Buell Ulysses - Short trip from Wokingham to Dunbar (Scotland)
I have met Chris & Ann during our trip to the Scottish Highlands in May / June 2009 and we shared a ferry trip back from the Isle of Lewis to the Isle of Skye etc. Chris was riding is gorgeous BMW HP2 Enduro and I was on my R1100S. Since this trip we kept in touch and talked / mailed at least once a week. Our call rate increased when I bought a Buell XB12X in July. One month later Chris had bought himself an XB12X too…Great! Ever since than we knew that we had to get the Uly’s together - soon.
Monday:
Therefore we agreed that I would ride up from my home just to the west of London to Chris’s Farm just to the south of Edinburgh. I set off on Monday - the 7th of December at 8.30am to tackle the 400mls. It was raining from the moment I left my house - Oh well at least I was wearing my Streetguard suit which is 100% waterproof. I headed up to pick up the A1(M) just before Leeds and than follow it all the way up.
I stopped for fuel 3 times, although I could have done it in 2x fuel stops as the Uly is running at 55mpg and give me about 150mls before the fuel light comes on. The bike was happily sitting at 4000rpm in top which is about 80mph sat nav speed…and allowed me to make good progress. It rained on and off pretty much all the way up to my first sight stop - The Angel of North in Newcastle
After a short break I got back on the A1 and headed up to finally get to Chris’s farm just after 3.30pm…total riding time 6 hour 7 min with a moving average of 65mph - Not bad!
Chris was just finishing off some bedding for the cattle with his “toy” JCB! What a great machine.
Soon after we were sitting down having a cuppa and started watching some Adventurer DVD in the background whilst catching. We also watch some photos of our previous bike trips and chatted about the bikes! Chris’s wife Ann was still at work and we drove to Dunbar to get some dinner in a local Italien restaurant.
It was raining again heavily as we headed back to the farm! At least we were in the Land Rover Defender with heated seats - result!
Tuesday:
I got up around 8am and Chris was already ready to head out and go some work. Its was a clear morning and the view from the farm are just stunning. I decided to wash my Uly as it was covered in dirt!
Here are some of the views:
On a clear day you can see almost up to Aberdeen from here…
There were some low flying RAF Tornados practising but there are to quick to get a decent photo. Chris finished his work early for me and by lunchtime we prepared the Uly’s for a ride out! The weather was still good and we decided to head to the coast and than south toward Berwick.
First stop - was a Ford of a local river - we were not sure if it was passable but once we got there we decided to have a go:
We both rode through it 3 times! Great fun!
Chris had chosen great little single track lanes to hug the coastline and we soon turned of the road and head up the wet grass - not easy on almost slick conti road attacks!
It was very windy up there and we headed back onto the road. The coast is just stunning and we stopped again to take a picture of the bike in front of a typical costal Scottish cottage:
Our stomach were signalling us that our next stop had to be food related - so we headed into St. Abbs and found this brilliant little café just down by the harbour.
After great food and drink we did spent some more time in the little village and take some pictures before heading back up the road to ride to St. Abbs Head - a famous landmark with a great lighthouse and fog horn! The cliffs were about 600ft according to my Quest and the sheer emptiness is great. I net in the Summer this place is full of tourist, but in December - not many!
But let the picture do the talking…
And some more…
And even more… wherever I turned to the pictures frame themselves!
It’s a stunning place and so peaceful, even the sound of my Remus was not disturbing this! I would have loved to hear the sound of the fog horn, but I think since a few years they all have fallen silent. The drop from the cliffs is very steep and I have tried to capture this in the photos, but I am not sure it comes out how steep it is. The sky was beginning to cloud over and we still had more sights to see so after a 15 minute stop we got back on the Uly’s and road back down.
On our ride back the single track lane Chris pulled in to the right into what looked like another great point to take some more photos
And here is a shot of the road we took
Our next stop was Eye mouth - only a view miles away.
to be continued...
I'm so envious I could cry. Lovely stuff!
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