British Travel Journal | Spring 2019

INTERVIEW
“I turned to see all the bikes behind me meandering
up the hill in single file, moving as one continuous
machine, the headlamps lighting up the hill in the dusk
- it was a beautiful sight.”
got the King-Dick tool chest out, with jump
leads, meters...he found a serious charging
issue.
My team departed an hour or so behind
schedule, but it felt so good finally to be out
on the road, after the months of planning,
logistics and comms we were in it. I was
riding with Team-7, two couples on a mix of
modern Triumphs and Bobbers. We barely
saw another vehicle for the first few hours
of the day, hugging the coastline that rises
and twists along the hilly coast, one of the
best parts of the North Coast 500 route. The
Thunderbird was pulling strong and running
like clockwork, we made great time, across
the Tongue Bridge, through Checkpoint 2,
onto Checkpoint 3 - stage 1 was pretty easy
going. We only needed to turn right about
twice, the rest the of the day was following
one gorgeous yet tiny B-road down the
entire western side of the Scottish Highlands,
through truly wild countryside. In places the
sea was a turquoise blue, if it wasn’t for the
fact that you were in Scotland, the white sand
beaches could be in the Caribbean
By the 4th checkpoint we had caught
up with a few more teams and met up with
the BMW Motorrad team, lead by Ralf and
Lucas with photographer Amy Shore who
was documenting the rally. That day Amy
was flying along in a vintage Mini with the
top down, shooting riders out of the back
with her cameras.
Faster than we released, the seven hour ride
was soon ending and the signs for Torridon
started to appear. As we came across the
small pass from Kinlochewe, we reached Loch
Torridon and rode along it until we reached the
rally camp at the grand Torridon Estate. I kept
an eye on the edge of the loch as we rode, the
last time we were up here on the research trip
we spent an hour watching a family of otters
fishing for trout along the bank. Torridon did
not disappoint, the estate is run by a wonderful
Scottish/German couple that served up
‘Tartan Tapas’ with local scallops and fish
from the sealoch. After the rally briefing and
the whisky pairing, the instruments were out,
Scottish music started and somehow ended
up in an impromptu Highland Games. After
we were thrashed at a Tug of War... I turned
to something I was slightly better at, bike
tinkering. The bike seemed to be doing well, it
was keeping up with the modern BMW’s and
she was in her element on these tiny twisty
roads, much lighter than most modern bikes
I’ve ridden, it’s quite easy to steer the nimble
bike with your knees, keeping the bars straight
and pushing the back end around corners.
What was the riding like in Scotland?
On day two of Scotland we had an early start
and after a Scottish breakfast served amongst
the trees, the morning rally ritual of oil/coffee/
briefing - with the marshal-dash and then
pack and suit up - ready for the day. Suddenly
the midges decided to make an appearance,
within minutes riders may not have had their
jackets on, but most of us had helmets on with
visors down - midges are a hellish event - this
sped up our departure, log-books stamped,
flag down - off we rode. Another gorgeous
day of sunshine as we headed straight over to
the highest pass in Scotland and the steepest
legal road in the UK, for the Applecross
Pass. The roads around there are beautifully
smooth and seem to have been laid out by a
roller-coaster engineer, with a good sense of
humour, twisting up and down over endless
hills, perfect.
First engineering hiccup of the day - Ravi’s
Moto Guzzi had arrived at Checkpoint 2
at the start of the pass and then decided to
throw up all over the road. A big black pool
of fresh oil beneath the bike - a leaky hose
or a faulty clip. After 30 minutes of fettling,
our new friends in the BMW team arrived. He
looked at the hose and said “I’ve got just ze
thing”, we thought he was going to come à
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