To cool down, plenty of these were had:
Now I think every road should feature a sign like this:
I began the climb to Applecross, the views just got better & better.
View from top of the pass….
I then continued down the other side…
Established camp, but wish I’d gone wild camping. The showers would only dish out hot water, after long ride in 30 degree heat, I wanted a cold shower, not hot!! Also had live music in the evening, I came to Scotland for the tranquillity, the views not for some crappy cover band at 11pm.
But at least the pub made up for it….
Had various chats with people while having a drink and eat, a German couple (apparently the Germans love Scotland!) an english couple and possibly the most un-PC women you could meet. Some of my favourite quotes from the evening:
“I don’t know if I live in Bangalore or Chicago”
“Those folk who were those veils, they must be ugly buggers if they have to cover their face”
“Where I live, coronation street it is not!”
So many others too, but can’t remember them all.
After enjoying a nice sunset, I headed to bed. Next day, my aim was Rogart.
As I had taken the pass to reach Applecross, I took the Coast Road on the way out, again the views just got better & better:
Off coast road, continued pushing up North….
Again it was soo hot, I had to find shade when I stopped. I did pull into this garden centre / tourist thing (brown on side of road, never fully read it) Saw some spots with wooden roof, but shocked to see a sign that read “Parking for cars with dogs only” – This I thought was appalling, it was feking hot 28 degrees again, this place was encouraging owners to leave their dog in the car because it had shade? Place looked shit anyway, so carried on and found a nice little side road to pull in, rest, eat and watch the world go by.
I reached Rogart way ahead of time, I decided to push on to John O Groats, I was well aware this place would be a dump, but it was something I had to tick off as I had done Lands End this time last year.
While I was there a team of cyclists had just reached it too, they decided to celebrate by jumping in the sea, even though it was hot, the water was cold, or so I heard!
Not me though, I decided to tuck into a healthy snack…
I headed over the top of the coast, then back down to Rogart, to a place called Sleeperzzz, which I spotted on the GS forum.
In a nut shell, they are 1960’s First Class Rail carriages that have been converted into a hostel:
Out of the 6 compartments, 3 are “bedrooms”, 1 sitting room (all seats left in, books, info on display), another is a kitchen & finally a dinning room.
At £15 per night, it was a bargin! About 8 other bikers were there that evening too, one of them got me a beer from their supply as soon as I arrived. I joined them in the pub later for a few more.
The next day I thought the weather had left me, it dropped 10 degree’s, the cloud was out…
But not to worry, Sun soon came out again, and gave me some spectacular views as I did a small loop over the West coast, over towards Ullapool:
Tiredness kicked in a bit here, so had a nice 30 minute little nap…
After another nice nights stay in Rogart, it was time for home. I decided to treat myself to a B&B near Loch Lomond this time, ready to set off back home. Rather dull 380 mile motorway blast.
Finally got home & the bike averaged over 52 mpg, over 1,850 miles. Now I know I can reach Scotland in a day, think I’ll be doing many more trips!
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Topic: tunnie does Scotland (very picture heavy) (Read 5924 times)