scotland on two wheels, part I

Well, that was quite a trip. I’d been hoping we’d get over to Scotland on the motorbike this year but we hadn’t really managed to make it happen until some friends said that they were going over and wouldn’t mind doing it as a group. So we had a bit of a chat over google maps (and an old fashioned printed map book!) and chose a route that would get us to all the good bits in a few days. It was 5 days in total including those spent travelling to Belfast for the ferry, and ended up covering about 1100 miles. But I think we made the most of it!

That there is the road back to Fort William, where my birth was registered (even though I was born in Inverness) and home to Ben Nevis – or as I’m sure I remember my mum calling it “the Ben” – which is the highest mountain in the UK. It may or may not be the one you can see there – I’ve never been very good at identifying it, because it doesn’t actually look that big when you’re right there next to it! The observant amongst you may notice that there’s snow on the top, which I thought was very pretty. More on that later…

Just after I took that photo, we got separated from the group who had made it out to Mallaig to get the ferry to Skye. We saw a sign that said the ferry was cancelled and headed back towards Kyle of Lochalsh for the bridge instead, then discovered that the sign was a lie and the ferry was on after all. Never mind, though, since I think that was my favourite part of the trip! We stopped for a picture of the Skye bridge:

As far as modern bridges go, I think it’s quite a pleasant shape. And probably bigger than this photo would have you believe (I only took the 50mm lens).

First stop on Skye itself was a place I visited on our previous trip in 2010 and neglected to photograph properly. This time I asked if I could take a few pictures, and the owner was quite happy so I worked away for a good while, long enough for Ryan to come looking to se if I was buying the entire contents. The place was this:

However, I shall be saving my pictures of the stuff inside for a whole post of their own, for they are numerous.

It’s right next to the water in the tiny village of Broadford, just a few steps away from the water. Pretty enough to keep him busy outside for a while, anyway…

Our home for the night was Portree, pretty much the only town of any size on the island. There was a lovely restaurant in the hotel where we stayed so we didn’t go wandering around, but I did grab a shot of the harbour in the morning sun before we left the next day:

I could have hung around there for quite some time with my camera, but there were matters to attend to.

Just a quick visit to the shop, and the bike cases got ever so slightly heavier ;)

One more photo-stop on Skye before heading back over the bridge. Biker shown for scale…

I think I’ll have to split this into two posts, because there’s still a few miles to go!