First trip report for me!
This is not normally the sort of thing I would... but over the last year or so during times of being stuck at home unable to travel, being able to log onto the site and read the trip reports of other members and thus allowing me to travel vicariously through their reports has really been enjoyable and something I've looked forwards too on many occasions over the last 12 months. Hopefully this thread provides some level of minor entertainment or motivation to a fellow member or two.
I recently got back into biking after a break of 15 years or so - I grew up racing MX and then got into sportsbikes once I got my license whilst I was back home in Aus, but moving overseas at 24years old disrupted this. Apart from renting bikes every few years for a week at a time to go to a few TT's I've been bikeless! Fast forwards to October 2024 and after jacking in my job and taking a career break i thought it was perfect timing to get back into bikes... and the GSA was purchased. A 6 month old bike (BMW staff management bike) was purchased with 500miles on the clock with the aim of getting across to Europe in 2025. This was to provide the tonic I needed to unwind and escape a toxic management culture in my previous job and remind myself of really what is important, and to do things that genuinely provide you with happiness.
I had done a 4 week trip with the missus around France and the Alps back in 2011 in my old Caterham 7, which was a truly epic trip... but even then when we were seeing the bikes on the alpine passes in the Alps I had a pang of jealousy. I really wanted to go back for a 2 week trip and relive some of the great roads and memories. Unfortunately due to elderly family sickness and ongoing treatments etc I could not plan or commit to getting away - throw in some ad-hoc consultancy work which took me away to Africa for 3 weeks at a time and suddenly it was the end of August. How on earth did that happen?!?!?! I had a chat with the missus and spotted a 6 day window of opportunity the following week. She was off to the borders to help her Mum through some big appointments and I was at home alone. Decision made! I was off.... but no idea where!
Being based in Aberdeenshire, given the available window of opportunity it rapidly narrowed down to being UK based. I've done the north west coast a lot (pre NC500 when it was gorgeous and quite) so I was not keen to go that way again with the swarms of campervans... so possibly a shetland/orkney/westcoast loop? The long ferry to Shetland with the high winds forecast for the upcoming week was not ideal so I parked that as a backup. I'd done Lewis and Harris before but never the southern outer hebrides, and in a turn of fate a friend who has a croft on North Uist got in touch out of the blue on the same day I was starting to plan. It was a sign!
So I borrowed a mates tent (4 season mountaineering tent - wise decision as you'll see later) and a camp mat, packed the trangia and the sleeping bag and booked a ticked from Oban to Barra! Time for the off!
This is not normally the sort of thing I would... but over the last year or so during times of being stuck at home unable to travel, being able to log onto the site and read the trip reports of other members and thus allowing me to travel vicariously through their reports has really been enjoyable and something I've looked forwards too on many occasions over the last 12 months. Hopefully this thread provides some level of minor entertainment or motivation to a fellow member or two.
I recently got back into biking after a break of 15 years or so - I grew up racing MX and then got into sportsbikes once I got my license whilst I was back home in Aus, but moving overseas at 24years old disrupted this. Apart from renting bikes every few years for a week at a time to go to a few TT's I've been bikeless! Fast forwards to October 2024 and after jacking in my job and taking a career break i thought it was perfect timing to get back into bikes... and the GSA was purchased. A 6 month old bike (BMW staff management bike) was purchased with 500miles on the clock with the aim of getting across to Europe in 2025. This was to provide the tonic I needed to unwind and escape a toxic management culture in my previous job and remind myself of really what is important, and to do things that genuinely provide you with happiness.
I had done a 4 week trip with the missus around France and the Alps back in 2011 in my old Caterham 7, which was a truly epic trip... but even then when we were seeing the bikes on the alpine passes in the Alps I had a pang of jealousy. I really wanted to go back for a 2 week trip and relive some of the great roads and memories. Unfortunately due to elderly family sickness and ongoing treatments etc I could not plan or commit to getting away - throw in some ad-hoc consultancy work which took me away to Africa for 3 weeks at a time and suddenly it was the end of August. How on earth did that happen?!?!?! I had a chat with the missus and spotted a 6 day window of opportunity the following week. She was off to the borders to help her Mum through some big appointments and I was at home alone. Decision made! I was off.... but no idea where!
Being based in Aberdeenshire, given the available window of opportunity it rapidly narrowed down to being UK based. I've done the north west coast a lot (pre NC500 when it was gorgeous and quite) so I was not keen to go that way again with the swarms of campervans... so possibly a shetland/orkney/westcoast loop? The long ferry to Shetland with the high winds forecast for the upcoming week was not ideal so I parked that as a backup. I'd done Lewis and Harris before but never the southern outer hebrides, and in a turn of fate a friend who has a croft on North Uist got in touch out of the blue on the same day I was starting to plan. It was a sign!
So I borrowed a mates tent (4 season mountaineering tent - wise decision as you'll see later) and a camp mat, packed the trangia and the sleeping bag and booked a ticked from Oban to Barra! Time for the off!
It's quite a long crossing - 4.5hrs but it went remarkably quickly once your chatting away to a new acquaintance with hobbies in common.
