2021 Warrior Princess NC500 Tour
Scotland's Route 66/Revisited
September 2021, the end of the covid lockdown in the UK and it was just too difficult to organise a euro tour so we decided Scotland and the NC500 was the way to go. Again!
Last year's tour of the NC500 was in an anticlockwise direction so how much fun would it be to do it the other way round (clockwise! gosh,shock,horror) but we would miss out the east coast bit by heading down the centre of The Highlands. Starting and finishing this time in Annan (Borders country)
7 of us embarked on this trip but what, do I hear you ask, will we be riding?
A. For me (Maddog)
The Pug - Honda Varadero had gone so enter my Kawasaki Z900.
B. The warrior Princess
was on her lovely Suzuki GSXR750
C Binman
Brought along his new Aprilia Capanord 1200
D. Stavrossi
On his KTM1290 Super Adventure.
E. Big Rich
On his BMW R1200 Battle Star.
F. Dave
On his new Ducati Multistrada.
G. Jeff (the new boy)
On his Triumph Tiger 1090.
So after the now traditional meet-up with some beer in the hotel it was up early the next day and off we went!
At this point Dave realised he had only done the running-in mileage on his new Ducati Multistrada (600 miles) and if it's not serviced at this point all warranties are invalid, so after some hurried phone calls the lovely chaps at Ducati Glasgow kindly agreed to do the service as soon as the bike got there. Dave would catch us up later.
But here is a thought for you: There is nothing like pre-planning for a motorcycle tour and this was nothing like pre-planning for a motorcycle tour!
Winding our way North’ish we had plotted a wonderful wiggly route including one of my personal favourite sections, the B740 from Sanquhar to Crawfordjohn. There you will find the Colebrooke Arms pub which is the perfect stop to recover, have some well needed refreshments and discuss the previous roads antics.
(The road is a bloomin race track, not that I’m condoning speeding on the public road network, NO cos it's not big and not clever)
But the riding in this area is sublime.
Our first night's stop was in Rhu not far from Faslane nuclear submarine base but along the way disaster struck (no not an explosion ) On the A70 from Douglas to Muirkirk whilst leading the pack there had been some recently completed road works, all the signs had gone but not all the gravel and down I went.
Thankfully I was ok but the damage sustained meant my nice new Kawasaki Z900 unable to continue the tour. Thanks to all the gang for helping out with the aftermath.
It just goes to show that it doesn't matter how experienced you are “it's dangerous out there”
We pushed the bike into a nearby field and arranged for a good mate of ours to recover it.
I jumped onto the back of another bike and we made it to our hotel!
Feeling a bit second hand, a nice shower with a hot meal and medicinal beer was just what the doctor ordered.
What to do the next day being one bike down? "Simple" Send the rest of the gang ahead to Mallaig, the ferry terminal for The Isle of Skye while The Warrior Princess and I legged it home to collect our spare bike, the smashing Ducati Scrambler Urban Enduro that would be the replacement steed for the rest of the trip. Now to say we had to ride like the wind to get to Mallaig and join the others and make our pre-booked ferry was an understatement. But we did it!
The Isle of Skye is a great place to ride around, very scenic, some fab fast roads if you can get a break in between the motorhomes. We would definitely recommend it as part of a tour.
Our hotel was in Portree where we spent two nights. The other tradition of our tour is “The Curry Night” that was ticked off the list and a smashing curry was had by all at The Taste of India, Portree.
The next blast and still heading north you will hit the really wild bit of the west coast of Scotland.
Amazing scenery, wonderful roads and if the weather is favourable absolutely beautiful.
Now here's another strange post covid thing?
It seems that just turning up somewhere and getting a hotel room is a thing of the past (and continues to be in our experience)
One of our preferred stops is in Ullapool but we couldn't get a single room for love nor money but there is always the opportunity to find a hidden gem and that was The Dundonnell Hotel.
The funniest bit is the similarity of the staircase to the rooms which felt strangely like a scene in the film The Shining! So you can imagine the hilarity after a few too many pints.
So we continue on the NC500 coast road to Tongue and then turn south towards our next stop in Invergordon via Lairg.
Yet another great day's riding and the Ducati Scrambler was doing good considering it's probably more designed for cruising up and down Milan High Street looking fab than getting thrashed across the wilds of Scotland.
Onto Aberfeldy the next day passing trough some spectacular towns like Ballater, Braemar and Pitlochry which are always worth stopping along the way for some Scottish souvenirs and why not try some haggis bon-bons for lunch while you're there.
On the last day back to the start of our adventure to Annan, we had travelled 1202 miles over 7 days.
As I mentioned in the last blog the NC500 trip traditionally starts and finishes in Inverness but we like to go a bit further and that does mean getting through the Glasgow suburbs at one point or other, it's not that bad and just remember the riders at the back of the group might not make the traffic lights or roundabout so there's no point in riding like a lunatic!
THE END
Peebles and The Roadside Romp
Strictly Come Dancing Contestants
Back to the Start at Annan
Whats the matter with this then?
Stavrossi says :- Dunno?
THE END
Binman said - Stuff this, I'm off home!
P.S We got the Z900 home repaired the damage and it's still going strong racking up the miles.
Maps are available to view on the website page and GPX files will be available to download soon if you would like to follow or ride our route.