Scenes from South Africa

Some great photography from one of my brother Nic's recent tilley-tours around South Africa's dirt roads on his LC4...

Sometimes I really miss South Africa.

Scotland Tour - Day 4

Using my phone, I didn't get any good pics on the last day in Scotland... so these are some more from earlier in the trip...

Odd couple at 'Rest and be Thankful'

On the fourth day it was sunny and we carved our way south, through the Trossachs, back to Callender and on to Stirling.

I think this was somewhere on Skye

Having Scots blood from clan Kinghorn and clan McIntosh, I needed to visit the town of Kinghorn on the shores of the Firth of Forth... just to see what was there.

Two Amigos on Skye

It was just a sleepy little holiday town with sandy beaches. We had lunch there... the crappiest of sandwiches made by a geezer in a stained string vest in a dive called 'The Wee Shoppe'.

Single track over the mountains

Then back over the Forth Bridge to Edinburgh where we'd left the van. Bikes loaded and we were on our way back south in the afternoon.

Quaint Kinghorn

It's been a few years since I've done a bit of moto-sickle touring... I should do it more often. It's awesome. Besides the iffy weather, Scotland is spectacular and the roads brilliant for high-speed touring. Over the 4 days, I only saw one copper... outside a town's Police station. Steve was pulled by one... to tell him that he liked Steve's bike. My kinda country!

Scotland Tour - Day 3

Woke on day 3 to the normal Skye weather... low cloud, mist and rain.

We zipped up (no waterproofs) and did the western loop... cutting back to Portree across the mountains along another single-track pass.

A cup o tea to warm up and back to the mainland over the Skye Bridge at Kyle of Lochalsch.

Past Eilean Donan Castle on the way to Invergary on Loch Oich. Road closed so a detour to Loch Ness and through Fort Augustus... by now it had stopped raining and the roads had dried so we didn't mind at all. More  awesome roads...

My camera battery died at this point so there aren't too many pics from here on... mostly crappy iPhone pics. From Invergary to Fort Willian it chucked it down... would have been stunning scenery and a fantastic road to ride. By now our leathers were soaked so we had to stop often to try warm up... next stop Glencoe...

A mecca for walkers and climbers, my camera lens isn't wide enough to capture the huge mountains and rugged beauty at Glencoe. It was 18h00 and the sun came out to warm our cold, wet bones...

Freedom!

From Glencoe we started to look for accommodation... at 20h00 we eventually found some basic lodgings at Tyndrum (home of The Green Welly Stop!). Dry and warm... we had a great meal and a few pints at the lively Paddy's Bar and Grill

We found a home for Steve's 25 year old Vermar lid... George Lucas inspiration

Scotland Tour - Day 2 - Isle of Skye

We landed on Skye and headed north to Portree where we looked for accommodation. Eventually we found a B&B.

Making to most of the glorious weather, we dumped our gear and headed up the northern loop.

Up and across a spectacular single-track mountain pass and we were at Uig by 21h00.

Scrumptious dinner at the pier on Loch Snizort and we carved the roads back to Portree in the twilight. In Portree we found a folk band playing at one of the Inns to round off the night with a pint... a great day on the road!

This is just after 22h00... at 57.58 degrees north and so close to solstice, it's still light at midnight...

Scotland Tour - Day 2

More sunshine and we headed north to Oban. More breathtaking scenery and awesome roads.

The S4R Monster is the perfect tool for those roads... sweet handling, kadoodles of torque and more top-end power than you can use. And... it just looks cool!

From Oban we pressed north to For William before doubling back to get the Corran Ferry across Loch Eil.

 

Tight, windy, up-and-down single track through a forest along the shores of Loch Sunnart was a bit slow going but only lasted 15 miles... more natural beauty.

This is the railway line and steam train used on the Harry Potter films

Up to Mallaig where we caught the afternoon ferry to the Isle of Skye

White sandy beaches, clear waters

Mallaig