North West Scotland

Taking my own advice, I made good use of some excellent weather in May and headed up to the North West of Scotland with Billy (again). I had never been that far north and having heard so much of the Applecross road, decided to do it. Basically our adventure started from Kyle of Lochalsh, heading north to the north west tip of Scotland. I rate it with Switzerland in terms of scenery, maybe not as dramatic but to see Eagles soaring, to ride on immaculate desolate roads and to view the simple unspoiled land as it was thousands of years ago was quite something.

The Applecross road is remarkable, the single track climbs up through the glen reaching the sharp cliffs at the end. The only way over the top is alpine style, so the road crisscrosses up the cliff. It is very narrow and has very tight hairpins, but don't be put off, it does not last long. The road round the coast although single track, is very picturesque with some great beaches. We followed the coast road up to Gairloch and on to Ullapool.

North of Ullapool, the road has a fantastic surface and is free of utility patchworks all over the place, it is smooth and also ideal for bikes, with long sweepers.

The scenery gets more and more ancient with rugged rock strewn landscapes that simply take your breath away.

At Kyelsku, there is a modern concrete bridge with a bend that runs all the way through it. In the distance is 'Elephant Mountain', look closely at the Ben on the left and you will see how it gets its name.

The single track roads are great, because they force you to ride at a pace where you can actually take the scenery in. You find yourself stopping more frequently as the pace drops and the need to get somewhere fades.

This is what you get, mile after mile. This stretch of road is just after the concrete bridge described above. We made it as far as Laxford Bridge, and then trouble, Billy's bike broke down. After a stop it simply wouldn't restart, dead, zilch, nothing. The electric speedo, rev counter and fuel gauges were shooting around all over the place. We knew it was electrical and terminal. Now there was no mobile signal up there and it took about 12 miles to find a phone box. The nearest dealer was in Inverness, about 4 hours away, they were at lunch. Billy and I decided to strip the bike down in case the fault was obvious, it was! One battery lead had sheared at the end, we know not why. I traveled 6 miles to Kinlochewe and found a garage, who gave me a couple of terminals FOC, so to cut a long story short, after an hour we managed to get a terminal on the battery lead as best possible, put it all back together and hope! It started, however plans had to be changed and we headed for Inverness straight away. By the time we got there the garage would have been closed, so we booked the bike in for the next day and found a great B&B in Strathpeffer. The bike started in the morning, so we got it to the garage, then headed home.