24/10/21 start Mileage 53741 end mileage 55198=1457
Me and Clive
Met Clive at 7ish Pease Pottage services, it was mostly dry on the way up to Dalbeattie, where Clive went off to see his sister, and I headed to a campsite at Castle Point on the Solway Coast. The campsite was very windy and the ground was sodden, so getting the tent to stay up was a bit risky. Apparrently, the day before, 2 BMW motorcycles were blown over and badly damaged.
The tent was soon put up, and spent the night alternately sleeping and listening to the storm.
I was impressed the tent stayed up (and so did the bike). Packed up the tent at 6a,m,, met Clive at 8am, and he gave me a couple of bacon rolls and some home made cake from his sister!
It pissed down most of the way North, stopped in "The Green Welly" cafe for some food, then headed to Glencoe in the rain
and we eventually found a nice campsite next to Ben Nevis
The campsite had a bar and restaurant on site, so that was us for the evening, the food was lovely, Clive had haddock and chips, and I had the Burmese curry and so was the couple of pints of Bellhaven Best Bitter.
We also came to the decision that as the storms were getting worse, we would try for Applecross and book a camping pod for Tuesday night.
After packing up the tents in the rain, I loaded up my bike, and as I was getting on the sidestand sank into the ground, and the bike went over, but with the help of Clive and another camper, the bike was soon upright, fortunately no damage. We headed to Fort William, got some fuel then stopped at Eileen Doonan Castle
An hour later we stopped for lunch at Carron restaurant then headed up to Applecross.
Clive at the bottom of the Applecross road.
The road up the mountain was pretty horrendous
very strong gales trying to blow us off the cliff one moment , the next trying to blow us into the rock wall on the other side, also while trying to avoid large patches of gravel to skid on, also pissing down and thick fog. A few scary moments.
We got to our camping pod, and set about drying everything off
The nearby pub was shut, so Clive shared some raspberry gin with me, he cooked a wierd pasta thing for himself, and I had an emergency jalfrezi curry, which was lovely. The gin wasn't too bad either.
Next morning the decision was made to head South, as we were experiencing storm after storm, and all the camping gear was soaked, also, it is unpleasant putting up a tent in 2 inches of water.
There was a breakfast van on site, so bacon rolls were a necessity. The ride down Applecross was a lot easier than the way up
The rain was once again horrible, we stopped to have a look at the Glencoe waterfall
then we headed towards Glasgow where we split up, Clive going to see his sister Carol, and I went off to West Kilbride to see a different Clive and Carol, My caving buddies from the Bastard Squad Caving Club. There were loads of floods on the way to West Kilbride, one was so deep it knocked my feet off the footrests, a couple of cars following me didn't make it through the deep water.
Clive done me a wonderfull sliced beef and peppers stir fry, which was delicious, and they put me up for the night. I left them at 08:30, and got home at 7pm, the rain stopped around oxford. Great trip, excellent company.
Got the bike out of the garage at dark o'clock, thought I had overloaded the bike, turned out to be a front wheel puncture. I have spare rims and tyres with knobblies on, so swapped the front wheel as I was supposed to be meeting Rob Davis at 7a.m at Birchanger services, and didn't want to be late. We had a brief chat, and headed North,
and after a few fuel stops, and a Subway sandwich (thanks, Rob), we split up at Gretna Green, Rob heading to Kielder Forest, and me to West Kilbride to spend a pleasant evening with fellow Bastard Squad Caving Club members, Clive and Carol, and Carol's sister Mairie. After feeding me and putting me up for the night, I headed off the next morning to the Ardrossan -Brodick ferry
I rode most of the wayround the Isle of Arran, then found a suitable campsite (Middletons), got the tent up, it was very sunny and about 28 degrees. I popped round to the local co-op on the bike and got a puncture
I managed to get a footpump from a local store, got back to the campsite and got the wheel off. I eventually got the tyre off, but as its not the done thing to look for holes in a tube in a campsite sink, I stood in a river next to the campsite, blew the tube up and found that a nail had put 3 holes in the tube. I first of all tried putting a spare tubeless valve in the tyre and tried blowing it up, but the footpump was cheap and fell apart, and using my spare bycycle pump, couldnt get enough air in fast enough to seat the tyre, so took the tubeless valve out again, patched the tube, and put it all back together again (still 28 degrees and no shade, I was roasted).The tyre stayed up ok overnight, so I headed for the ferry to Mull of Kintyre. A couple of hours later when the temperature had gotten hot again, the tyre went down, as the glue for the patch had melted in the heat. There was no phone signal or internet, so I borrowed a landline and phoned the RAC. 4 hours later a local breakdown vehicle arrived, but he was looking for a peugeot, not me. A bit later, he came back, turned out the RAC had given him the wrong details, and as it happened, he had never had to deal with motorcycles, so I took the wheel and tyre off again, threw away the tube and put the tubeless valve back in and used his compressor to blow the tyre up. The original hole was so small that the tyre seems to have self sealed.
I was now sorted, and went to Port Ban campsite for the night. The next morning, I went North to the West Highland railway line to scatter Laura's mums ashes (She liked it there) and then back down to Oban for the ferry to the Isle of Mull.
I rode down to the Southwest corner of Mull to Fidden Farm campsite, but tents are not allowed at the moment, so I then went to Crannich campsite, although they have no showers or toilets, but they do have spare midges, and some noisy peacocks.
Next morning, after hastily getting the tent packed, and loosing several pints of blood to the midges, I explored the rest of the island, and had a look round Tobermory, famous for its multi coloured buildings, then back to the ferry to Oban, and rode down to the ferry at Kennacraig. I got to the Isle of Isla port Askaig 2 hours later and had a tour round the Island. I then went looking for a campsite and found a nice one, Iomairt Chille Chomain
The next morning, I packed up the tent and headed to the Islay-Jura ferry, as I had a few hours before my booking on the Islay - Mull of Kintyre crossing.
Jura only has one main road that goes three quarters of the way up the island
+++++ These plus signs were added by Holly walking on the keyboard!
The road is single track, and while going up a steep hill just past a passing place round a blind corner, I met a large tractor coming the other way, too fast to stop so I was going slow enough to stop, and scooted the bike backwards as fast as I could into the passing place. He skidded past me and stopped about 10 foot past me. Close one. I got as far North on the island as I could, then realised if i carried on I would miss my ferry to Mull of Kintyre.
I went back onto the Islay ferry, and raced down to the Port Ellen ferry, then across to Mull of Kintyre, then a ferry back to Arran, where my cousin Lisa, who I had never met, offered to put me up at the holiday home they were staying at. It was great to meet her and her family, and I slept in a summerhouse, they were very welcoming.
Next morning I caught the ferry to Ardrossan, then rode 100 miles to see my other cousin Betty and her husband Gordon. After a great evening, I slept in "The Smaa Hoose", then headed home where the weather finally caught up with me, and I got home 497 miles later. Great trip, 8 ferries, 4 islands and 5 new relatives. Great fun.
Met up with Neil at my local petrol station, and Clive at Pease Pottage services, then after a quick chat headed off to Reigate Hill to meet up with Darren. It was starting to rain, and as I had a puncture the previous evening and had changed to my wheels fitted with knobblies, I had to be a bit carefull. Darren had turned up without waterproofs, so he was expected to contract "Trench Nadger", a bit like trench-foot but in a worse place.
We then headed North to the airship hangers at Cardington for a look
Next, we then went to the Nene Valley Railway that was closed, but they let us look around anyway
Then, after a break at Stibbington diner, we headed off to Lincoln to our hotel. On the way there, I could hear a noise coming from Clives bike, it sounded like someone breaking paving slabs. We found a bike shop near the hotel (Webbs of Lincoln), the mechanic came out to look at Clives bike, said it needed a new chain, that they didn't have in stock, but then told Clive he would get one that evening, so Clive left his bike there for the night. We were soon at the hotel, and after a very nice meal and some beer, went for a walk to find a pub that Neil reccomended.
Next morning, after a bacon roll for us , and some chain lube for the bikes, I took Clive off to pick up his bike, then went for a ride through Lincoln
Back at the hotel, we all met up again, then went off to see RAF Fiskerton, where Neil learned to ride a motorcycle
Then off to see the bubblecar museum, which was interesting
Then next on the agenda was Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, which is always good.
Then, after the museum, we took a pleasant ride to Barton-upon Humber to have a look at the bridge, then back to the hotel for the evening.
Next morning, we headed South, and stopped at the Chatham historical dockyard, and had a good look around
One of the cranes that used to unload my truck when I worked for BOC!
Then home, 571 miles later. Very enjoyable trip with great company
Me and Darren set off through the pipe to France, found a campsite on the way down to the airport at lyon, to pick up our better halves, and had a pretty horrible ride through the rain towards the Ardeche. Fortunately it stopped raining before we got to our Gite , and the sun came out
It was in a very nice area, so we settled in before a canoe trip for 3 of us down the gorge the next day. Unfortunately, no digital photo's of the trip down the gorge. It was excellent fun,and very hot, and, as Laura had made me use sun cream, I was ok, however we met lots of french canoeists on the way back to the start of the gorge on the bus, and I have never seen so badly sunburned people!
That evening, we relaxed in the Gite after a nice meal and some booze.
Next day was touring time...
and had a look at the sign that showed the flood level, that was roughly 25 foot above normal
Pont du Arc, the size is deceptive, but you can make out canoes in the foreground
After taking Laura and Alison back to the airport, we headed into Switzerland on the way north, and had a very expensive meal in a posh restaurant in the Alps, as we needed to dry out due to some more horrible weather.
Back into France, we found a nice campsite
then next day we popped into Belgium to have a look at the Menin Gate
And after a quick shopping trip in Calais, it was off home to England
I did this tour a while ago, so my memories are a bit vague. I got a boat from Harwich to Bremmerhaven, and went to find U2540, which is now a museum boat type XXI in very good condition
As can be seen from the pictures, it looks very modern, but was built before the end of the second world war, and scuttled by its own crew, then salvaged in 1957 and after a refit was used as a training boat for the German navy and is now called the Wilhelm Bauer who invented several hand powered submarines in the eighteen hundreds
Next, after a good look round, I headed to Laboe to have a look at U995, which has been on my list for ages.
U995 is a type VII-C, the most common of the U-Boats
Next to the submarine is the Marine Ehrenmal (Naval memorial) it is 236 feet high, hollow in the middle
and has a good view of the submarine
which makes it look like a toy from that height.
Nearby is a memorial to the u-boat crews who didn't make it back
Then it was off to find a campsite, and I found a good one near Schleswig-Holstein
which was in a nice location.
Next morning, I popped over to Denmark for breakfast
The next day, I headed back to Bremmerhaven, and while I was waiting for the boat back to England, I found another submarine museum in a housing estate!
They even had the conning tower off a British Submarine
