Took a little spin with Funners this weekend, heading north for a quiet night's camping across the border.
We were joined for the evening by my better half, Lisa in the car with Charlie the westie.
Mark and Paul, some local friends joined us for the first part of the route up, as far as Kirkby Stephen, but being girly FWBs they didn't want to dissolve in the little bit of rain we crossed through on the way up...:
The destination was Mennock Pass, near to Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland village at 432 m (1417 ft). The B797 runs through the pass up to the village along a steep sided valley through Lowther Hill range.
Scotland having some common sense, unlike in England wild camping is legal, so no camp site required, just find a nice secluded spot.
sup:
Route up.
The route up was intended for long travel suspension, so Mark and Paul did well to stay with us up to a coffee break at Tan Hill Inn, as they were kinda feeling it by then riding a ZX7R and R1, so once back on the main road at Kirkby Stephen we split as they stopped for fuel to head back towards home.
Guy and me carried on down smaller roads before stopping for lunch at the Hartside Cafe. After a healthy sized portion of their "home made" beef and potato pie each, and a breeze block sized mars bar cake for Guy we headed off down to Alston. Turning north towards Brampton we hit the first rain of the day, only a light drizzle though so we cracked on.
Just north of Brampton I decided to pull over and stick my waterproof gloves on as it looked decidedly grey up ahead. Turned out to be a damn fine decision, as a couple of miles later the heavens opened and mid overtake I lost sight of the road.
Guy opted not to follow for a wee while....
The roads were more than a tad slippery, so we tip toed and picked our way up through Longtown to Langholm, by which time the rain had subsided back to a bit of drizzle.
Carrying on north on the B709 there was a rare mix of pristine new tarmac and some of the worst conditions I have ridden in the wet, which made for an interesting ride...;D
We arrived at St Mary's Loch and the Glen Cafe just as the rain was dying off around 4 o'clock, so we stopped for a coffee and slice of cake to keep us going.
View from the warmth:
From there we dropped down to Moffat, where things dried and warmed up considerably.
It's a short trip from Moffat to the night's stop, but I wanted to ride the most excellent B740 Crawick Pass, so we first headed north alongside the motorway, before taking a loop back south to Mennock. Well worth the detour.:burnout:
We had a scout along the valley looking for a suitable spot to pitch camp.
After a false start next to a large group we moved up the valley a short hop, just as Lisa arrived in the car. So we all de-bused onto a small plateau Guy had spotted, which turned out to be a cracking spot to stay.
Lisa had stopped at the supermarket on the way to get a disposable BBQ, some beer, burgers and kebabs so once the tents were up we got down to business...
With the valley full of sheep though, Charlie wasn't so happy tethered to his ground spike.
I doubt he'd have gone too far with hills like these surrounding us though.
As the sun started to drop it got a tad chilly so we took advantage of the rubbish previous campers had left behind to warm up whist we cleaned up.
When Lisa get's cold she improvises hot water bottles.
Whereas others just utilise alcohol.
It got down to 4 degrees or less in the night, but Sunday saw the sun rise early and by 8 it was too hot to stay in the tent any longer.
Coffee, muffins and porridge were first order of the day.
Before breaking camp and loading up the bikes again.
(and slinging half my shit in the back of the car. )
Route back.
We left about half nine, heading back to Moffat for fuel, then ran around the devil's beef tub, before hitting the back roads over to St Mary's Loch via Talla and Meggets reservoirs.
From there a B road blast (Scotland style) took us across to Hawick and one of my favourite roads, the B6399 down to Newcastleton, before heading over to Keilder for Lunch.
View from Keilder Cafe
After lunch the well known fast blast south east to Bellingham proved as fun as ever (Honda seem to make CBRs that can't corner around these parts.
) before dropping down through Hexham then over the moors to Stanhope and Eggleston, and a succession of B roads shadowing the A1 south....
All in all, a top weekend. Just shy of 500 miles door to door.
Top roads. Top scenery. Top company.
Thanks all.
We were joined for the evening by my better half, Lisa in the car with Charlie the westie.
Mark and Paul, some local friends joined us for the first part of the route up, as far as Kirkby Stephen, but being girly FWBs they didn't want to dissolve in the little bit of rain we crossed through on the way up...:
The destination was Mennock Pass, near to Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland village at 432 m (1417 ft). The B797 runs through the pass up to the village along a steep sided valley through Lowther Hill range.
Scotland having some common sense, unlike in England wild camping is legal, so no camp site required, just find a nice secluded spot.
sup:Route up.
The route up was intended for long travel suspension, so Mark and Paul did well to stay with us up to a coffee break at Tan Hill Inn, as they were kinda feeling it by then riding a ZX7R and R1, so once back on the main road at Kirkby Stephen we split as they stopped for fuel to head back towards home.
Guy and me carried on down smaller roads before stopping for lunch at the Hartside Cafe. After a healthy sized portion of their "home made" beef and potato pie each, and a breeze block sized mars bar cake for Guy we headed off down to Alston. Turning north towards Brampton we hit the first rain of the day, only a light drizzle though so we cracked on.
Just north of Brampton I decided to pull over and stick my waterproof gloves on as it looked decidedly grey up ahead. Turned out to be a damn fine decision, as a couple of miles later the heavens opened and mid overtake I lost sight of the road.
Guy opted not to follow for a wee while....
The roads were more than a tad slippery, so we tip toed and picked our way up through Longtown to Langholm, by which time the rain had subsided back to a bit of drizzle.
Carrying on north on the B709 there was a rare mix of pristine new tarmac and some of the worst conditions I have ridden in the wet, which made for an interesting ride...;D
We arrived at St Mary's Loch and the Glen Cafe just as the rain was dying off around 4 o'clock, so we stopped for a coffee and slice of cake to keep us going.
View from the warmth:
From there we dropped down to Moffat, where things dried and warmed up considerably.
It's a short trip from Moffat to the night's stop, but I wanted to ride the most excellent B740 Crawick Pass, so we first headed north alongside the motorway, before taking a loop back south to Mennock. Well worth the detour.:burnout:
We had a scout along the valley looking for a suitable spot to pitch camp.
After a false start next to a large group we moved up the valley a short hop, just as Lisa arrived in the car. So we all de-bused onto a small plateau Guy had spotted, which turned out to be a cracking spot to stay.
Lisa had stopped at the supermarket on the way to get a disposable BBQ, some beer, burgers and kebabs so once the tents were up we got down to business...
With the valley full of sheep though, Charlie wasn't so happy tethered to his ground spike.
I doubt he'd have gone too far with hills like these surrounding us though.
As the sun started to drop it got a tad chilly so we took advantage of the rubbish previous campers had left behind to warm up whist we cleaned up.
When Lisa get's cold she improvises hot water bottles.
Whereas others just utilise alcohol.
It got down to 4 degrees or less in the night, but Sunday saw the sun rise early and by 8 it was too hot to stay in the tent any longer.
Coffee, muffins and porridge were first order of the day.
Before breaking camp and loading up the bikes again.
(and slinging half my shit in the back of the car.
)
Route back.
We left about half nine, heading back to Moffat for fuel, then ran around the devil's beef tub, before hitting the back roads over to St Mary's Loch via Talla and Meggets reservoirs.
From there a B road blast (Scotland style) took us across to Hawick and one of my favourite roads, the B6399 down to Newcastleton, before heading over to Keilder for Lunch.
View from Keilder Cafe
After lunch the well known fast blast south east to Bellingham proved as fun as ever (Honda seem to make CBRs that can't corner around these parts.
) before dropping down through Hexham then over the moors to Stanhope and Eggleston, and a succession of B roads shadowing the A1 south....All in all, a top weekend. Just shy of 500 miles door to door.
Top roads. Top scenery. Top company.
Thanks all.
