A very cold start to the day – Geoff was the only wise one who was wearing enough warm weather gear. The fashion police are giving Bob a really hard time about some of his old and un-cool clothing, threads hanging from flappy jacket and painters gloves….. Early morning riders in Surrey may have seen him wearing bandages as the next best thing to proper leg warmers and I am desperate to get a picture of this for you all to see. Geoffs’ wife Debbie thought he had blood clots running down his!!
The road they took to Glasgow was in a terrible state. They followed the A7078 whose care has been abandoned in favour of the new main road – Bob’s blown bum blister did suffer. Low temperatures combined with bumps in the road meant that the plants were watered frequently.
Passing through Glasgow was not without incident. The guys got squirted with a seriously large water pistol from a car window – they wisely did nothing….. It will be remembered as a scary place with bad smells, although there was a fair amount of hey ho material.
Martin had the first puncture of the trip at 1009kms (thank you Ivor), amazing really when you think how far they have come.
Once over the Erskine Bridge the scenery and riding got better and better as the journey continued. Following along the banks of Loch Lomond (I’ll tak’ the high road…) was breathtaking. We stopped at the Falls of Falloch for lunch and came across some locals who were waterfall jumping. I stayed with the bikes while the guys went to explore and I was surprised when they all came back dry – I had expected at least one of them to have had a go….
Bridge of Orchy is a one horse town straddling the A82 to Fort William. I was expecting the bunk house to be old and basic. It turned out to be the ticket office on the platform, newly refurbished and immaculate. The room we were in had three storey bunks and Martin and Tony climbed into the sky. It sleeps 15 in three rooms and had a spacious common area with fully equipped kitchen and a drying room. It was full for the night and all the other guests were walking the West Highland Way. Our room took six and we were joined by a mature walker from Swansea.
We ate at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel, and had a good but expensive meal with some friends of Bob and I who live in Glasgow and came up to join us. The hotel is run by Australians and a fairly fierce Zimbabwean girl.
We had an early night and early start as usual and everybody behaved very well. I only heard one tune in the night and it’s feasible that it came from our companion. I had never experienced it before but you are given a cotton sleeping back which tucks over the pillow and you climb into the gap. It keeps the laundry bill down as they don’t have to wash pillow cases and quilt covers so often. At £65 for five it was good value. As he left our companion gave me a donation for the charities – thanks mate!
Only two days to go – I can’t believe they have got so far so quickly under their own steam – amazing!
The road they took to Glasgow was in a terrible state. They followed the A7078 whose care has been abandoned in favour of the new main road – Bob’s blown bum blister did suffer. Low temperatures combined with bumps in the road meant that the plants were watered frequently.
Passing through Glasgow was not without incident. The guys got squirted with a seriously large water pistol from a car window – they wisely did nothing….. It will be remembered as a scary place with bad smells, although there was a fair amount of hey ho material.
Martin had the first puncture of the trip at 1009kms (thank you Ivor), amazing really when you think how far they have come.
Once over the Erskine Bridge the scenery and riding got better and better as the journey continued. Following along the banks of Loch Lomond (I’ll tak’ the high road…) was breathtaking. We stopped at the Falls of Falloch for lunch and came across some locals who were waterfall jumping. I stayed with the bikes while the guys went to explore and I was surprised when they all came back dry – I had expected at least one of them to have had a go….
Bridge of Orchy is a one horse town straddling the A82 to Fort William. I was expecting the bunk house to be old and basic. It turned out to be the ticket office on the platform, newly refurbished and immaculate. The room we were in had three storey bunks and Martin and Tony climbed into the sky. It sleeps 15 in three rooms and had a spacious common area with fully equipped kitchen and a drying room. It was full for the night and all the other guests were walking the West Highland Way. Our room took six and we were joined by a mature walker from Swansea.
We ate at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel, and had a good but expensive meal with some friends of Bob and I who live in Glasgow and came up to join us. The hotel is run by Australians and a fairly fierce Zimbabwean girl.
We had an early night and early start as usual and everybody behaved very well. I only heard one tune in the night and it’s feasible that it came from our companion. I had never experienced it before but you are given a cotton sleeping back which tucks over the pillow and you climb into the gap. It keeps the laundry bill down as they don’t have to wash pillow cases and quilt covers so often. At £65 for five it was good value. As he left our companion gave me a donation for the charities – thanks mate!
Only two days to go – I can’t believe they have got so far so quickly under their own steam – amazing!
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