Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

Day 3- Edinburgh to Inverness

Distance covered-200 miles


Woke up early the next day. It had rained through the night and the sky was overcast still, so it was not looking all that good for a ride.
Wife and in laws had left in the morning, I was as usual late and started at 10ish. Plan was to take the A9 all the way to Inverness.
It's around 180 miles from Edinburgh and I had hopes of making it to Inverness by lunchtime.
The A9 goes through the Cairngorms national park which is famous for it's wild beauty and ski resorts.This place gets the most snowfall
in the Uk. Riding through it, you'd be presented with one awesome view after the other around each corner!
I was so enjoying the views and the rides that I took very few pictures. I need to get a helmet cam now.



Notice the speed camera there. It's an average speed camera, so you need to rest a bit before crossing it if you'd been naughty in that stretch!





During the summer, you'd see a lot caravan's like this on the roads here. People just pack, throw their bicycles in and set out.



My hopes of having lunch at inverness were soon dashed when I saw roadworks for miles on the A9. Speed limits of 40 mph on those stretches meant I reached Inverness
at 3pm. Quickly turned the satnav on upon entering Inverness and reached the hotel in no time. I was expecting wife to be already there, but
no, they hadn't reached yet. I checked into both the rooms and freshened up. The nicely done bed was looking inviting, even more so given the stiff neck from the ride.
They arrived an hour later after which myself and wife went out for a walk to get meals for all of us.


Inverness, in Gaelic means -at the mouth of (river) Ness. Ness has to be one of the shortest rivers in the UK, it's 12 miles long and think starts
at the north of lake Lochness.
Inverness is a cute little town also known as the captial of the Highlands. If one wishes
to explore the north of Scotland, then this is where one should camp. It's also served well by most domestic air and train links.
It's a small town and you can explore all of it in 3-4 hours on foot.The Ness flows through the centre of the town and divides into two parts.
The central thoroughfare right at the bank of Inverness is where all the action is.




The Inverness Castle. The panoramic bird's eye shots of the entire city can be taken from here.
It's a bit of climb away, but definitely worth it.





The Lochness Visitor Centre has all the stuff you need to know about Nessie,the lochness monster, and the lake in general. It's situated in a beautiful village called
Drumnadrochit which is 15 miles from Inverness.
More on Lochness in Day 4 logs...

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

Day 4- Inverness-Isle of Skye-Inverness (The highlands)
Distance covered- approx 300 miles
Route taken-Inverness-A84-A887-A87-Isle fo Skye


The next day was the Isle of Skye tour day. I had booked wife and in laws 3 seats on a tour bus operated by the Highlands Experience Tours.
This was the same tour company I had used the last time I went there and I wholeheartedly recommend them. You'd find many
great tour companies if you base yourself in Edinburgh, but if you want to see the highlands then you've got to base yourself in Inverness and
these guys are one of the few based in Inverness and are very good. They operate medium sized Mercedes Benz buses and take care not to take too many people
in one tour thereby keeping it small and manageable. The tour guides are knowledgeable as well.


The tour bus was Ok but let me tell you this- The best tour of the highlands is done on a motorcycle, preferably a CBR and not any CBR,
yellow is noticeably faster , turns and leans in better than other CBRs
Jokes apart, as I said the bike was not in top condition with a jugad keeping the pipes from leaking, but so far hadn't faced any trouble.
But other than that it felt like it belonged there.


So as is evident from the name, the Isle of skye is an island, located in the west of Scotland and is separated from the Scottish mainland
by a very thin strip of sea water. There is a quite tall bridge over this trip which connects it to the mainland.
The isle of Skye is famous for its breathtaking landscapes and of course the Skye scotch-Talisker whiskey- the only sigle malt in the isle of Skye.


The tour bus left Inverness at 9 am, and I started soon after, promising wife that I'd meet them midway. You'd have to take the A82 from inverness
which runs beside the eastern bank of the famous Lochness and then a few miles before Fort Augustus, take the A87 from there to the west.
This route is truely a treat for the senses.The A82 lets you see some awesome views of the Lochness and the Urquhart Castle to your left. The A87 snakes its way through some stunning scenary of the
glen(Gaelic for valley) Shiel and the Kintail mountains before taking you to Loch Duich. This loch is beautiful but people come here not for the loch
but for the Eilean Donan castle which sits at the northern tip of the Loch. The setting is ideal for clicking picture postcards and is very popular
with tourists. Shahrukh fans would instantly recognise this castle as one of the songs in the movie Kuchh kuchh hota hai were shot here(the song is also
partly shot at Urquhart castle in Lochness btw).
The Eilean Donan castle , believe it or not, is still inhabited. It was in ruins after the clan wars and restored some 100 years ago and
is privately owned now.The owners open this place for public I think in the summers and thanks to them for that.

I was taking my own sweet time taking numerous roadside breaks to enjoy the views, so I could only meet wife at the castle. The only decent pictures
I have of me and the bike from that day are when I was at Eliean Donan as they were shot by the dslr which the wife was carrying.
Rest of the bike pics are all 5mp awesomness of my ancient Lumia .
We all started together for Skye with the tour bus following me. The tour guide was quite surprised and excited to know that I had ridden all the way from down south.
After riding with the bus for sometime and a few breaks later I realized that riding with a bus is a bit boring so quickly lost them behind and headed to the town of Portree
where we'd have lunch.In laws were averse to proper restaurant food that day so we had some sausages and sandwiches together and soon set out for Inverness.
The return journey was more or less the same route but one cannot be bored doing that road again, such is the scenery.

Here are some pictures-

The Lochness



The Urquhart Castle-



These pictures below are of the Kintail range and glen Shiel on the A87 towards Isle of Skye




Check the clear reflection out guys. One of the two pictures below is inverted. Which one do you think?





This is from a distillery which is not at isle of Skye btw. But they did stock the Talisker Skye.





The following pictures are from the Eilean Donan castle.



Spot me below





Eilean Donan Castle




These are at Portree in the isle of Skye.

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

No brother. Have got tangled with some other activities in family and work of late.
Logs like yours take me on the road though!

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

Day 5- Inverness-Applecross-Inverness (The highlands)
Distance covered- approx 220 miles


These pictures are from the single track road also called the Pass of the Cattle which takes you to Applecross






These pictures are from Applecross , 'The street' area and the Applecross house.












These pictures are from the Coward's road giving you some awesome views of the coastline.
Checkout the hairy Scottish cows.They are a bit like the Yaks found up north in India.







The next day woke up early and took the fairings apart, dropped the radiator to tighten the nuts on the manifold studs while wife and her parents headed to Inverness airport to take the flight back to Bournemouth.This was done right in front of the hotel I was staying which was a bit awkward btw.I then left for Bournemouth on the 650 mile motorway return leg.

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

Very inspiring [MENTION=48967]Doga[/MENTION] ji.
Superb captures, and wow, the roads and landscapes are super awesome.!
You've truly taken most of us here on a short tour of Scotland with your tlog.!
Thanks Sir.

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

Went thorough the entire thread twice! just to see the images again

Superb log with awesome pictures!

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

Thanks mate. Scotland is really an awesome place. If you ever come to the UK then this should be top of your list!

Thanks! most of the photos of the bike are taken from my ancient 5mp Nokia phone, but I am glad they didn't come out very bad .Of course a bit of post processing helped as well

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

Again, a super awesome set of pictures!
Carry on!

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

One among the best blogs ive read so far. Your pictures bring out the actual beauty of scotland. Thank you for the free tour through such beautiful places. Waiting for a lot more of scenic bliss

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

Wow...! what a ride? What a bike? and What a place....? Simply superb and the pictures are awesome.

Re: Scotland, the Land of Lochs - 5 days of motorcycling bliss covering 3600 kms

Thank you guys. Feels good that the pictures came out good. Although I have many more, but don't see a point in uploading more which don't really add much value to the log.
May be I can create a new log for short day rides(which I did so many of!) in and around the south coast here, so you'd get to know about more places and see how nice they are!