Scotland bike tour d-day minus 6!!

 

Prepping the bikes for a late summer tour of Scotland (don't say we never gamble with the weather!).

Sticker design is sorted and at the printers.  Toying with the fact that Scots are voting for their independence while we are there, we've named it the Scottish Quest for Freedom Tour - since that's also the reason we're going too.  Freedom!!!

 

Paula has new waterproofs on order, we have a storm proof tent, plenty of anti-midge spray and thermal pants ... now all I need to do is get my bike through its MoT and we're sorted! 

 

 

Giant steps are what you take ...

.. Walking on the moon! Unbelievable country that photos just can't prepare you for. Fantastic landscapes, the friendliest people, stunning attractions and the best roads I have ever ridden.

We have been here four days and seen icy lakes, epic fjords, barren plains, mountain passes, snow capped volcanoes, bubbling rifts, boiling mud, steaming ground, sulphur rocks, pure blue geothermal pools, blue, humpback and minky whales, dolphins, colossal waterfalls, perfect roads, 21 degree sunshine, black sand beaches, hills of blue lupins and craters the size of a town. Unreal!

boat folk...

Still sailing but seeing some amazing things all the same and having fun xxx

Iceland bound!

Day 4 and I'm glad to report we are still alive and kicking!  Boarded the cruise liner Norrona this morning from Hirtshals,
Denmark and having tea and cake while we watch viking ships sail past Norway out the window!

Friday's ride to Dover after work was nice, out running the bad weather and setting up camp in time to cook up before sunset.
 Listening to England win on the radio while sitting in the sun, watching ferries in the channel.  Happy days!

Saturday - up early for the cross channel ferry, sunny morning for driving on the wrong side of the road and our first blat
up the motorways of France, Belgium and Holland before reaching Nijmegen and Arnhem to see the Bridge too Far.  Camped at
cool campsite next to canal just in time for massive rainstorm with lightning to pass over.  Owner made us Dutch coffee while
the weather passed and we pitched in the Sun again.  Really nice evening, wandered round the streets of the local village
then up to the castle grounds, watched three huge fat bats flying round just above our heads at camp while putting the world
to rights over ghurka curry and the best chocolate brownie, slept really well in the fresh air.

Sunday - despite local knowledge saying "it always rains here in the morning", we woke to yet more Sun and had another nice
day riding past windmills and plantation fields.  Bit of a long mileage day so we broke it up with a couple of hours visiting
Bremen, which turned out to be really good to wander - and yet more Sun! 
Bought stickers, ice-creams and took photos of tourist attractions, before heading back out across Germany again.  Autobahns
we crap, give me the M4 every day, road works for the entire duration across Germany interspersed with black BMW's driving
160mph. 
Arrived at Lubeck, Germany in good time despite the miles, really good facilities including gadget lovers paradise in the
toilets and luxury showers that were nice after the days riding.  Spent the evening in beautiful medieval Lubeck while
Germany were beating Denmark to qualify for the Euros finals.  Cheers, fireworks and beeping horns like they'd won the whole
thing so riding back to the campsite we gave our horns an airing...well....when in Rome and all that!
Really nice night and another good sleep.

Monday - awoke to yet more Sun to ride north out of Germany in, but as soon as we approached Denmark the sky turned several
shades of black, lightning shot across the sky and we took shelter in a bus stop and drank tea and ate biscuits like
eccentric english  folk at a tea party, a lightning strike hit the ground about a 50 meters behind us into the forest we were
surrounded by, the rain eased, rain suits were pulled on and we continued on our way.  Only problem with that was we rode
back into it and for the rest of the day it just rained and rained and rained and rained until there was no part left that
was dry!  Rolled into the campsite with spirits slightly drowned and cold setting in, a hot shower was never more needed.

Today - very early start to get over for the ferry.  Sun now rising at about 3:30am and didn't set until 11ish.  Packed up
and put on damp bike gear, but too excited to be worried about cold and after yesterdays 300 mile drenching, damp was a piece
of cake!  Met more interesting bikers at the ferry -thankfully back in the Sun again today.  Strapped bikes down and set sail for the next 48 hours. Time to relax, slow the pace, catch up on sleep, dry out, warm up, chill out and do a blog...

 

D-day minus 1

It's a strange feeling the day before a tour I'm learning, not lessened in the least from being a veteran of the Sahara tour, although I must admit that we've had quite a few distractions with selling my car and moving house all at the same time.  Life is certainly not mundane, it has to be admitted.

Sat nav is now loaded with the checkpoints for Europe, not really needed since it's a simple route, but I get to listen to music on it too, so worth it's weight in gold.  Old school paper maps for Iceland though, complete with custom scribbles of places we want to visit - waterproof too, which might be handy while we look over the route ahead from the geothermal blue lagoon.

Weather looks like it may well spice things up on the England leg of the journey, with heavy rain and gusting winds tentatively forecast (it seems to be changing all the time).  Should be an amusing welcome back to camping for Rob who hasn't slept under canvas since the scouts, MANY years ago!  ;o)

Had a few people asking for my sponsorship form for this tour, which was a little surprising.  I'm proud of the money we raised for the MS Society last time around, but there was definitely a portion of people asking "why raise money while you ride around on holiday"?  Which - since this holiday should be more leisurely than the Sahara tour, convinced us not to raise money this time.

Right.. I'm off to sort out the rest of the things on my to-do list and then go for one last English pint down the local...

The route ...

Trollbound!

Preparations for the next tour are almost complete, not least the all important stickers have been designed and printed, ready for pannier adherement ...

Bikes are all serviced and ready to go, trusty ex-Morocco kit is stowed away, unreliable ex-Morocco kit has been thrown away, money saving ration packs are awaiting sorting, waterproofs find themselves at the top of the pile this time instead of being buried or left behind!  Overall we are carrying about 2/3 the kit we carried to the Saraha desert (still feels weird to say that), with a fair few items crossed off the kit list and one or two downsized - all at minimal expense to the wallet.

Iceland on a budget - can it be done?  That is the question.  Notoriously expensive, but with "bikes go free" ferry tickets, economic motorcycles, panniers full of army ration packs, a mobile tent village on-board and a willingness to go alcohol free for (at least) two weeks, I think it might just work...