BMW F900 XR – short motorcycle trip to Scotland and the A708 (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this post about my short trip north of the border to Scotland I finished off by mentioning my stay at the decent Southfield Hotel in Girvan. I followed my night in Girvan by travelling for an overnight stay in Selkirk in the Scottish Borders.
Had I decided to take the most direct route to Selkirk, my journey would have involved me heading east for around 115 miles, but taking the direct route to my next overnight stop wasn’t part of my plan.
Instead of the direct route I planned to do a pretty big loop that would first of all see me heading some 60 miles up the east coast to the (very small) ferry port at Gourock. From Gourock I planned to catch the ferry for the short 20 minute crossing to Dunoon. Heading this way would allow me to make a good route through Argyle & Bute, before heading north east and eventually turning to head south and down to my overnight stop in Selkirk.
On the road and a nice early start
I had slept well and enjoyed a a fine breakfast at The Southfield Hotel and was really looking forward to my days riding. By 08:15 I was packed up, ready and on the road heading for the Gourock/Dunoon ferry.
I enjoyed a pleasant and uneventful ride to the small ferry port for the short Gourock to Dunoon ferry service and was probably only waiting around five minutes before boarding. Twenty five or so minutes later and I was off heading for Strachur on damp roads but with decent temperatures.
I love being in Scotland and have lost count how many times I have been there on my bikes or on driving/touring holidays with my wife. There are now just a few areas I haven’t seen and that I want to get to – namely the area that lies on the west coast above Ullapool and round to Dounreay – but there was no time on this trip to make it that part of Scotland, but there was tome for Argyle & Bute.
The last time I had been in this area (Argyle & Bute) was when my wife and I enjoyed a fabulous holiday in a small, old and quite secluded cottage near Loch Fyne and opposite Inveraray – there are plenty of pictures and information from that trip if you are interested (walking, bird pictures, scenery etc) over on the rainycity blog at this link.
A real mix of weather and an Empire biscuit
Thankfully the temperatures on this trip were for the most part pretty ideal. Nevertheless I did experience quite a mix of conditions during this second day.
These conditions ranged from clear blue sky’ to dull and overcast skies, to misty and light rain, to heavy rain and then to clear and 26c – so pretty much most things in one day.
Thankfully the rain and misty conditions were not long lasting and overall on this short trip I would guess that probably less than twenty per cent of the riding time had been in less than ideal conditions.
I headed to the end of Loch Fyne, turned east for Arrochar then north through the Queen Elizabeth Forrest Park to Crianlarich. After that I headed down towards Callander then Falkirk and then finally on towards Selkirk (I was last in Selkirk as recently as March – check this post out here). My journey for the day had been around 275 miles.
I had enjoyed a really decent days riding along with a few stops for pictures, some leg stretching and a decent coffee stop and superb Empire biscuit
In fact have you even been to Scotland if you haven’t had an Empire biscuit?
All in all it had been another terrific and enjoyable days riding on roads I love and that I won’t ever tire of … but my favourite road was still to come
Check out the picture in the gallery and then Click here to go the third and final instalment.
Picture gallery
Click on any of the images to open a picture gallery that can be clicked or scrolled through
