RNLI Fundraising trip
Round the Coastline of Britain

Day 7 - 18th May 2005
John O'Groats to Glen Nevis (384 miles)
Visited 3 RNLI Stations

This was going to be a good day. whatever the weather, we knew we were going to see some great scenery and ride on some even better roads.

Initially the weather was a bit drizzly, but once we left Thurso the clouds lifted a bit and started breaking up. The roads were nearly empty and in the first 2 hours we can only have passed about 6 vehicles. Soon we were passing some brilliant scenery as we wound our way round Loch Eriboll, up to Durness and the past Cape Wrath and down to Scourie for a late breakfast.

After leaving Scourie, we looped past Badcall bay an area I have always loved and down a fantastic road to the Kylesku bridge which has replaced the old ferry which I used when I was last in the area. After that. we turned onto a seriously small road with passing places and ran round the south of Eddrachillis Bay and on round to Lochinver.

This was F650 territory at its best. 3rd-4th gear work, short straights plenty of corners and best of all very little traffic.

After reaching Lochinver, we continued down the tight single lane roads, hammering up the straights and blitzing the corners. The roads seemed to have been laid without any plan and just followed the old tracks up, down and all around the hills. At Shieldaig, we turned right and followed the coast on one of the more tortuous roads we had so far come across. It was just too good an opportunity to miss.

On any other bike, it would have been a really scary chore to stay on such a narrow winding road with so many hidden crests and off-camber corners, but on the 650's it was just bliss. My rear tyre was now showing the very last micrometer of tread in the centre section.

We passed Stromeferry and soon hooked onto the A87 heading towards Skye. This was a much bigger road with some excellent bends, but more suited to a powerbike. With roar and a blast of wind a Suzuki GSX rider showed us what you can do if you know the roads and how to use a fast bike. We were able to watch as he cranked it over down 2-3 miles of bends. When we reached the RNLI station at the Kyle of Lochalsh, he was sitting chatting to some mates before flying back up the road with a wave to us.

We rode over the new road bridge and on down the centre of Skye to catch the ferry from Ardvasar to Mallaig. After reaching Mallaig, we headed into the darkening skys towards Fort William and our overnight stop at Glen Nevis YHA. the clouds burts and we were treated to some fairly evil rain on some un bike friendly roads. To top it all my tankbags plastic jacket decided to split and tried to blow itself off all the way to the end of the ride.

We reached Glen Nevis 13 1/2 hours after leaving John O'Groats and had had one of the best days riding you can have.