - Day3 - Day4

The sun was shining! and after a good fried breakfast and uggins of tea & toast we were ready for off... Er not quite. Kid's Gpz was blowing it's exhaust so he popped down to the filling station for an exhaust patching kit. He was back in 10 mins and proceeded to pull the left hand silencer off.

I stayed and offered useless advice while the rest went to fuel up. The job was soon done and we went down and joined the rest at the filling station. 

According to the weather forecast this might be our best day so I planned to visit the famous Pass of Cattle 'Bealach Na Ba' on the Applecross peninsula (It's just above Kyle) also I wanted to visit Eilean Donan Castle which was en-route. It promised to be a good day.

We set off north on the A82 heading for Spean Bridge were we turned left (By the way, there's a Little Chef here) just a few miles up the road we came across road works. We road to the front of the queue (like you do) and stopped. There was a guy with a stop/go board. How long I asked, "Oh about 20mins" he said.

Actually he was a bit of a comedian so we had a bit of banter while waiting for the Go. You can see the length of the queue from this picture and the snow on the mountain tops. All the bikes came to the head of the queue and when we got the Go we all set off in procession.

Now I'll tell you about a really great piece of road. It's between the junction of the A87 & A887 and travels west to Kyle. It's 37m long and near Shiel Bridge climes over the Five Sisters. The road comprises mostly of sweeping bends that you can see through. I can honestly say its the most exhilarating road I have ever ridden. Take my tip, ride it on a summers evening after 7  when everybody is home watching telly and the road's deserted.

Here's a map, the road is highlighted in Yellow.

Here are a couple of pictures taken along the way. Firstly,  Loch Cluanie, See the Piper on the right!

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Loch Duich taken from Invershiel

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Halfway along the A87 we came across one of the International 6 day events, so we pulled over to take a look:

I don't know what level of skill these guys were but they had my sympathy! The gully they were trying to ride up was as every bit as bad as this picture shows. This is only 25yds from where he started.

Most got about this far then road up the bank on the left and out. One or two got completely stuck, then a gang of helpers would jump in and pull them free. The bikes took a fearful pounding on the rocks, no wonder they are a little crazy by the end of the day (see Nomad trial riders from day1)

Time was moving on and we had to get going. We rejoined the bikes and road on toward Eilean Donan Castle. The road just got better and better. The ride over Five Sisters was terrific, swooping round the wide curves as we headed down toward Shiel Bridge was as close to flying as you are likely to get.

This is the second time I have tried to get a closer look at Eilean Donan castle, I have to confess we were having so much fun on the road we shot straight past, never mind I thought, I'll pick it up on the way back... We found the turning at Auchtertyre for the A890. Below is the map for the last part of the route to Applecross. The route is highlighted in yellow:-

All went well until we got to the turning at Tornapress were we found we had lost Kid. After just a couple of minutes he was on the phone. He had stopped about 1/2 mile back to take a picture, when he started off again the back wheel had locked up solid. We turned around and went back to find him.

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All the toolkits were pulled out along with rag and hand cleaner. Kid, Pato and John went to work pulling the rear wheel out. Ether we fixed it or we call the RAC and the day would be over. Well many hands make light work and that wheel was soon out.

This is what we found. The brake drum was mashed up inside, nothing serious but something wasn't right.

And here's the culprit, Its a washer that was now tied up in a knot after jamming the back wheel. How it got there we don't know. A quick check was made of the brake but there was nothing missing or damaged. The wheel was quickly reassembled and we were ready to go again.

Now for the exciting bit, the road over The Pass of Cattle.  Here's a map to help you navigate through the pictures, the road is highlighted in yellow.

Pic 1 Near the bottom looking up toward the pass about 200 meters up

Pic 2 from the same place but looking the other way out over Loch Kishorn. 2 pictures pasted together

Pic 3 This picture was really taken on the way back, it very near the top of the Pass of Cattle. You can see Donkey waiting for me, Cheers Dave :))

Pic 4 This is the cairn and viewing point at Bealach na Ba, 2053ft

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Pic 5 View from the Cairn toward Kyle of Lochalsh.

So the trip over the pass was made without hitch... We only lost Kid in the last half mile before Applecross so that's not so bad :) There's not many places he could hide so we stopped at the Applecross Inn and waited for him to show up.

All together again, enjoying tea and biscuits at the Applecross Inn. By now it was 3 in the afternoon, It had taken 5 hours to get this far. We decided to head back and call at Kyle and find somewhere for tea.

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On the way to Kyle we stopped in a layby overlooking Loch Carron to enjoy the view, this is a 2 pictures joiner:

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As I'm sure you can tell, it's the same place.

Unbelievably it was half past six before we sat down for Tea in Kyle. Sorry, I don't remember the name of the place but it was upstairs and cheap 'n' cheerful.

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After Tea it was time to ride back to Fort William. The road signs said it was about 85 miles but this time no traffic, less said about that the better :)

Again we shot passed Eilean Donnan Castle, I blame it on the others and that superb road the A87, Oh well, perhaps next time... here's a picture I found to show you what we missed.

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That's about it for day 2, It was a good ride back just as the day was ending. Don't know about you but I always enjoy a good ride in the evening :)

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