Saturday morning here in grey but dry London. We should be on the Eurotunnel train this afternoon for a 16:20 departure and a 35-minute trip to Calais. The weather forecast for the next week looks quite promising for camping, so the plan is to camp out as much as we can as we make our way to the Horizons Unlimited meeting in Germany over May 14th – 17th. We may not have too much wifi time over the next week or so, but we’ll be back blogging when we can okay 🙂
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After unloading the bike on the front footpath (it’s too far to carry the top-box from the rear parking bay) and getting a bit sorted, we walked in the wrong direction to go see the Roman Baths for about 15 minutes before I realised my mistake – silly me 🙂 We walked back to our B&B and then grabbed a bus for the quick ride into the centre of Bath, and made our way to the Roman Baths.
I’ve been keen to see the Roman Baths here in Bath for ages. Back in grade 2 primary school I’d been given a picture book on Ancient Rome and that had painted a fascinating picture. Trips to England in 2010 and 2012 didn’t lend themselves to a quick visit to Bath – having the motorbike makes it much easier to get around to places you really want to go to …
After the doormen at the Roman Baths laughed at my English Heritage discount admission card and we’d paid our full 14 quid each to get our entry ticket and hand-held audio guide to the Baths, we then spent a fascinating 2.5 hours exploring all aspects of the Baths. At 5pm, an hour before closing time, we jumped on to the last guided tour of the baths for the day, and followed James around the site as he explained various aspects and customs associated with the Baths. The engineering and construction of the baths is a technological marvel. One intriguing custom James described was how – when the fifty or sixty common folk using the baths were scraping off the olive oil and dead skin off them in the steam room prior to going through the baths for a swim and just letting the rubbish fall to the floor to be swept away by servants, the oil & dead skin combination from community leaders and celebrities would be collected and sold in the markets as a facial cream …. Yuck !!!
A few photos …
Had the most awesome ride today and uncovered a well-hidden secret – Wales is road-riding heaven !!!
Yesterday was very overcast with a low fog hanging over the hills as we rode down from Holyhead to Dolgellau via Druid and so we didn’t get to see a great deal of the countryside, though the riding itself was very enjoyable even on the wet roads. The weather forecast for the following day – the Bank Holiday in Wales on Monday 4th May was for sunshine, no rain till 21:00, and a max of 14 degrees C, so whilst our final destination for the day had us aiming for somewhere around Newport Karen was only too agreeable to have us head back north again to the start of Snowdonia National Park so we could see Mt Snowdon, and then follow the A470 down south – a road recommended by Alec, our host in Dolgellau.
We took a quick trip north up the A470 and then A4085 till we approached Mt Snowdon via Beddgelert, and then had an absolute blast up through the valley. The left hand side of the road fell away to nothing and Karen was stunned silent as she contemplated spearing off the cliff at one of the many bends on the road, but the bald TKC80 on the rear of the bike still had enough grip to keep us on the road. Having crested the mountain pass and dropped down to Snowdon on the other side we then turned around and had another run at the pass, though this time the cliff drop-offs weren’t as visible to Karen and hence weren’t as unnerving.
We retraced our route back to Dolgellau – well for most of the way until we peeled off the A4085 and took a hidden B road out of Maentwreg that was twisty and fun, and then hooked up with the A470 and had the most awesome five hours of road riding I can remember 🙂 The road was wide, well-surfaced, and twisted and weaved its way through some of the most beautiful countryside I’ve seen. The road was quick – easily supporting the 97kph speed limit – and at that speed the ride was almost meditative, though it could easily be ridden quicker, though the number of warning signs to riders suggested that it could also catch fast riders out.Â
The scenery alternated between wide angle views and long shots of valleys as the road followed white water rivers, to tree-lined avenues where the tall trees joined overhead and stone walls lined the road, to sections where head-high hedges created a corridor-effect that play tricks on the eyes as if you were riding through a maze.Â
Whatever the scenery, the road just lent itself to the perfect ride. Even when baulked by cars – often banked up in a procession behind a slow-moving vehicle, it was easy enough to find a straight section or wide curve to allow for a quick overtaking move, often crunching a few cars at once. Once back in the open air the road would just unfold in front of you, a continuous series of beautiful bends, crafted for the enjoyment of riders. The road gave me the impression that it was just one long magical race-track, sculptured to perfection as it followed the contours of the Welsh valleys and hills.
With the rain holding off and a holiday in Wales today we saw more motorbikes on the road today than we’ve seen over the past six weeks. In fact – we’ve probably seen about 10 times more motorbikes at least, than over the past six weeks. Big BMW tourers seemed popular as well as their RR’s, along with KTM supermotards.Â
Out of Raglan we picked up the B4293, a well-formed country back-road that eased us into Chepstow and gave us a chance to regain our senses a bit after the rush provided by the A470, which isn’t to say that the B4293 is dull at all as it’s quite a pleasure to ride, it just misses out on some of the scenic valley views as it transforms into farmland, and we throttled back a bit to finish the day on a relaxing note.
I haven’t looked at the mileage today – we did start off from Dolgellau at about 09:30am and we arrived in Chepstow around 5:00pm so it was a solid day’s riding, but it was so invigorating I reckon I could get out on the bike again right now and do it all over again, even though it is dark outside now and I’m tucked up nicely in bed in our quaint room adjacent to the Three Tuns Inn here in Chepstow – right next to the Chepstow Castle. Karen has a knack of locating great places to stay, and as we tinkered through this old town she spotted the inn with a few Harley’s parked alongside, and so enquired about a room to stay. With the BMW parked in the yard behind the pub, our own front-door leading to the road outside, the quaintest room to stay in, a castle behind us – a massive castle, built overlooking the Wye River – we’re enjoying our evening here. We’ve had a walk around the castle – a beautiful if derelict castle, a fantastic dinner at an Indian restaurant recommended by Simon – barman at the Three Tuns, consisting of a mixed starter, Sitar Balti Special (chicken, mince and prawn balti), aloo, paratha, oh and complementary shots of sambucca and Tia Maria courtesy of the kind staff at the Sitar Restaurant, and now it’s time to catch up on our blogging, emails, photo and video downloads, etc etc. Of all things the GoPro cracked a wobbly today so whilst I’ve got stills of the Snowdonia mountain pass captured at 5 second intervals I’ve got no video, and I chose not to record any of the A470 or B4293 – if you want to see how fantastic these roads are you need to come over here yourself and ride them for real 🙂
Snowdonia….
After breakfast, prepared by Maria of Orchard House in Killarney, we set off to explore the 179km Ring of Kerry welcomed by our first sunny and rain free day in Ireland. We stopped off in Kenmare for lunch and then off to Blackwater, Sneem, Castlecove, Caherdaniel, Waterville to St Finans Bay along the Ring of Kerry. It was very pretty along the coast, but quite sedate in terms of actual riding. The roads in Ireland are very bumpy in general but otherwise uneventful. Looking for something a little more adventurous we took some of the Mountain passes ( Mullaghanattin , Ballagah Beam, Molls Gap and the Gap of Dunloe back into Killarney National Park) whilst tame by some of the other roads we have been on (Raiders Road in Scotland and Torr Rd in Northern Ireland) still a nice ride. During the pass we met Jean Pierre from Paris, who was touring on his own (we had passed him earlier on the Ring of Kerry) and it was interesting to here about his travels and he was envious of us being able to take a 12 month trip. Whilst riding the pass we had to stop along the way for Vince to do the boy thing and have a pee break … Surfice to say my SheWee has now been christened successfully! An interesting way to see the Killarney National Park is via the Jaunting Carts….it was lovely to see the horses and carriages in the Forrest.
And Vince says … that the N70 that runs west from Kenmare and marks the southern section of the Ring of Kerry is sealed, but is rutted in some sections – the left-hand track has subsided in places and is a good 3-4 inches lower than the rest of the road surface – where the rut ends and rises up to meet the road there’s a steep, sharp lip, and I can imagine that hitting that at speed would be quite disconcerting, especially as the rise was often at angles to the road – a good opportunity to lose your front wheel sliding across the lip. I choose to stay in the right wheel track and avoid the dramas 🙂 The ‘steep climb’ out of Catherdaniel described in Colette Coleman’s “Great Motorcycle Tours of Europe” was a complete non-event – we’d finished the climb and pushed on for a while when Karen asked over the intercom when was the climb coming up, as she was looking for something exciting to occur 🙂 And our usual preference is not to ride the same road twice, but I did backtrack 14km from Ballinskelligs back to Waterville so we could get away from the coastal route and go explore the mountain passes…Â
English car drivers can shoe-horn their cars into the narrowest of gaps. The ride through the Yorkshire Dales was sublime, but would have been more enjoyable if the roads had been dry. Car and truck drivers are quite courteous, flashing their indicators in thanks once they’ve overtaken a slower vehicle (usually me, but also slow trucks and OAP’s in cars). [OAP – Old Age Pensioner, as per English newspapers].
Scotland is a rider’s paradise. Beautiful scenery, great roads, minimal traffic – everything has been laid out perfectly for the appreciative rider. @#$%ing lot of point-to-point speed cameras though – talk about the fun police. Â Just watch out for mud on country lanes, often trampled in by herds of cows crossing the road.Â
Riding in Northern Ireland in spring-time is not for the feint-hearted. The combination of challenging roads and weather conditions make every ride a battle to be fought. The roads here are often very narrow. The ride across the steep and twisty Torr Road is the hardest sealed road I’ve ever ridden. I’ll try and post some photos and video later. Off-camber corners, roundabouts slippery as ice-skating rinks, Northern Ireland is like a textbook of riding hazards.Â
In Ireland the roads are wider, and many roads include an emergency/stopping/passing/turning lane, so slow traffic can pull to the side and let fast traffic go through. The lane divider markings on country roads are very visible, so it makes for  easy riding, but watch out for directional signs painted in Limerick;s town centre – today we were on a two-lane, one-way road, and both lanes were marked to show that traffic could either go straight ahead or turn right. There are that many warning and information signs on the side of the road that they can become a distraction as you try and figure out what’s coming up and they read like the race notes for a rally car – “Road narrows to sharp right over humped bridge with elderly crossing on far side and prancing deer seen near major junction ahead”.
The 100 kmh speed limit on country lanes in Ireland can be a bit disconcerting – in W.A. roads with driveways opening up onto them probably wouldn’t be posted at anything more than 80 kmh and probably lower. In the wet I just stick to around 50-60 on these twisty roads.Â
250km in a day is often a full day’s ride. We’ve done a couple of 350+ km days and they are big day’s out.Â
Friday 17th April here – waiting for some photos to upload so just punching out a quick blog.
Karen saw the plastics specialist nurse this morning and she seems to have turned the corner towards recovering from the chemical burns across her chest – now the area is just a bright pink rather than the vivid glowing and weeping red it’s been for the past week or so. Wednesday’s dressing was replaced with a fresh, smaller dressing that just covers some as yet unhealed areas on her neck, and hopefully she will be fine til Monday when we go back to see Dr Wells in A&E. She’ll be able to have a shower tomorrow so that will be a real treat for her.
We had a lovely walk back into town from hospital, and sat down on a bench in the high street listening to a boogie busker battle it out with someone banging on their bagpipes for a while, before we stocked up on peanut M&M’s from the Pound Shop and then went for a walk across the road bridge, down past the old cathedral, and along the banks of the fast flowing Ness River. We crossed back over a pedestrian suspension bridge, couldn’t find the toilets for Karen in the luxurious ‘Abstract’ restaurant, so popped into the more down-to-earth Watershed next door for lunch and a pit-stop.
Karen is laying down now reading “Uneasy Rider” by Mike Carter, and she’s having fits of hysterics as she reads about his adventure-riding antics 🙂 It’s a very entertaining book – I’m sure I’ve got it in my collection somewhere back in Perth but this is Karen’s first opportunity to read the book and she’s spellbound and speechless with laughter as Carter ricochets from one funny experience to another!
No hospital visits this weekend so we may lash out and visit a laundromat instead. Hope to be back on the bike next week so watch this space !!!
Thursday afternoon here in action-packed Inverness!!! Woke up late to find out from Moira (our lovely hostess at Braehead House) that there had been a big fire in the centre of Inverness last night (Click here for SFRS details). Across the road from Braehead House is a roofless two-storey building reinforced with scaffolding – when I asked Moira she said that it used to be a hostel until it mysteriously burnt down about eight years ago. The house used to belong to the town’s engineer, and would have been beautiful in its prime. Next to Braehead, overlooking the River Ness below, is a very stately home dating back to the 1840’s, complete with cannon in the front garden.
Managed to upload some video today of our ride to Applecross – check out the six minute video here “The Pass of the Cattle”
Had a lovely breakfast this morning (bacon & poached eggs), played with Archie a bit, and then caught a taxi to A&E for Karen’s appointment today. The decision was made to not change the dressing today, so we’ll return tomorrow to see Christine in the plastics section. Had a lovely walk back to Braehead – it’s a 30 minute stroll, and Karen had a brief rest before we wandered into town for a lunch of tomato and basil soup at a small bakery off the main street. I purchased a cheap copy of Colette Coleman’s “Great Motorcycle Tours of Europe” whilst Karen spoiled herself with a shampoo and blow dry – all carefully performed so as to not irritate her wounds. Colette Coleman’s previous book “Great Motorcycle Journeys of the World” is a great read and occupied a favoured spot on my bookshelf for years – the 2014 “Tours of Europe” is a worthy companion and possibly of more practical relevance to riders here in the UK. Having a quick look the book at the hairdressers I can safely say that we’ve already tackled some of the best roads and/or riding areas in Scotland and England, and our plans for Wales, Ireland and Europe are well placed to take in some of the best rides in the world – bring them on !!!!
We wandered past the fire crews still hosing down the smoldering building, and then stopped at the Castle Tavern on the way home for a pint of beer and some crisps. It’s almost 5pm now and Karen is in some bad pain with her burns – hopefully they’ll start to feel better soon …
The first month of our trip was intended to be a shakedown ride, but it’s sort of devolved into a slowdown instead. We’re currently holed up in Braehead B&B, a quaint olde home just around the corner from Inverness Castle and not far from Raigmore Hospital where Karen is receiving daily treatment for the chemical burn she received as a result of using the chemo cream prescribed in Perth before our trip commenced. Neither of us anticipated that she would have such an adverse reaction to the cream, though subsequent googling suggests that the cream often has this effect on people. After trying to manage ourselves for a while we ended up at A&E in Raigmore Hospital last Sunday morning, and the care and medical assistance that Karen has received has been exceptional. All of the hospital staff – doctors, nurses, admin people, etc have been absolutely fantastic, and have provided one of the few rays of sunshine in an otherwise dim period.
Sunday morning Karen was discharged after being strapped up with a five-layered dressing across the burn, and was wearing a hospital gown to cover the dressing as her t-shirt wouldn’t fit over the bulky padding. In need of accommodation from Monday onwards and appreciating that we needed to relocate closer to the hospital than the Clansman Hotel, 10 miles or so back towards Loch Ness, we walked through the intermittent rain and hail back towards the town centre, looking for a B&B that could take us. Dressed like an escapee from an institution with her long hospital gown flowing around her ankles, Karen turned heads in the posh Kingsmill Hotel, where we had slipped in to so she could use their toilets. She attracted a lot of looks from guests and staff but no one dare question her as she wandered through the lobby, even having a brief rest in the waiting area.
We finally found a B&B that had a ‘vacancy’ sign on display, and someone at home to answer our questions. In retrospect, perhaps the hosts at other B&B’s were too afraid to answer our door knock. Moira certainly had a puzzled look on her face as Karen explained our situation, but when she figured out that Karen wasn’t an escapee she was only too helpful in making arrangements for us for the following week. Accommodation organised, we wandered around the corner and down the short hill into Inverness, stopping at a tapas bar for a late lunch. We caught a taxi back to the Clansman, and had an early evening.
Monday morning we packed up our gear and I reloaded the bike. After a quick breakfast Karen arranged a taxi to take her to Braehead, and I followed behind on the bike. Moira helped me get the bike into the backyard, safely hidden away from inquisitive eyes, and Karen and I caught another taxi to the A&E department at Raigmore Hospital. Another dressing change – a 30 minute challenge involving many dressing packs, bandages and rolls of adhesive tape, and another doctor (the very pleasant Dr Mike Wells – ex-Perth and all!) and we were sent home with instructions to return again on Tuesday morning.
Monday afternoon involved a lunch of cornish pasties and diet coke, a browse through WHSmith to get a couple of books to read (Uneasy Rider and The Tao of Travel), and then purchases for dinner – cheese, a long bread roll, a bottle of cheap Australian red wine, and some M&M’s. Dinner in our room was very enjoyable, but the rerun of ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ was a bit long-winded, so it was another early night to bed, made somewhat more exciting when I fell through my bed (twice actually). Mattress placed securely on the floor I slept well that night.
Tuesday as a virtual repeat of Monday, though we now have an appointment to see a burns nurse tomorrow. Coincidentally – the burns nurse is the sister of the taxi driver who took us to hospital this morning (and through a complete fluke I also flagged down when looking for taxi to return to Braehead after our hospital visit today), and Moira from our B&B knows both the doctors at Raigmore that have seen Karen, so Inverness seems to be the place where everyone knows everyone – and it’s lovely.
We stopped in the Nero cafe for a coffee (me) and diet coke (Karen) and watched people walk past outside for a while. A lady came in with a dog (a cockerpoo she told us later when I asked – a cross between a cocker spaniel and a poodle) and she said that Inverness is only just starting to have dog-friendly shops. Archie, Moira’s seven-month old golden retriever is an absolute delight – he was playing with us at breakfast this morning, and again when we were chatting with Moira later in the morning. Gigi – her 12 year old golden retriever is happy just to lay on the floor near the doorway to the front room and raise an eyebrow when people walk past, but Archie follows us everywhere, waiting to be first into our room when we open the door, and jumping onto the bed for a pat when he comes in.
Anyway – that’s about enough from me for the moment. More medical appointments for Karen are scheduled for tomorrow and Thursday, and we’ve made arrangements to stay at Braehead for next week as well, just to give her injury a chance to heal a bit before we restart our ride. She’s just turned to page one of The Tao of Travel, so that’s my cue to do some reading of my own – ciao !!!
Easy riding day today – about 100km and 90 minutes from Ullapool to Drumnadrochit where we’ve booked four nights accommodation (at the bargain price of 201 pounds for the four nights, breakfasts included).
Karen helped me get the bike out of the pebbly driveway at Creagan’s Guest House and onto the footpath so I could load it up – it takes me about six trips every time to load and unload the bike.
Karen had a simple porridge breakfast but with all of her tablets that wasn’t going down to well. I read the other day that on the St Kilda Islands the locals used to add flavour to their porridge by adding a puffin (bird) to the porridge whilst it cooked 🙂
Refueled the bike in Ullapool – Karen walked to the servo which was just around the corner from the guest house as mounting and dismounting is painful. One pound 32.9/litre for 98 RON super unleaded. Had a beautifully sunny and warm ride from Ullapool to Drumnadrochit – the sun was shining and it was a magical day to be on the bike.
On arrival at the Drumnadrochit Hotel their reception didn’t know anything about our four-night booking, so a frantic phone call from them to the Clansman Hotel a few miles down the road secured a room for us, and the Clansman is right on the shores of Loch Ness – we’ve been watching tourist boats departing from the jetty across the road every hour on the hour this afternoon whilst we waited in the cafe for our room to be prepared. Had a good chat to Alisdair – the car park attendant here – very thoughtfully he pointed out a tarred bay I could park the bike in – a welcome change from all the pebbles we’ve had to negotiate in other car parks. Alisadair is an ex trails rider, keen quad rider and sidecar rider (but doesn’t have his road licence), and provided some good suggestions on places to visit both locally and further north of here.
Downloaded the GoPro video to the Mac and had a quick look at that – the video of the Pass of the Cattle enroute to Applecross worked out well so I’ll try and post that up tomorrow. Had a drink in the bar overlooking Loch Ness where we finally managed to get the wifi working, and now relaxing back in our room, watching the 1960’s movie “The Lost World” – quite fitting given our current location.
Wednesday 8th April was an easy rest day in Ullapool, intended that way to give Karen a chance to rest up a bit. The highlight of the morning was walking down to the local laundromat and doing a load of washing – I was quite keen to keep on wearing my ‘Dakar’ t-shirt for another three weeks before even contemplating a wash for it but Karen insisted, so now it’s clean again – at least for a day 🙂
Wandered down to the park overlooking Loch Broom whilst our washing was being done, and then shopped for a few nibblies in the Tesco across the road from the laundromat whilst it was being dried, and then wandered back to Creagan’s Guest House for a bit of an afternoon nap.
Woke up mid afternoon and went for a walk along the Main Street of Ullapool, past the ferry terminal where a large ferry had just docked and was unloading cars and trucks, and down to the Arch Inn where we grabbed a couple of drinks and sat on the benches overlooking the water, enjoying the afternoon sunshine and watching some dogs playing in the water.
Another early night – BBC One just can’t retain my interest past 7:30pm, so we drew the blinds and had an early night in preparation for moving on again tomorrow morning.
