The Iron Butt run 2009 |
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Good morning Ladies and Gents. |
4 of us were to be attempting this feat. Myself, Steve, the youngest, better looking, and most bearded member of our group; Russ, our American friend and ride leader, veteran of various Iron Butt rides and an ex- Chief ride planner for his HOG chapter back in the US of A; Roland, the more jolly (large) member; and Mike, the bald one |
Leaving the Kings Head pub in East London where we usually meet for our HOC social gatherings at 9am on the Thursday morning, we took the direct route on motorway M25 around North London to the (in?)famous Ace Café for a fried breakfast. After eating, we commenced our long scenic 361 mile route down to Penzance. |
Waking at 8am for a traditional cooked breakfast of 2 fried eggs, 2 sausages, 2 bacon, toast, baked beans, some HP sauce and a pot of tea, I felt refreshed and relaxed and ready for our adventure. |
I took another photo of my odometer reading to show the start of the ride: 9704 |
Sitting down for a coffee, Russ talked us through the ride, that we would be riding in a tight staggered formation, etc. etc. |
And the final odometer reading of: 10723 |
I really enjoyed the experience and I know the idea of an endurance ride isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I think that it’s something that everyone should attempt once in their life. It's definitely one which separates the men from the boys! Sunday morning was the beginning of my tour around Scotland with Russ. Roland was going home as he had to be at work on Monday evening, and Mike was going to ride down to the centre of England to ride through the scenic Lake District. In fact, Roland only made it to Manchester (360 miles) until his gearbox packed in and he had to get towed all the way back to London. As far as I’m aware Mike had a good ride and got back safely. |
Before you start asking about pictures, I’m gonna put a few in here, but there’s 250 of them for you to browse at your leisure at: |
Once Russ was happy with his castle photos, we back to Thurso and then down the scenic A882 down to Wick, and then a short blast down the A9 to a town called Helmsdale, which isn’t actually on that map, but it’s at the junction of the first road (A897) which runs back up to the North coast through Kinbrace. Wow! I’m sure if we didn’t bring any cameras, then we could have travelled further, but we were literally stopping every 5-10 minutes to take a few photos! The scenery is truly breathtaking. And you’ll take a picture, then expect not to have to stop for 30 minutes because you’ve just seen the most beautiful panorama you’ll ever see… you come round a corner and BLAM!!… you thought the view before looked good? Pah!… I’ve seen prettier alleys in the dingy part of London compared to this new view.. gotta stop and take a pic. |
And that carried on for the majority of the day, so much so that you forget about lunch and other unimportant things like that. |
We took the B871 all the way up and met up to the normal roads at Tongue on the A836 then rode a very, very narrow back road which loops around the Kyle of Tongue who’s number/name I can’t remember and can’t find it anywhere… it’s barely even printed on any maps. We joined back on the A838 and ended up in Durness for the night. We arrived at 10pm and found a lovely little B&B with good size rooms for a reasonable price, and it was next to a hotel/pub who were still serving food. We mainly stopped here because they had a petrol station (which was closed, being a Sunday night), and I had covered 190 miles since the morning fill up and didn’t want to risk going any further and running out of gas in the dark. |
We took the A838 south and pretty much stuck to the west coast, working down past Laxford Bridge and Ullapool to Braemore, stopping every 5-10 mins to take more pictures. |
We took a few deviations down roads who’s names/numbers I can’t remember, basically if it look interesting, we’d take a detour and ride down it. Our final destination for the Monday was Loch Ness and Inverness. From Braemore, we made our way to Inverness and after stopping for another tank full of petrol, we set off to ride around the famous Loch and see if we could spot Nessie, the Loch Ness monster. Well, sadly we didn’t spot Nessie, but the fantastic weather made for some more beautiful photos of the Loch and the narrow winding roads were a joy to ride. So much so that when I was leading for a few miles I was enjoying the roads so much that I missed a turn we had planned to take at Fort Augustus, and we ended up going all the way towards Fort William! As the sun was setting and it was on my right, I soon realised my error and got out the Tom-Tom to figure out exactly where on earth we were. I’d shot about 20 miles off target, so we turned around and tried to continue our lap of the Loch. It was getting darker by the second as we were about 3/4 of the way around, so when we came across a hotel, I went inside to enquire about rooms. When I came out, I had a small crowd of locals stood around my fly-covered chrome beauty, an eerie blue glow illuminating the engine and the road beneath the frame. A few took photos with the phones and I chatted with a couple of them, before we were pointed in the direction of a large house hidden in the trees which was a B&B in the most idyllic surroundings. We spoke to the owners and they offered us significantly cheaper and significantly more comfortable lodgings for the night. They even let us park our bikes in their (large) garage! Tuesday morning saw a misty start, so very different to the beautiful sunny days before, but it also made for some dramatic photos of Loch Ness as we finished our ride around it, before stopping at the souvenir shop for some gifts for the lil’ lady and family. When returning from the shop I was told by one of the parking assistants (telling coach loads of tourists where to park, etc.) that at one point he had caught some tourists letting their kids climb over my bike while taking photos of their precious darlings clambering over it!! Man that made me so mad! The freakin cheek of them!! I guess the only good thing is that I didn’t catch them doing it! What a frikkin disrespectful thing to do to someone’s property. That was a quick way to get me annoyed in the morning to I had to take a little while longer to calm down before getting back on the bike. … Kinda makes me wish I had one of those “If you value your life as much as I value my bike, keep your hands off!” stickers. … I wouldn’t have minded if they’d have asked… it’s that they did it when I wasn’t around. I bet if their little angel had scratched or damaged it, they’d have scurried away like the insects they are!! …. Anyway, back to the happy smiley fun motorcycle trip |
It was at Loch Ness that Russ and I parted ways, I had to start making my way home, and was set for a 360 mile ride down to Manchester where I would stay with my Dad’s cousin for the night before heading the rest of the way to London on Wednesday. |
Compared to the 9343 miles I had before I started my ride, I clocked a total of 2461 miles over the course of the week. hehehe, well thanks for reading it all. -Insolent Minx |