Hoots mon there's a moose loose aboot this hoose.

[pross]

It was a pleasure to be your stunt double Rusty.

Steve had the whole thing planned and all I had to do was follow his lead.

It was a great experience that I'm missing daily. Roll on the next trip 

PS Skye was also low cloud and rain by the time we hit the hotel 

If the three musketeers are doing it next year I would love to tag along if there is room for a little one 

[iamkwackers]

It's definitely a must do ride. I am doing the NC 500 ( with additions) with a bunch of mates next year.....oh yeah one of those mates is Moayling,,,really looking forward to it   

[Lonewolf]

Right finally I get round to adding some photos.  Reader discretion advised as this write up and photos could be biased and may have a German theme. 


After meeting Charlie at Carlisle services on the M6 and having a quick catch up we headed North, deep North.....well towards Glasgow at least where we were confronted by tailbacks of traffic which thankfully didn't delay us too much before we reached the Eskrine Bridge, the gateway to Loch Lomond & The Trossachs.


We stopped at Luss which is the West side of Loch Lomond and had a short walk along the beach and through the village of Luss before heading back to the bikes. A quick conflab and we decided to explore the perimeter of Loch Lomond itself doing a large circuit before returning to Balloch and then finally heading to our accommodation at Loch Long which is just above Tarbot.


As Charlie and I were both members of the elite K16 club which as I tried to explain to PRD a couple of weeks ago affords you certain privileges on tours we were pleased to discover when we arrived at our accommodation, The Village Inn, that our 'Special; BMW themed room had been prepared as requested.





My room was beautifully prepped with home comforts....





The view from the front of the hotel overlooked Loch Long of which this is a very small section.





The bikes were bedded down for the night in a quiet corner of the car park and their alarms, (fitted as standard) are activated automatically as the keys were removed. 





Now I need to add here that Charlie had never done such a journey before which required him to ride for multiple days and therefore like all good explorers he had put energy and commitment into considering how to make himself most comfortable on the miles which lay ahead and to hell with there millions of midges which awaited him. Yes Charlie decided to go Commando!! Ok, well maybe not full Commando but he ditched the full face helmet for the wind in your face option.


So having journeyed down to Toys R Us he picked up this bad boy.





It didnt stop there though, oh no, Charlie had a surprise, a BMW surprise. Look at this he said, take a picture he said, so I did.





Everything was complete....we were ready for day 2. So after a modest breakfast of toast, sausages, bacon, multiple fried and poached eggs, hash browns, haggis and black pudding (all washed down with a fresh orange juice as we were trying to be healthy) we set off from Loch Lomond to the Isle of Skye.


We headed for Tyndrum stopping off briefly at the Green Welly for a leg stretch and drink. A couple of quick photos and the intrepid explorers once again hit the road.








Dropping down into Glencoe on the A82 which is awesome as you ride through the mountains we stopped for Charlie to experience the bagpiper in one of the carparks.





I invited Charlie to pose with the piper, saying just relax, look natural, chill out, unfortunately this is the result....







The next photo doesn't do the location justice but if you have never experienced the beauty of Scotland it has to be on your Bucket List.





The main thing was though for Charlie to enjoy himself and that he certainly did.





We then headed towards Spean Bridge to visit the Commando Memorial where I left Charlie to soak up the atmosphere and read the tributes towards the fallen Servicemen.


If you have never been here it's well worth the visit.











Gathering our thoughts we then headed West on the A87 towards Eileen Donan Castle at Kyle of Lochalsh.





The Castle is always a very popular attraction with all nationalities and again well worth a visit if you are in the area.


I'd mentioned to Charlie about us catching a ferry to the Isle of Skye from Kylerhea, nothing to worry about I said, small ferry, turntable, slippery ramps, everything will be fine.








This is the last turntable ferry operating commercially in the UK and only carries six vehicles at any one time and believe it or not used to be the main and in fact only way of leaving and entering the island many years ago until the Skye Bridge was built.


Charlie....freaked out, does he look freaked out?





I'm not sure if that was a forced smile or not but we survived, I just had to remind Charlie to remain seated on his bike as the ferry could jolt and we didn't want any mishaps did we? PRD would never stop with the piss taking!


After the short ten minute ferry crossing to the Isle of Skye we climbed the single track road up towards civilisation. Charlie was waving frantically behind me, flashing his lights and sounding his horn.....I stopped....Charlie announced that he wanted to have a moment to absorb the atmosphere.


At this moment, I realised, you know Charlie is right, we may never pass this way again, this is a time for Charlie to place himself in the middle of nature, soak it all up, relish in the beauty of it all, smell the air, almost taste it.....oh and while he's doing all that the might as well take a piss!







I took the opportunity to capture the beauty of the available scenery.....











As Nigel will testify, it very rarely doesn't rain on Skye. Today was no exception. We headed towards our accommodation at Uig Hotel which is at the top of Skye and as we reached the Sligachan hotel where a wedding was taking place the heavens opened up. So rather than go via Dunvegan Castle which we were intending to do we went straight to our digs and got checked in.


Keeping a watchful eye on the bikes from my hotel room.





A view over Uig bay, nothing much to look at and not one of the most appealing locations upon Skye however it suited our needs.





The following morning as we left Skye for John 'Groats the weather was fine and therefore before we left Skye we attempted some action shots.





As we headed to JOG we stopped off at a small village for some photos.











We then noticed that BMW had provided special picnic rugs on the grass for us so Charlie obliged with a photo.





The excitement didn't end there though, oh no, BMW think of everything, it's the little touches which mean so much.





From the 'Special' loos we visited a nearby cafe for a cool coke and a chat with a couple who were heading in the same direction as us on their KTM.





The views were breathtaking and the photos don't do the area justice.





Applecross beckoned however so we pushed on and thankfully the weather stayed clear for us. We had some nugget behind us in a Merc who insisted they wanted to get past us and relayed the message by driving on our rear wheels virtually whilst sounding their horn so deciding it would be better to have them in front of us rather than behind, we pulled over and let them pass.
















After reaching Applecross we headed North up the Coastal road towards Lonbain and Annat, rugged mostly single track roads but well worth the effort. Ultimately we ended up at Ullapool where we saw a sign, John O' Groats 170 miles. Still a long way to go then! 




The next 100 plus miles contained a mixture of a woman in a small hatchback who decided to reverse back at one passing place narrowly missing embedding my front wheel in her rear bumper, another woman in an Audi who refused point blank to use the passing place on her side of the road and instead kept her line heading straight for Charlie whilst shouting obscenities and introducing the vulnerable Cahrlie to many new Scottish hand gestures. But we survived of course and landed at our accommodation, The Anchorage as expected in the pouring rain.





A panoramic view of the area as the light faded.





The following morning we awoke to sunshine and headed down to the JOG sign for the must have photos.




















So this is the most Northern point asked Charlie, hell No, thats Dunnet Head, so we went there next.


And again we would like to thank the organisers at www.bmwwolftours.co.uk for making us feel so very welcome.





Some guy insisted he have his photo taken with the sign.....








We then travelled a few miles to Castle Mey where unfortunately they wouldn't let us beyond the ticket office not even to simply get a photo so I had to make do with this.








Heading back down via Drumnadrochit we stopped off at The Loch Ness Inn before visiting Urquhart Castle.





On the final leg of the journey towards Loch Long where once again we were staying at The village Inn and after experiencing some lovely twisty roads we stopped for fuel and drinks as it was pretty warm.





As we rose through Glencoe towards Loch Long we stopped for a quick photo of this mighty fall of water.





And finally back on the shores of Loch Lomond near Loch Long we stopped for a couple of photos as the journey was drawing to a close.








I think it's fair to say that it was an epic journey enjoyed by all and we finally parted company at The Hartside Cafe at Alston, Penrith.


So there you have it, hopefully you'll enjoy the photos and words and if it encourages anyone to visit Scotland then it will have been well worth the time spent putting it all together.

[moayling]

Great pictures and report. Looking forward to returning there next year. thanks for sharing Mr Wolf.

When you said in the first part that your accomodation was BMW themed I thought you were sleeping in the shed 

[O.C.]

Great pictures Steve, mind you we expect nowt less now do we 

Thanks for sharing, I even managed to enjoy the pictures whilst ignoring the BMW theme   

[pross]

Cracking pictures once more and a quality review mr wolf .
Charlie's choice of helmet for Scotland and its weather must make his face feel like some of their granite 

[shaggs147]

Great write up and pics Steve, looks like a great tour. Do you have a gpx file of the route you took in Scotland? Would be good to see it on basecamp. Ps.... was Charlie smuggling a set of bagpipes under his jacket ....🙄

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[PRD]

Lovely pictures. Beautiful bikes. Great write up. I'm assuming you did not share the double bed with BMW cover!

[iamkwackers]

Inspiring... ( despite the BMW theme)....great pictures Wolf and a very entertaining write up...thank you   

[Rusty]

Well Done Steve ! A big smile on my face as I am reading through that ! A great write up and some, actually they are all excellent photos all with meaning and thought .. particularly the poppy photo, really quite brilliant. You are clearly both tuned into the teutonic line of thought and I am sure the K's were a perfect ride for all those miles and oncoming Scottish women 
Glad also to hear that Gail at The Anchorage looked after you both ... did you tell her that there will be ANOTHER visit next year ?? Loved it, good effort !

[Lonewolf]

Thanks for all the positive comments, (even from PRD)


Shaggs, I don't have any files of the route I simply researched the North Coast 500 route and then incorporated that as best as possible into the route for the accommodation we had booked. Everything was then plotted on Google maps and then input into the bike sat nav. The roads are easy, slow but easy, even the single tracks, twas great fun.

[Debs]

That was a great write up Steve, and I loved the pictures..

If you plan on doing it again next year, then I would love to tag along as never done Scotland on the bike.. 

[Charlie747]

Nice write up and photos Steve.

Really enjoyed it..............so...............when's he next one ?

[PRD]

If enough interest and accomadation could be sorted, how about a group run?

[Lonewolf]

If enough interest and accomadation could be sorted, how about a group run?

Are you saying that you want to muscle in on the Beemer tour?