Braveheart

Friday 29th April to Monday 2nd May 2005

Bit of a cock-up on the start with some bikes playing hard to get!  I was very lucky to have had Twin Cities rush through a new alternator to replace the burnt out one sustained earlier so I could give Joe back the anniversary Glide he had kindly loaned me; but Nigel one of our Braveheart leaders, Softail had decided to die.  The electrics were totally dead and would not respond to any efforts to get her into life so once again Joe came to the rescue and offered Nige the Anniversary Glide.  The upshot of these bike problems and general chananigans was that we did not get away from Tyneside 'till 11:00am, so making progress was the order of the day.  Soon we joined up with Phil. Dot and Johnnie at Fordal Services, negotiated the heavy traffic of the Edinburgh Ring Road and were soon enjoying the view from the Forth Road Bridge.

When I cross the Forth Road Bridge into the Kingdom of Fifeshire I always feel 'Game On' but the fun really starts just after Perth.  We just made the House of Bruar lunch stop before the lunch stuff was cleared away and in no time at all Inverness was hoving into view.  A slow passage across the Moray Firth and then the beautiful A835 to Royal Hotel, Ullapool, Rosshire, Scotland.

Let the bullshitting commence!  Being almost last into the hotel car-park the stories of the adventurous rides into the Far North of Scotland were gaining momentum, some stories fuelled with Guinness are all the better having been told and exaggerated a few times; we all entered into the spirit.  Arriving for the fun:

This shows happy bikers (Mick, John & happy wives) and the dramatic view from the car-park.  Those car-park stories gained more colour during the evening festivities where the tour t's were given out to general acclaim - no glide in the graphics this year!

Day 2 and with a substantial breakfast inside Jono and I joined Graham and Jeanette for the mid sized loop to the lunch and photo call at Gairloch.  Unfortunately not all the riders were at the photo call but here are those who followed instructions!  Our Chapter Pro-Photographer, Ian McLelland did not have to digitise himself into this picture but some neat footwork and a timer on his digital ensured all there were in the picture. 

After lunch our small band of two bikes set off for the party.  Once more making serious progress!

The Fighting Pigs were booked from their marvellous inaugural playing at last years 'Back to Basics' and travelled from Inverness to be with us and what a master stroke by Nige and Jeff that was, really good party with many locals joining us, hell even two riding couples from Durham Advanced Motorcyclists joined in the fun.

Sunday and about half the 100 Braveheart Revellers were scheduled for the run home but the rest of us had some riding to do and it was a couple of coastal loops to the North of Ullapool that looked inviting, here we are at the End of The Road!

Hilary and Jeanette relax from the rigures of pillion riding!

So after a full day in the saddle and a party weekend there was a very subdued atmosphere that evening back in the hotel.  Early to bed was the order of the day, all that fresh air and tiring enjoying ourselves takes it out of a soul.

Lazy start to Bank Holiday Monday and a third good cooked breakfast inside and mini-groups set out South.  Our small band of me and Jono, Graham & Jeanette and the Ince Brothers  decided to take the longer route via Fort William so as to make the most of our riding time in this bikers heaven.  It turned out to be a good choice not only was the riding brilliant but we skirted around all rain to have a basically dry run.  During the day we met up with many of the others, we even joined Chris and Fiona who had spent the night at a friends cottage and Mick and Barbara who had visited friends in Nairn at the Green Wellie, Tyndrum; another well known bikers watering hole.

Obviously a very big THANK YOU to the two organisers of Nige and Jeff along with those band of helpers that ensured we all had a brilliant time doing our motto:

Riding Bikes and Having Fun!