Six of us (and Storm Amy) went to Scotland for a break last weekend. For the past 8 months I have been using MyRoute app via (wired) android auto on my Africa Twin and it has been faultless and very convenient to select routes and zoom etc via the buttons on the AT's left handlebar.
We headed off on Friday 3rd of October on the 7:30am (which became 8:30) sailing from Belfast to Cairnryan. The wind hadn't really gotten going when we landed at 11am but the rain was sheeting down and would continue to do so until we got to our ultimate destination of the Strontian Hotel....in Strontian. The wind built in ferocity as we headed north but thankfully didn't feel too bad as it was blowing from the south. After a spot of lunch in Dunbarton, climbing to Crianlarich and crossing Rannoch moor felt like people were standing at the side of the road throwing buckets of water round you and coming off the moor towards Glencoe there were rivers of water a few inches deep criss-crossing the road. We finally reached the Corran ferry at about 4:15 and were told by the ferryman that we were lucky as they were about to take the ferry off service which would have meant a 45mile detour. We arrived at the Hotel at about 4:45 and the wind really did kick in!!
Thankfully, I had a shower before the electricity went off
. The hotel did not have any backup generator so we had a salad starter......... followed by a salad for tea and phone torches to access the rooms. The next morning we had cereal and no tea!! We decided to cut our losses and managed to find accomodation at the Buchan and Rockhill guesthouses in Moffat (recommended). But that's not what this review is about
On connecting my phone to the Honda it would only connect intermittently (I suspect water in the USB socket in the bike as its fine now its dried out). So I had to create interesting routes for the group at short notice and port these routes to my ZumoXT which I had brought with me. Saturday was showery and we didn't fancy a run over Rannoch moor again into a headwind so decided to run down to Connell, over the pass of Brander, down to Inveraray and over "Rest and be thankful" to Tarbet (Lunch at Kirk O' The Lochs recommended) . I know these roads well and didn't really need a route but created one anyway. No part of the route was completely blocked but we did have to dodge several fallen trees on the road. One useful feature of the app is the ability to add additional waypoints on the route just by tapping the route line. This centres a waypoint on the middle of the selected road and puts it in order with the existing waypoints. Its really good for routing with the XT as it really needs extra shaping points to keep it on the roads you want to be on. We got to Moffat at about 4:30pm.
The "Moffat Spitfire" has been moved to Wells Street in Hugh Dowding's home town.
We had lovely weather on the Sunday and a suitable route was plotted via Talia Reservoir, St Mary's Loch, Alemoor Reservoir, the Hermitage, Newcastleton, Langholm, The Lockerbie Memorial, Eskdalemuir, and back to Moffat via the Grey Mares Tail.
The route back to Cairnryan on Monday was via Minor roads above Dumfries and the A75 and below New Galloway, all planned by prodding a phone screen until the desired route was created. MyRouteapp app is a very easy way to have flexible route planning on a trip which didn't quite work out as expected.
We headed off on Friday 3rd of October on the 7:30am (which became 8:30) sailing from Belfast to Cairnryan. The wind hadn't really gotten going when we landed at 11am but the rain was sheeting down and would continue to do so until we got to our ultimate destination of the Strontian Hotel....in Strontian. The wind built in ferocity as we headed north but thankfully didn't feel too bad as it was blowing from the south. After a spot of lunch in Dunbarton, climbing to Crianlarich and crossing Rannoch moor felt like people were standing at the side of the road throwing buckets of water round you and coming off the moor towards Glencoe there were rivers of water a few inches deep criss-crossing the road. We finally reached the Corran ferry at about 4:15 and were told by the ferryman that we were lucky as they were about to take the ferry off service which would have meant a 45mile detour. We arrived at the Hotel at about 4:45 and the wind really did kick in!!
Thankfully, I had a shower before the electricity went off
. The hotel did not have any backup generator so we had a salad starter......... followed by a salad for tea and phone torches to access the rooms. The next morning we had cereal and no tea!! We decided to cut our losses and managed to find accomodation at the Buchan and Rockhill guesthouses in Moffat (recommended). But that's not what this review is about On connecting my phone to the Honda it would only connect intermittently (I suspect water in the USB socket in the bike as its fine now its dried out). So I had to create interesting routes for the group at short notice and port these routes to my ZumoXT which I had brought with me. Saturday was showery and we didn't fancy a run over Rannoch moor again into a headwind so decided to run down to Connell, over the pass of Brander, down to Inveraray and over "Rest and be thankful" to Tarbet (Lunch at Kirk O' The Lochs recommended) . I know these roads well and didn't really need a route but created one anyway. No part of the route was completely blocked but we did have to dodge several fallen trees on the road. One useful feature of the app is the ability to add additional waypoints on the route just by tapping the route line. This centres a waypoint on the middle of the selected road and puts it in order with the existing waypoints. Its really good for routing with the XT as it really needs extra shaping points to keep it on the roads you want to be on. We got to Moffat at about 4:30pm.
The "Moffat Spitfire" has been moved to Wells Street in Hugh Dowding's home town.
We had lovely weather on the Sunday and a suitable route was plotted via Talia Reservoir, St Mary's Loch, Alemoor Reservoir, the Hermitage, Newcastleton, Langholm, The Lockerbie Memorial, Eskdalemuir, and back to Moffat via the Grey Mares Tail.
The route back to Cairnryan on Monday was via Minor roads above Dumfries and the A75 and below New Galloway, all planned by prodding a phone screen until the desired route was created. MyRouteapp app is a very easy way to have flexible route planning on a trip which didn't quite work out as expected.
