Hi Chaps,
To cut a long story short, my Daughter and Son in Law are off to Australia this week
, and they had sold all there worldly goods including Dan's bikes and moved in with us for the last two weeks before departing, I could see that he was slowly wilting under the relentless bombardment of "don't do this, do that" 
from his Mother in Law 
, so I thought the honorable thing to do was to take him off for a mini road trip on his last weekend here, before he decided to open his wrists and end it all !!
So as a treat I let him used my "short legged GS", R1100r
for the weekend, he stuck some insurance on it with these people :- http://www.dayinsure.com/
very handy if you just want a day or two's insurance cover on stuff.
So all we needed now was a destination for an overnight stop, not a million miles away, but just enough to make it interesting, well I'd had thoughts on the Isle of Arran bubbling away in the back of my mind for a while, so a quick surf on t'internet to check out ferries etc and that was it,.. booked ferries and hotels last Thursday 3rd Nov and we set off for Arran on the Friday morning.
The plan was to ride up to Arran on Friday, and overnight stay in a cheap guest house, then a lap of the Island on the Saturday morning before getting back to Broderick for the return ferry and the ride home.
We were up and out pretty early on the Friday morning, the weather could have been better for our ride up, we had a rough route planned up through Alston A689, Brampton, Longtown skirt around under Dumfries and up through St John's town of Dalry A713 and Ayr up to Ardrossan.
The ride up to Alston was pretty wet and grey, lots of low clouds so no photo's although I was glad that I'd just bought a pair of Daytona Road Stars so they did a good job and kept my feet warm and dry.
A quick shot of Alston house hotel, they do a very good bacon sarnie here, but we didn't have time for one that morning!
Cracking on up to Brampton and Longtown the roads were still very wet but it wasn't actually raining, but it was bad enough to make my two previously immaculately clean bikes filthy within a few miles! as you can see here after filling up at Longtown
I'd just fitted a hugger to the KTM the night before, thinking it would stop the crap going all over, but it didn't seem to work out that way although it did stop the shock from getting direct hits from crap thrown up off the back wheel
Once up to St John's town of Dalry we cut up through the B7000, with Kendoon Loch behind us
Its amazing how they train the sheep to walk in single file up here.....quite a surreal sight in the middle of no-where, looked like a scene from a Wallace and Gromit film !!
We skirted around Ayr on the B730 past Stair and made our way to the ferry port at Ardrossan, filling up with petrol as we entered Ardrossan we spotted the "Palazzo Cafe" over the road, parked the bikes outside and went in for a nosebag before catching the ferry
.
Inside the Cafe you could really tell you were well into Scotland
when you got this flavour of Ice-cream !!
Now Dan has "hollow leg syndrome" as you can see by the size of him
, he needs large quantities of food at regular intervals, his idea of a balanced diet is a pie in each hand !
On this occasion he settled for a small Pizza snack just to put him on till we had our evening meal, probably doesn't show up too well on the pic, but there was more oil on this Pizza than what was in my engine!!
Needless to say, he devoured the lot..........and a cake afterwards.
Waiting to board the ferry
The weather had definitely changed for the better
, bright blue skies no wind and about 15 deg c, just the ticket!!
A pic of us both on deck just as we left Ardrossan, I've got a bit of a "Tin-Tin comb over" going on there, bad case of helmet hair!
When we got to Arran it was almost dark, so we headed for the Guest House and parked the bikes for the night.
Arran is a cracking little Island and from what we could see in the fading light very picturesque, we found a decent place for a good meal on the night at Auchrannie Country club
and then a couple of pints of Guinness 
to wash it down with in the Douglas Hotel on the sea front.
Off to bed for a disturbed nights sleep ( Dan's snoring is like sawing logs!! )
and we were up for a decent cooked breakfast before we set off.
We stayed at this place :- http://www.carricklodge.co.uk/offers.html
Not exactly the Ritz, but not Ritz prices either, it was just what we were looking for, £25 per night bed and breakfast, perfectly clean and adequate for our needs for one night.
A view of Holy island off the South coast of Arran
We set off on a lap around Arran, heading South around the bottom of the Island first, this pic is looking back towards Lamlash.
As you can see the weather turned out fantastic for us again
After a while it dawned on us that we wouldn't have time to do the whole loop of the Island and get back in time for the ferry, the roads were pretty bad in places, potholes, gravel, mud and very twisty and tight, so in retrospect, if you go to Arran its not for the biking roads!!
We decided the best thing to do was to cut back over the top of the Island on the B880 to Broderick for the ferry, this had the added benefit of a good road surface as well.
Early morning mist still in the valley
Looking towards Broderick
Onto the ferry and its bye-bye Arran!
There seemed to be lots of dogs on the ferry and I'm a bit of a "Dog botherer" me, Luv em, so I was pleased when this Ridgeback was sat in the bay behind us, I've had 3 Rhodesian Ridgebacks, fantastic dogs.
Once off the ferry it was full speed for home, only stopping at Newton Stewart for petrol we hit the A712 through Galloway forest park and headed for Dumfries, fantastic road this, a real blast to ride and very little traffic on it.
The bikes at Clatteringshaws Loch
Once we cleared Dumfries we headed back the same way we came up, Longtown, Brampton, but this time the Alston road was bone dry and sunny so we had a good blast back home, Dan had "Bonded" with the 1100r now and was making cracking progress on it, seemed starnge though to see someone chasing you on your own bike in the mirrors!
Home for 5:30, a hot shower and a good meal, but the fun didn't stop there!
We were out on the Sunday morning for a breakfast ride as well so that Dan could say his goodbye's to the guy's we normally ride with, so I think all in all he got a pretty good biking weekend send-off, about 650 miles worth!!
We've done a lot of riding together over the past few years, including a fantastic 12 days in France last year, so I'm gonna miss him not being here, he acted as my "Get out of Jail Free card" in that he was a good excuse to get out for a ride when he came up, but we've had some good times together and lots and lots of laughs.
Hope you enjoyed our last trip together Dan ( for a while
) we'll have more in the future, good luck, Bon Voyage and take care.
Now I have two bikes to get clean again
To cut a long story short, my Daughter and Son in Law are off to Australia this week
, and they had sold all there worldly goods including Dan's bikes and moved in with us for the last two weeks before departing, I could see that he was slowly wilting under the relentless bombardment of "don't do this, do that" from his Mother in Law , so I thought the honorable thing to do was to take him off for a mini road trip on his last weekend here, before he decided to open his wrists and end it all !!So as a treat I let him used my "short legged GS", R1100r
for the weekend, he stuck some insurance on it with these people :- http://www.dayinsure.com/very handy if you just want a day or two's insurance cover on stuff.
So all we needed now was a destination for an overnight stop, not a million miles away, but just enough to make it interesting, well I'd had thoughts on the Isle of Arran bubbling away in the back of my mind for a while, so a quick surf on t'internet to check out ferries etc and that was it,.. booked ferries and hotels last Thursday 3rd Nov and we set off for Arran on the Friday morning.
The plan was to ride up to Arran on Friday, and overnight stay in a cheap guest house, then a lap of the Island on the Saturday morning before getting back to Broderick for the return ferry and the ride home.
We were up and out pretty early on the Friday morning, the weather could have been better for our ride up, we had a rough route planned up through Alston A689, Brampton, Longtown skirt around under Dumfries and up through St John's town of Dalry A713 and Ayr up to Ardrossan.
The ride up to Alston was pretty wet and grey, lots of low clouds so no photo's although I was glad that I'd just bought a pair of Daytona Road Stars so they did a good job and kept my feet warm and dry.
A quick shot of Alston house hotel, they do a very good bacon sarnie here, but we didn't have time for one that morning!
Cracking on up to Brampton and Longtown the roads were still very wet but it wasn't actually raining, but it was bad enough to make my two previously immaculately clean bikes filthy within a few miles! as you can see here after filling up at Longtown
I'd just fitted a hugger to the KTM the night before, thinking it would stop the crap going all over, but it didn't seem to work out that way although it did stop the shock from getting direct hits from crap thrown up off the back wheel
Once up to St John's town of Dalry we cut up through the B7000, with Kendoon Loch behind us
Its amazing how they train the sheep to walk in single file up here.....quite a surreal sight in the middle of no-where, looked like a scene from a Wallace and Gromit film !!
We skirted around Ayr on the B730 past Stair and made our way to the ferry port at Ardrossan, filling up with petrol as we entered Ardrossan we spotted the "Palazzo Cafe" over the road, parked the bikes outside and went in for a nosebag before catching the ferry
.Inside the Cafe you could really tell you were well into Scotland
when you got this flavour of Ice-cream !!
Now Dan has "hollow leg syndrome" as you can see by the size of him
, he needs large quantities of food at regular intervals, his idea of a balanced diet is a pie in each hand !On this occasion he settled for a small Pizza snack just to put him on till we had our evening meal, probably doesn't show up too well on the pic, but there was more oil on this Pizza than what was in my engine!!
Needless to say, he devoured the lot..........and a cake afterwards.
Waiting to board the ferry
The weather had definitely changed for the better
, bright blue skies no wind and about 15 deg c, just the ticket!!
A pic of us both on deck just as we left Ardrossan, I've got a bit of a "Tin-Tin comb over" going on there, bad case of helmet hair!
When we got to Arran it was almost dark, so we headed for the Guest House and parked the bikes for the night.
Arran is a cracking little Island and from what we could see in the fading light very picturesque, we found a decent place for a good meal on the night at Auchrannie Country club
and then a couple of pints of Guinness to wash it down with in the Douglas Hotel on the sea front.Off to bed for a disturbed nights sleep ( Dan's snoring is like sawing logs!! )
and we were up for a decent cooked breakfast before we set off.We stayed at this place :- http://www.carricklodge.co.uk/offers.html
Not exactly the Ritz, but not Ritz prices either, it was just what we were looking for, £25 per night bed and breakfast, perfectly clean and adequate for our needs for one night.
A view of Holy island off the South coast of Arran
We set off on a lap around Arran, heading South around the bottom of the Island first, this pic is looking back towards Lamlash.
As you can see the weather turned out fantastic for us again
After a while it dawned on us that we wouldn't have time to do the whole loop of the Island and get back in time for the ferry, the roads were pretty bad in places, potholes, gravel, mud and very twisty and tight, so in retrospect, if you go to Arran its not for the biking roads!!
We decided the best thing to do was to cut back over the top of the Island on the B880 to Broderick for the ferry, this had the added benefit of a good road surface as well.
Early morning mist still in the valley
Looking towards Broderick
Onto the ferry and its bye-bye Arran!
There seemed to be lots of dogs on the ferry and I'm a bit of a "Dog botherer" me, Luv em, so I was pleased when this Ridgeback was sat in the bay behind us, I've had 3 Rhodesian Ridgebacks, fantastic dogs.
Once off the ferry it was full speed for home, only stopping at Newton Stewart for petrol we hit the A712 through Galloway forest park and headed for Dumfries, fantastic road this, a real blast to ride and very little traffic on it.
The bikes at Clatteringshaws Loch
Once we cleared Dumfries we headed back the same way we came up, Longtown, Brampton, but this time the Alston road was bone dry and sunny so we had a good blast back home, Dan had "Bonded" with the 1100r now and was making cracking progress on it, seemed starnge though to see someone chasing you on your own bike in the mirrors!
Home for 5:30, a hot shower and a good meal, but the fun didn't stop there!
We were out on the Sunday morning for a breakfast ride as well so that Dan could say his goodbye's to the guy's we normally ride with, so I think all in all he got a pretty good biking weekend send-off, about 650 miles worth!!
We've done a lot of riding together over the past few years, including a fantastic 12 days in France last year, so I'm gonna miss him not being here, he acted as my "Get out of Jail Free card" in that he was a good excuse to get out for a ride when he came up, but we've had some good times together and lots and lots of laughs.
Hope you enjoyed our last trip together Dan ( for a while
) we'll have more in the future, good luck, Bon Voyage and take care.Now I have two bikes to get clean again
sleep
