Scotland at 45mph

I was actually glad of the warning. The cops are at that spot quite regularly but I always find it hard to stay at 30 there for some reason. Maybe because the houses are quite far back from the road, I don't know. Either was it was appreciated.

Are you trying to suggest I couldn't outrun some high speed pursuit proby?

I tend to do that with hills. I pick the smallest one in the glen, thinking it doesn't look too bad but before I'm halfway up I'm dying. Haven't done much of the north coast, and the little I have done was in the car. Hopefully this year though.

Yeah I think us Scottish bikers are pretty lucky tbh. I moan about potholes and caravans but it's not too bad here. The weather is a pain though. This week looks to be a washout thanks to high winds and torrential rain.

Speaking of caravans, here's me moaning about being slowed by one heading south by Loch Lubnaig.

<object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/r-PgtS7aclc?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/r-PgtS7aclc?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

I've been away from this forum for while and just found your blog here. Great photos! I was stationed in Scotland from July of '72 through the end of '75. When I first got there, my buddies showed me the Triumph shop near the Barrows in Glasgow. I bought a new 1972 Triumph Daytona 500. I lived in a small cottage at Hunter Quay. I've ridden most of the roads west of the Clyde and a few on the east side. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

Think you needed to play 'frogger' with the cars to be able to line up an overtake on the camper, staying out wide on a couple of those corners would of given a good line of sight to power on an overtake on the straights, like they say, the learning never stops.

Oh and that Unimog, bloody love those things

Nice. I haven't really been out and about the Clyde much but if I'm ever out in the Hunter Quay area I'll get some pictures for you.

Yeah I debated with myself whether I should overtake or stay back and moan. Decided to moan

I like Unimogs too. I tend to favour the industrial look over sleek. Scotland isn't the country to get the best out of them though. Most of the places you could get them offroad are also off limits to the public. The trails that you are allowed to take bikes would mostly be too small as well.

Taunted by the dilemma 'laborious overtake or moan' I like to take the first escape road. Don't care where it leads too as it likely provides a better tour.

Won't work on a commute though, unless you're the boss himself.

Good point. Sadly once you're heading down the side of Loch Lubnaig you're there for the duration. Luckily it's not too long a stretch.

Anyway I've just noticed the forcast is for blue skies tomorrow so I'm getting some sleep. New road hopefully.

Hey there Matt,
I finally had some time to watch all your vids and they're great! No problem with understanding what you're saying at all, but tons of enjoyment from your observations! One thing I think I noticed, and I don't know if this is really the case, but I recall from my time in the west of Scotland that there were an awful many sections of country road with kerbing and I kept thinking what a huge pain it would be to have to pull off the road and have to hop over that bit. There were a few times when a big bus was coming the other way and was riding the line and I wanted to move over as far as I could away from the bugger but I was always afraid I'd tear out the sidewalls on that kerbing. This was in a car, mind you. So, in a couple of your vids, is that kerbing they have on curves? Keep up the good work! Cheers!

Thanks man. I was in Glen Coe yesterday and filmed a lot. So much so that the battery died later on but I haven't yet had a chance to see how much I got. Hopefully get them on tonight.

I hadn't noticed kerbing so kept an eye out yesterday. It seems to be near bridges, walls and mounds by the side of the road that you find it. So my guess is that it's there to provided a solid barrier to hold back the dirt and grass from being pushed out onto the road by the weight of whatever it is.

Take that with a pinch of salt.


Anyway new report and photos later. In the meantime, admire my bike:

Bike:

Ey Matt, that shot's a stunner, it is!! Front page material in my opinion! The bike looks absolutely fabulous...ready to take you on wherever the tarmac leads. I'm jealous of your scenery! Brillant, just brillant.

The sun on Friday actually took me by surprise as the forecast for the whole weekend was originally rain. So I was in bed relatively (relative to my normal 3am bedtime) with the hope of getting up quite early and getting away. The dog barking all night put a quick halt to that idea but I was still up early enough that I was leaving the house at 11am.

I was heading to Glen Etive. I ride past the turnoff for it every time I go to Glen Coe. It's a road so obscure that for some reason I can't even highlight it on Google maps. It basically starts in the same place as Glen Coe but goes off at a right angle to it. I don't know much about it other than it ends at a loch and is single track (not off-road single track) the whole way. While awkward at times to navigate they do at least tend to not have buses or caravans on them to hold things up.

I'd also be getting video of both Glen Coe and Glen Etive.

Even before setting off, it was clear this would not be like the ride to Glen Coe in February. It was warm. So warm in fact that I had to drop a layer before leaving. I kept it in the pannier though just in case but surprisingly I wasn't needed at all.


My first stop would be at the Green Welly at Tyndrum. The journey up would be notable for two things.

1) A guy getting frustrated at sitting behind a caravan and doing an overtake that he should never have attempted. His car clearly wasn't as powerful as it would have needed to be to do it in time. Thankfully the guy who came round the corner to find slowcoach on the wrong side of the road managed to slow down enough to avoid a collision. Could have gone very wrong.

2) Some guy in a white van giving me the finger. I was positioning myself for an overtake of a lorry and was waiting for the corner to open up to see what was coming the other way. As it was there was a van so obviously I dodn't move out. The guy seemed annoyed at me and gave me the finger. I later wondered if it was someone from here recognising me but no-one's claimed it so I'll stick with my original judgement; Asshole.

3) I was overtaking a van while working my way up a queue of traffic. It was nothing exiting but just as I passed it there was a god awful noise. I couldn't tell if he was revving his engine to hell to ram me off the road or if the Honda was tearing itself apart and I was going to go for a roll down the road at 70mph. Either way it going the heart rate up. Whilst still trying to work out what the hell was going on, two RAF Tornados screamed by overhead. I was glad the noise wasn't the sound of anything lethal (to me) but I could see all the drivers around me looking up so cool as fighter jets are, they weren't exactly helping matters.

Sadly I didn't have the helmet camera on for any of these events as I was saving the battery for later.


You see way more Harleys and 1200RTs on weekdays at the Green Welly. It's all the retired guys with spare time enough to get up that way during the week. By the time May gets here it'll be retired guys and Germans.

I was quite amused by the fact that a guy on a sporty Suzuki pulled in seconds after I did. I had passed him in Crianlarich down the road. He had been standing chatting to people at a pub and I had been powering through. The road north of Crianlarich is wide, smooth and relatively straight. I know how fast I was going so if he's made up that kind of time he must have been shifting.

Anyway I was quickly away from the Green Welly and heading to Glen Coe. I pulled into a layby on the Rannoch Moor to get the camera set up. While doing that I grabbed a few pics and was about to pack up and head off when I noticed a small hill that looked like it would give me a good vantage point to grab some pics. I was right.

Rannoch Moor:









Loch Bà:





Then it was into Glen Coe. The video for the ride through has turned out pretty good, though there's some interference with the sound. That should be on here tomorrow.

Despite my misgivings about using a video camera as a main camera, it's cool to be able to grab some screenshots from the video. They aren't high quality (to say the least) but they aren't awful.

Glen Coe:

This one is for the yanks














I was near the far end when I pulled in to take pictures. Had the herd of deer that was there a few days earlier been hanging about it would have been earlier but my luck was out.

The area that I did stop is one I've ridden past a few times and added it to my mental list of places I'd get round to photographing at some point.. Though this time I'd already walked about here a few days earlier with my girlfriend so having done a location scout I knew it was worth coming back for photos.

The rather sudden change in weather had meant the thaw was quicker than usual. Where there was snow only a week or two ago was now snow-free and that water was pouring down the mountains into the rivers and streams at the bottom of the Glen. There really was water falls everywhere. And the waterfalls that are always there were looking pretty ferocious.

Falls at River Coe:
















So it was already slightly later than I was hoping and I was still in the wrong Glen. I packed up and headed off for Glen Etive. You'll see all this in the video.

As I often do, the plan was to ride to the end of the road at Loch Etive, turn around and take pictures on the way back. This would mean that I'd get an uninterrupted video of the whole road and still get a load of photos. So that's exactly what I did.


Turning onto the road through Glen Etive I was surprised by the quality of the road. It was more or less perfect and had obviously been done recently. This made for a very pleasant ride through the glen. There's also a river that runs through it, next to the road so you get to follow that the whole way. If you've been paying attention you'll already have worked out that this river is the River Etive.

As with Glen Coe, the thaw saw waterfalls every hundred yards or so. It was pretty cool as each has a unique approach to cutting through the mountains. As the road got lower and closer to the river I started to notice more and more gravel. Clearly with this being one great big drainage zone, water was washing the crap from the hills onto the road. At this stage is wasn't too bad. It was going to get worse though. In fact some parts of the road further down had pretty much collapsed. It was quite amazing to see how a road could go from a genuinely perfect surface to one of the worst I've ridden on in such a short space of time.

I don't have too many pictures from the road. Annoyingly I was riding into the sun so there's a lot of lens flare on the helmet cam. So these pictures are a mix of ones from the road there and the road back. You should be able to see the wildly different quality in road surface though.

Glen Etive:





The bad road surface






Sheep or Rock?????????


The road back






Now I'll happily admit to being quite anxious on parts of the road. The abundance of gravel was bringing back memories of my crash a few years back. I have (hopefully) learned my lesson from that but the nature of the road meant that I was often going down blind corners or over hills to find myself face to face with a car on the single track road. So I was having to break harder than I would have normally. I wasn't hating it by any stretch but I certainly wasn't as relaxed as I like to be when on my bike. When I get the video up you'll see what I mean as I don't do a good job of hiding the nervousness.

In the end it was fine and after a short break when I reached the end of the road I actually found myself enjoying tackling the road back.

So I reached Loch Etive much later than I was expecting. Probably a mix of me being very slow on the gravel and the road being a bit longer than I thought it was.

Loch Etive is nice though. I hadn't really looked into it beforehand but it was obvious from the moment I arrived that it was a sea loch. I could smell it. It was here that I saw a small herd of deer. Ok so it wasn't a giant stag in Glen Coe but it was cool anyway.

I wandered about for about 15 mins taking pictures before heading back.

Deer:






Loch Etive:
















The next time I pulled in was to allow a lorry to pass. As I waited I decided to grab some pictures. I also thought I was filming all this with the camera but it turns out I had forgotten so I was talking away to myself the whole time. D'oh!

Glen Etive:








I now had my video going again and after a close encounter with a sheep and its lamb I was on my way. Of course as it was 'photographs on the way back' day I didn't get very far before I was off again. This time there was a distant and very high waterfall to be photographed and I was willing to climb a very small hill to do just that.

View from atop the small hill:















It was getting quite late so I decided that the next stop would be my last. It was also the last for the video as the battery died at that point. Not that I said anything interesting of course. What I did say was that despite the shitty road surface, I would probably come back at some point as there's loads I hadn't had a chance to get photos of properly.

I picked what would be my last stop when I saw a lady getting out of a car to get some photos of her own. She had picked a good spot. There was a lagoon thing with a waterfall and another, tributary waterfall. I clambered down the hill and was surprised by how wet and muddy it was. It was covered in what looked like a very dry grass but looks were apparently deceiving. I slipped and slid my way down, always having to choose where to put a foot down to avoid hidden ditches, full of water. I wasn't always successful and at one point found myself shin deep in water. In fact I got turned back at one point as it was just too hard to negotiate.

River Etive:










Two guys started jumping into the lagoon from that ledge on the left but I had my stuff away and wasn't getting it out again to film them. What would be the odds of them actually hurting themselves anyway? I could have been standing there all day before something worthwhile happened.

That was me then heading home. I didn't realise the battery had died in the Drift HD until I reached the main road so the way back was me blethering away and taking mental notes of where to go next time.

I did get annoyed at the Green Welly when I pulled into the bike park and found a group of guys all parked awkwardly so I couldn't u-turn so had to park head on and had to then turn the bike by pushing it backwards and on a hill. Those Deauvilles are heavy. Cheers guys!

The last, last stop was at a bit that I tell myself I'll get a picture of everytime I pass it. The sun was starting to set at this point though so I had to stop. I had no choice!

Loch Lubhair:








And that was me done. I'll get the videos up in the next few days. Glen Coe one should be good for tomorrow. Then the others the next few days after that.

Gotta be some of your best pics yet Matt, to coin an american phrase, got some good 'big sky' pics there. Nothing wrong with the still quality of the vid camera either.

Impressive landscapes and greeting card perfect pictures (cards of the better kind).

Surprised by the intense green of the pines. The contrast with the earth colours is huge.

Videos of Glen Coe and other fantastic areas were the main reason I bought the Drift HD. I'm glad I did as this one turned out pretty well. Sound gets a bit funny as it was pretty windy but it's not too bad.

Enjoy.

<object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1LNNwcBj_Ns?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1LNNwcBj_Ns?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

Thanks man. It certainly helps when you find a nice area to photograph. Aye the still shots aren't too bad. Not high quality but they save me from taking my hands off the bars. The openness of the glens helps and I will need to learn to point my head better as often I'm aiming too low.

Yeah despite being so close, Glen Etive is pretty different to Glen Coe. It's a nice place though.

Great RR and superb pics. I am coming to a wedding outside Falkirk in July if you need anything from the US.

Cheerleaders, please thanks.

You should seriously consider writing a book Matt!

Glen Coe Video

Rugged landscape suggests loneliness which is contradicted by traffic and number of cars parked. Could be one of our 'scenic routes' minus the majestic views. Is there an explanation for this paradox (other than sunday holiday ride)?


Wind noise was not too obnoxious. Your voice and motor come through 5/5. Have you covered the mic?
After I glued a sliced ear plug over the mic of my (cheap) camera wind noise is filtered out.

Haha not sure my inane observations about sheep would be a hit.

The A82 that goes through Glen Coe is the main road north on the western side of the country. Time it right and it's pretty quiet. Show up on a sunny Sunday afternoon in July and it's packed. The video there was taken on a sunny Friday afternoon so it was busier than if I had come up on a Tuesday.

The mic came with a fuzzy cover but that came off in Aberfoyle last week. It tends to be ok when I stick it right into the corner of the helmet. It was just very windy at that moment coming into Glen Coe. The warbling isn't really present in the other videos from that day.