Scottish Motorbike Holiday

[Moggle]

Haven't been on here much the last week or so, cos I've been on holiday in lovely Scotland. Mr M and I replaced our sporty Suzuki SV650 with an older, but more comfy BMW 1100RS, and decided to take the new bike.

We did a 1200 mile round trip from Oxford to Loch Lomond, the island of Islay, and Stirling. We missed out on the roasting weather in the south, but apart from a little bit of rain, the weather was kind to us. Unfortunately the midges weren't kind to us, I didn't even know about them until they started biting me!

Here's a few of the photos, will try to add the Islay ones tomorrow.

Me on the bike - I don't ride it, I'm just posing here  :)


Me in front of Loch Long at Arrochar


Inveraray - that's Mr M on the bench


Loch Lomond

[Moggle]

[tim]

Lovely to look at!

[Heldi]

Loch Lomond is fabulous isn't it.  ;D  I got drunk there once!  :o

[dibberxxx]

what stunning veiws

[wattapain]

Lovely pics - we walked the west highland way a few years ago with a group of about 12 we had a support minibus to take all our lugggage so we only carried daysacs and stayed at hostels which were all great.
Seeing loch lomond brought it back - fond memories.
Terri :)

[Roy Bham UK]

 ;) Sure is a lovely part of the World :) great pics Megan, glad you enjoyed Scotland, looking forward to the follow ups ;) 8)

P.S. I've been bitten twice by midges here on my lottie >:( I don't like pain :'( ;D

[Mothy]

We haven't been to Loch Lomond for a few years now....lovely area, with fond memories!

Thanks for sharing your pics Moggle!   ;D

[GREENWIZARD]

can't see your pics :'( :'( :'(

[Fingle....]

Looking good in leather !!
;)

[lorna]

Scotland is a place I have always wanted to visit, perhaps I will one day. Thanks for sharing pics with us. Lorna.

[Diesel]

Fantastic :D


lol about the midges,they are world famous.

Did you try the malts from Islay?

Lagavulin is my personal fave.

[Moggle]

Not only tried the malts Diesel, saw them being made, even had some tries at each stage   :-\ Laphroaig, Lagavoullin and Ardbeg are all within 5 minutes of each other. Only visited Bowmore and Laphroaig, cos we only had the one day. Laphroaig was the best of the 2, more personal, and let you try the malted and smoked grain (suprisingly nice), the fermented liquid before distilling (a bit yuk), and the distilled spirit before ageing (Yum!). Preferred Laphroaig single malt of the 2.

Joined my dad up as a 'friend of Laphroaig' in an effort to encourage him to come over and visit  :)

More photos:

Another Loch Lomond photo


Fermenting Whiskey - Bowmore Distillery


Port Ellen, Islay


Portnahaven, Islay


Thanks for all your comments everyone, the Lochs were indeed beautiful, not only Loch Lomond, but the other ones we drove past - Loch Long, Loch Fyne, Gare Loch, Loch Earn, and Loch Lubnaig. The scenery was absolutely amazing!!

Lorna, if you haven't been, go, its lovely there (apart from the midges  ;D)

[tim]

Thank God you weren't in the front seat going home??

[rosebud]

Oh Moggle the sight of the Lochs,brings back fond memories indeed of last year we spent 2wks in beautiful Scotland, i want to go back so much,we stayed in a log cabin by Loch Tay, heavenly, we went out and about to see as much as we could, went the last 2wks in May not a midge in sight :D :D.
Lovely pictures captures the beauty of Scotland indeed.

[Moggle]

The log cabin sounds wonderful Rosebud! We wanted to go further north, but in the end just didn't have the energy or the decent weather.

Tim I assume you mean because of the booze? They were only little tastes  :) But I'm still glad I didn't have to drive!

[jaggythistle]

  Nice pics very nice....but then am biased I live in Scotland  but I am down in
  the central belt just outside edinburgh........ ya shoulda dropped in for a cuppa
  or a malt......... and I have to say the worst place I have ever encountered
  the dreaded "Midgie" was when I took some youngsters to a cadet camp
  at a place called garelochhead the billets were ones used in the war and there
  were as many midgies inside as there were out  and man do they bite... heres
  the pervy part we had to sleep at night with a pair of womens tights pulled
  over your face I still shudder when I think about it to this day it was 1 helluva
  summer that year too so they bred by the millions  came home after a 2 week
  camp..........this is a family board but to let you know there was not a part of me unbitten

[Marianne]

Sorry just found this post - what beautiful crip pictures !  Looks as though you have had a wonderful time up there in Scotland!  ;D ;D ;D
I love your leathers too !  :D :D

[Moggle]

Jaggythistle, think we went through Garelochhead, and stopped for either petrol or coffee! The bites weren't quite so bad with us, but the first night Mr M was covered on face and arms with little red dots. I didn't get quite so many bites, but the ones I did get swelled up in to pimple-sized lumps  :-X Got a few bites around the face  :'( arms and on my back between top of my jeans and t-shirt. Thank goodness some other campers took pity on us and gave us some repellent!!

Thanks for your comments Marianne, they are actually textile, but I spose that still counts as 'leathers' :) I don't think leather is very waterproof  :-\ I even manage to colour co-ordinate with the bike  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

When I was camping on Rannoch Moor in 1973, they got so bad that quite seriously I could hear them crawling over the tent! Every morning it was black, literally, with dead midges; they only last a few hours as adults. I gave up and went to the Youth Hostel in Glencoe in the end. After three weeks of nonstop rain I went for a walk up the Lost Valley; if any of you know it, there's am old landslide blocking the valley, with a gravel flat above it with a dry stream bed. I met the stream coming down, it was an amazing sight, bubbling up through the gravel and advancing at about a foot a minute. I carried on up to the top of Bidean nam Bean, then made the mistake of going back the same way. By that time it was a roaring torrent, and I had trouble getting across it.