Only 15 days to before D-Day

April 17th 2019

After exploring much of the continent that is easily navigable, I was faced with a dilemma - where to next?

Where to?
Whilst I'd love to re-visit some of the amazing places I have motorbiked to before (Spain, Morocco, Balkans, etc) - I feel that there are other corners of the world that I should explore first. The list of European / near-Eurpoean countries left for me to ride to are either a long way away, not appealing, come with bureaucracy demands or are all three. So what next?

I've done Wales, decent chunks of England and a good portion of Ireland (South) on motorbikes. Whilst I have travelled to Scotland before, I've never been there on a motorbike and I feel that there is a lot more there for me to see. Scotland it is!


Which bike?
My Fazer 1000 is getting pretty old now and the miles have been racking-up what with all of my commuting being astride it. I also can't get normal breakdown cover for Europe now that it's over 16 years old..... but, I'm not going 'abroad', the bike is fast and comfy and it still runs like a champ! I test rode a new Africa Twin (potentially my next bike), it was nice but in all honesty the Fazer is probably a better tool for this job unless the roads are really bad.

Am I going solo again?
I wanted to say "There can be only one" in true Highlander style but - no! Dino is back and has a V-Strom (Wee-Strom 650) - so I will have company. My wife also expresses an interest in going, but without luggage capacity on the bike, I'm hoping the threat of rain puts her off!

What's the plan?
Got almost 10 days to play with so we're essentially going up via Peak and Lake District to Loch Lomond. Then onto Glencoe and Skye before joining the NC500 route around the Scottish mainland and back home. Should be around 2000 miles in total - mostly camping. Rain is inevitable.....





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