It's a long way to go

The plan (not the 4:05 wake up call) worked a treat. With the mists kissing the surface of the Loch Fyne and the sun starting to rise above the hills, we made our way through the twisty roads across to Loch Lomond and then down towards Glasgow without a hitch. It was a beautiful morning and having the roads virtually to ourselves made it all the better.

We crossed the Erskine bridge, skirted round Glasgow airport and were soon heading towards Irvine and Ayr. Even a quick double round a roundabout didn't dent our progress. We even had time for a much needed (it was quite chilly) coffee/toilet break.

We had been planning to visit the Electric Brae, just south of Ayr but in our haste we had to give that a miss. In hindsight, we could still have done that, given that even with another pee stop at Girvan, we arrived at the Cairnryan Stena Line terminal 75 minutes before recommended check-in. We had a coffee and a toasted panini snack whilst we waited and Biggsey once again gave away one of his cards (promoting his book) to the lady in the cafe. She promised she'd download the book for her kindle.

Incidentally, if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the book Biggsey wrote after Route 66. There's a link on the blog, if you are interested.

Soon we were being ushered onto the ferry. Happy the bikes were lashed down securely, we grabbed ourselves a bank of the bench settees. Dudley was soon fast asleep, his tube neck warmer over his face. I had a quick walk round the decks before catching some zeds myself. With an hour or so to go, we had some lunch, to set ourselves up for the final leg of the day's journey, up the Antrim coast to Ballintoy.

Ailsa Craig

It's a long way from Inveraray

I had been worried about this trip for a number of days and had already voiced my concerns to Biggsey. My timetable planning hadn't really allowed for traffic delays or that some of the guys wouldn't feel comfortable travelling at the same speed I would (I'll learn for next time), so with over 3 hours journey time to the port at Cairnryan and with Glasgow to get by, I thought we were in danger of missing the ferry. We decided we would leave a couple of hours early, hoping this would avoid traffic on the twisty roads and the rush hour around Glasgow.

We agreed on a 5:30 departure, setting our alarms (or so we thought) for 4:45. I forwent the pleasure of my earplugs, as I wanted to make sure I heard my alarm, so spent most of the night with a pillow over my ears.  I needn't have worried though, at 4:05 Grizzly's alarm chirped into life to wake us all up! Alarm silenced, I drifted back off to sleep only to be awoken again by the same bloody chirruping. Grizzly had hit snooze, de tick Irish fecker!

All now awake we got ourselves ready. Good job nobody else was up, the haggis supper was making its presence known in the toilets. I swear my eyes were watering at one stage, though I shan't disclose which Triumph rider was 'doing his thing' at the time!

We sat down to a basic 'wee breakfast', that the Slovakian girl at the hostel had prepared for us the night before, knowing we were going to be leaving early and contemplated the task in front of us. That being, to get all our gear on the bikes and get away, before we got devoured by the gazillions of midges that were circling around the bikes.

Did we make it? Read on......

Main Street, East and West, Inveraray

Apologies

Those of you following the blog will have not failed to notice there hasn't been any updates since Day 6. I can only apologise but this has been due to technical difficulties, i.e. having no battery power in the phone, no reception or a combination of the two. I did submit a day 7 update, struggling to keep my eyes open whilst doing so, only for that to disappear into the ether.

Fear not though, the rest of the trip will follow, albeit, retrospectively.

Day 6

Left a bright and sunny Inverness and made our way down Loch Ness to Fort Augustus, where the lads insisted on having haggis pie with their coffee. The haggis count stands at; Biggsey 2, Dudley 2, Grizzly 1, Woody 0. I love haggis but know what it does once it's fermented!

A blast down to the commando memorial followed and soon after our Ben Nevis Distillery tour and lunch stop. The tour was entertaining, the lad giving it had quite a good sense of humour but they were actually producing anything. They have to wait for the barley crop. We got a wee dram at the end of the tour and had a superb soup lunch!

After lunch we headed down the Great Glen, Glen Coe. Breathtaking is the only way to describe it. The road through is superb too, though the big lorries are a problem, as Biggsey found out, when his goggles were blown off! Eventually we arrived in Inveraray, only to find the youth hostel closed! We unloaded the gear and then rode round the corner to fuel up for tomorrow.

The bikes fuelled up, we fuelled ourselves with Haggis Supper ( a long sausage of battered haggis and chips ) eating it on the quayside, accompanied by some very large and brave seagulls. A couple of pints and some oldies playing on the juke box rounded off the evening before we all hit the sack. Early start to Day 7, as we have a ferry to catch.

Haggis Supper, the rudest looking meal ever!

D5P3

So Grizzly and I finally pull over to wait and wager a pint on how long before the others arrive. 20 mins , I say, 40 Grizzly. Dud arrives bang on 20! Well done Dudley, what kept ya?

We continue in the rain until about 30 miles from Inverness, when the sun comes out. We make a stop at the Culloden battlefield and then head for the digs. Grizzly and Biggsey got seperated from myself and Dud, as I was filtering again but Dud had seen where I had gone, so caught back up. Unfortunately, at the B&B Dud reverted to R66 mode and bailed off the side of the Harley, right in front of the landlady! Pride hurt but nowt else. Shortly the others arrived and we soon treated Biggsey to the delights of Wetherspoons. They don't have them in Tetbury don't you know. We followed that with a side street pub visit to The Thistle and instantly doubled the body count! Ireland challenged England to a game of darts. Needless to say, I whooped that paddy ass!

Time for bed.

Day 5, Part Deux

After a fuel and lunch stop we headed out onto the A9. This would take us all the way up through the Cairngorms. Within a few minutes, however, we were stuck in roadworks. I began to filter between two lanes of cars. As usual there was one guy who made a deliberate moved to stop me! The others seemed reluctant to follow, then Grizzly appeared in my mirrors. The two of us made our way to the front of the traffic queue and were soon on open road again. Clear of the traffic, Dud and Biggsey were nowhere to be seen! These small town bikers!

Wishing I Was Lucky

Day 5 started as 4 finished, raining. The trip across the Trossachs was very, very wet, yet once again there were some superb twisty roads to negotiate. A challenge for the less experienced Hogs but they all came through unscathed. We passed some excellent Lochs, Tay being the largest. Someone commented Lochs actually look like they are meant to be seen in the wet. I guess we saw them at their best then!

Day of two halves

Keswick to the last cafe in England, undertaken in decent dry, even sunny at times weather. Encountered the Hartside Pass on the way, a superb twisty road and stopped for coffee at the top, in the Hartside Cafe. Bikers and sports car owners seem to head here for a fry up before going up and down the hill as fast as they can.

All was good on the ride to the last cafe in England, where we had lunch but not long after leaving though, the weather turned, so Scotland greeted us with rain. To add to the misery, tomtom decided not to take the route I'd planned and we ended up well out of our way on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Grizzly's TT was showing different routes to mine too! I'm gonna have words with that girl!!

Avoiding Glasgow with a seemingly endless number of roundabouts and turns and as the gloom descended , we eventually pulled up outside our digs for the night, a castle that is the Loch Lomond Youth Hostel.

Dinner was taken in the hostel but as they don't serve alcohol, it was water all round. There was water all round outside too, as it continued to rain all evening. Welcome to Scotland. PISH!

Lost track of time

Already struggling to remember what day it is! Also struggling to find any wifi or 3g signals, hence why the blog isn't brimming with updates.

Keep tuning in though. I'll get round to it eventually.

Keswick Young Hitlers Association

The view from our room.

Day Tree

The Ribblehead Viaduct

Beautifully sunny all day. A first for this trip. From Glossop we headed to North Yorkshire and the Ribblehead Viaduct and a ploughmans lunch. The roads were brilliant and the scenery quite superb.

From there we made our way to Keswick and Dud's home town. It was a pity he didn't know where to park the feckin' bikes though! First we ended up in a private car park being abused by some blonde wig wearing octogenarian, then get grief from some woman when Dudley asked her to move her car (I'll only be 20 minutes!!), so we could park where the hostel guy said we should. Finally, we were asked by the hostel guy to move them again, so we ended up in a car park nearby, which is free for bikes but doesn't have any bike spaces! F*ck 'em!  Welcome to Keswick. Dudley was not happy and a bit embarrassed that we should receive such a welcome in his home town. Not his fault really but beers on him anyway!

We had Fish and Chips for tea, then a few well needed pints. Grizzly was been busy with his camera but funny how he seems to come across the all female birthday or hen parties! 

Bedtime now. Long day tomorrow. Just trying to decide which is worse, the snoring (we're in a 4 berth again) or the river on whose banks the hostel is situated. Where are those earplugs?

Tomorrow we will cross in to Scotland, our 3rd country!

Glossop

Set on the edge of the Peak District it is unremarkable, save from the Snake Pass that runs to it, which we travelled at about 20 mph due to a steaming great lorry. Otherwise this would have been a fantastic bit of road to ride along. It is notorious for being a bit of a biker graveyard though, so maybe we were safer behind that lorry.

B&B was fantastic. Lynda very, very nice. Don't think I've ever stayed in quite such a luxurious B&B before and the breakfast was superb!

The only other thing to note about Glossop, was the four yobs who kept driving passed us last night, as we came back from the pub, shouting obsceneties! A wild Friday night OOP NORTH!

Day 3 dawns

As usual Biggsey is up early, the old body clock still running on his get up for work time. I've shared with him this time. Like Grizzly, he can rattle the windows! I think we're more like Snoret Hogs than Wild Hogs at the moment! Keswick today, via Ribblehead. About 145 miles.

Garden of Bird's Nest Cottage

Day 2

The Ponderosa Cafe

Slight change of plan today. Biggsey had heard about Horseshoe Pass and the Ponderosa Cafe, so we detoured to there for our coffee stop. One might have thought he had it planned after he introduced himself to a not unattractive female employee at the cafe. Hi I'm David. 'Ding Dong!' Seems she found him attractive also.

From there we made our way to the Anderton Boat Lift. A marvellous piece of Victorian engineering, which transports you 50 feet down from canal to river.

Not a good day for Woody today, with Tomtom letting him down but just as well Grizzly's was still playing ball!

Dinner was chinese, in a tiny takeaway, with two small metal tables. Not very inspiring but food very good and good value. That was washed down with a couple of pints at a micro brew pub, the Globe. 

B&B very nice. Not everywhere you are greeted with cakes and coffee!

Tomorrow we head for Keswick.

The Anderton Boat Lift, Northwich

Betws pics

Left to right, Grizzly, Woody, Biggsey, Viv, Simon and Dudley

The local brew

Day 1

Bit late this, due to the fact that my mobi ran out of juice and the room in the hostel had no power socket! What do you expect for £17pppn?

Anyway, day 1 was, in parts wet but mainly dry. We seemed to have been quite lucky. However, very grey and quite chilly. More like autumn than summer!

Main attracttions were Elan Valley reservoirs, which were quite stunning and the feeding of the Red Kites. What sight to behold, fantastic creatures. Thanks to Biggsey for this part of the trip.

Hostel very basic but adequate. We met up with Simon and Viv, our Route 66 buddies in Betws and had a great evening remeniscing. Dudley took a shine to our rude but nevertheless friendly and entertaining waitress and somehow managed to blag a loo roll off her!!! The toilet at the hostel was paper free!

A nice meal and some local ale went down a treat. Day 2 sees us head back into England.

Snore Blimey Guvnah!

Not a great night's sleep. Grizzly can sure drive them home. Had to dig out the spare earplugs. Not sure coffee just before bed helps either.

All assembled

Here we are then, The Hogs, all assembled ready to go. Welcome dinner done, along with a few pints, we shall meet up again at 8:30 for the group photo and the brass band send off! Now though it's bedtime.

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Here we go

Bit later than planned but no rush.

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Getting in the mood

All ready to go, I'm just getting in the mood by watching Henry Cole's 'World's Greatest Motorcycle Rides'. This, his trip from John O'Groats to Lands End. He's visited a couple of places we shall be and ridden some of the roads we'll be riding, albeit in reverse. 12 hours time I'll be on the road. Can't wait.


Sent from Samsung Mobile

Test Pack Complete

There we go, all crammed in and photographed. Yes, not the paper and freehand drawing of what goes where (as employed on the IOM trip) this time but with the aid of the Map my Pack app for iphone, I have been able to record the location of every piece of clothing and footwear in each case, in vivid digital colour. Ain't technology BRILLIANT!

With a large amount of space taken up by the team outfit in the top box for the way out, I shall have some room for gifts or something (for my best girl(s)), on the way back.

Tomorrow I'll fit the top box to the bike to double check everything still fits in OK, once my security chain is in as well. Then I'll be ready.

Roll on Wednesday.

Yes, I'm taking protection!

For my Tomtom!

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Starting to Focus

Cath being away this weekend has given me lots of time to myself. Just what I needed with now just over 3 days to go.

I've started to pack, stuff for the topbox mostly, which is bike related, waterproofs, spare gloves, etc, plus all the techno gizmos that one could need to get ones hands on quite quickly, namely the satnav, my GoPro camera, sunglasses (LOL!!) and my normal camera. Also in there are the team colours, polos and hats and the last thing to go in will be my security chain. Hoping to squeeze my lightweight jacket in too, if there's room.

The panniers will take the rest of my gear, pants, socks, shirts, trousers, shoes, washbag, jumpers, etc. At the moment, I'm feeling pretty confident I'll get it all in (as the Bishop said to the actress!!) but then I've only ID'd a few t-shirts at the moment. Clearly, when pushed for space, one does have to wear things more than once, so it's not like I'm taking 12 of everything, except pants of course (what do you take me for?).

I checked the tyre pressures today and as the last time the bike was out was on the way back from being serviced, there's nowt else to do.

Did some final tweaks to the Tomtom itineries today, adding in intermediate stops, the Hogs like their coffee! and have printed off some daily timetables, as a guide. Pretty much our days will start at 9am and finish about 5:30pm. Almost like being at work but without the hassle!

Roll on Wednesday.

Wexford Sorted

First Wexford hotel a definite no go. Would have been nice if they'd told us. Grizzly has family in Wexford and they confirmed the Drinagh Court is closed. Seems it may have been repossessed by the bank but has subsequently been sold on. They reckon though, that there is no chance it will be open anytime soon, let alone for 2 weeks time.  I've had no reply to my enquiries from the hotel or the site I booked through, so it looks as though my deposit has gone down the pan. Good job it was only €12.

The contingency, the Faythe Guest House has good write ups and they have confirmed they have our booking, so I feel a lot more comfortable now.

5 days to go. Have a few bits laid out on the table but far from being packed or even decided on what I'm taking....apart from waterproofs that is.

10 day forecast doesn't make good reading. First 4 days of the tour will be peeing down by the looks of it. Ah, memories of 2009!

Contingency

Given the discovery that our Wexford hotel is being refurbished, I've managed to secure an alternative in case it goes tits up. Free cancellation, so no worries about losing any money if the original is open again in time.

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Bike Sorted

Tyres fitted last week, service done this, so the Bandit is all fettled and ready to go.

With 10 days to go it's time I started thinking about what I'm going to take with me and where it's all going to go. I'm pondering whether to take my laptop or not. I can post to the blog from my phone but, if I intend to take my GoPro camera, then I will need somewhere to download the footage to, assuming I end up with more than 8 hours of filming. With 8 days in the Isle of Man last year, I managed to get enough clothes, footwear, bike gear, etc and fit the laptop in, so should be possible. We'll see. First of all though, I need to make sure everything I want to take is clean!

Discovered something a tad disturbing this evening, whilst doing some research. The hotel we are booked into for our last night, in Wexford, is being refurbished and no re-open date has been announced. A big concern, as it was the only accommodation I could find in Wexford, when I was looking, so we could be in the poo-poo. I've emailed the hotel for clarification, so we'll see if we are OK or up shits creak!

Almost into single figures. Excitement mounting!

Do you feel lucky Hog?

Well, do ya? To tell you the truth, in all the confusion I kinda lost count. Has it been 2 or 3 months of near continuous rain?

Enough!

With just 2 weeks to go now, the weather forecast is looking like it will remain unsettled (read - will piss down) for the next 10 - 14 days, after which we may enter a dry sunny spell for the rest of July.

YEAY!  I am crossing everything that this forecast, although long range and subject to change at any second, is the real deal and that our 11 days of biking, will be through our green and sunny lands, rather than sodden ones.

This time in 2 weeks, The Reservoir Hogs will have rendezvoused in Tetbury and will be quaffing back copious amounts of ale, whilst discussing the final plans for the BIG OFF on 19th. Either that or as we're all over 50, will be tucked up in bed fast asleep. After all, 3 of us have quite a ride to even get to Tetbury.

The Merchadise Arrives

A little earlier than expected, a parcel arrived at work today, containing the Reservoir Hogs Tour merchandise I had 'designed'. Polo shirts, caps and stickers. Both the cap and the polo have the logo embroidered on them. I think they look pretty good but you decide. As promised, I've taken some photos.




Team RH Cap & Polo



Original Reservoir Hogs Tour sticker