Scotland, 20–22 November 2015

London, Edinburgh, Fort William and back

I had an opportunity to visit Edinburgh, Scotland in mid November for work. I could choose to either fly from London or take a bike and ride up there and spend weekend riding. Easy decision to make. I checked the maps, booked accommodation in Edinburgh and left planning for later.

Original plan was to spend 5 days riding in total. 1 day London to Edinburg, 2 days around Scotland and 2 days back to London via Lake district… but weather changed it all. It has been very warm November and everything looked great until weather decided to change and UK got hit by storms Abigail and Barney and suddenly it looked pretty grim with last minute bonus of Met Office Yellow warning for Low temperatures, Snow & ice in Scotland.

Still determined and ignoring the forecast I started my journey up at about 10am on Thursday. Apart from quite a few heavy rain showers, it was quite an uneventfull mororway (M1, A1) marathon all the way up to around the Torness where the winds picked up considerably and it become quite tricky to keep the bike on the road. That part of A1 from Newcastle to Edinburgh was the worst as the fatigue did set and it was pretty cold & completely dark as well. Made it to Edinburgh around 8pm after 460 miles.

Friday was fist day of riding in Scotland and also the day when I found out that I left memory card for Drift at home. Weather got worse and worse with snow forecasted in literarily all the areas I planed to go (Cairngorms & North Scotland) I decided to radically change the route and ride famous A82 from Crianlarich to Fort William via Glencole instead and see how it goes on the way. I hoped for sunny spells and I was extremly lucky, for about 2 hours.

Loch Lubnaig (1,2), Glengole (3,4), A84, Loch Lomond & The Trossachs | Loch Tulla & Bridge of Orchy, A82, Scotland, UK

Scotland is amazing! This has been my first time ever and I’ve been absolutely amazed by it, from the first minute I entered the Loch Lomond national park at Callander on A84 it just gets better and better as you ride through and then from Crianlarich to A82 up to Glencoe it’s just…

Even the weather felt right, it really did fit my picture of the landscape & feeling. It was wet, fresh, cloudy with occasional sunny spell giving it all just a touch of magic.

Now, up to Bridge of Orchy it’s amazing and you want to stop everywhere however what comes next is the stretch to Glencoe and that really is what you’ve been riding to Scotland for.

This part is just so good that you don’t want it to end. I ended up stopping at Rannoch moor for about an hour soaking sun, sipping tea & demolishing couple packs of bisquites.

I have later abandoned the plan (again) to go to Fort William because it started raining and head back to Loch Lomond on A828 via Duror, Creagan and Connel, A85 to Tyndrum and down to Glasgow to find place to stay.

On the way I had wake up experience when my front wheel started skiding mid bend on an icy patch, it was strange feeling, bike was piecefully drifting like a boat with a scary wobble when it got the grip again.

I managed to get down to Tarbet where I couldn’t ride anymore due to rain/snow. It was already dark, I had about 200 miles on the clock so I called it a day and I checked in Tarbet Hotel for a night (£35 incl. breakfast) and immediately jumped into hot bath.

The Black Mount range from Rannoch moor, A82, Scotland, UK

Black Mount range, Rannoch moor, Glencoe Mountains, A82, Scotland, UK

Saturday I was up by 7am to check wether Met Office changed weather forecast… nope. Staurday & Sunday should be coldest days so far with temperatures about 0–2 C°, snow and ice. I spent whole breakfast pondering what to do and by the time I got to the carpark it was quite clear, unfortunately.

I’ll head back to London, in single day, again, skip Lake District and just make it back safely. I did enjoy Lake Lomond views and then took it to the motorways back to London. Occasional temptation to try Lake District were taken care of by snow on the hills and the fact that even parts of the motorway were quite icy.

Made it home at 9pm after about 470 miles.

A82, Loch Lomond, Scotlad, UK

Even the ride on M6 was beautiful (at the beginning) as the hills were covered in snow