At last, Easter weekend and our first holiday of the year. The plan is simple, we have booked into the Coaching Inn at Longforgan (also know as the motorcycleinn on the web) and we're off to explore.
The ride up is entertaining, we take the A68 to the border at Carter Bar and on down Gatso Alley to Jedburgh where the traffic starts to build to silly levels. We dive off and aim for the A7 where the fun starts all over again.
Edinburgh ringroad is the usual mass of traffic and the final bit to the Forth Road Bridge absolute chaos, stacked traffic nose to tail going nowhere, thank god we're on bikes and are largely immune to such sillyness.
Then everything eases off a bit and we get a clear run up the main roads towards Perth and then the Dundee road to Longforgan and the Coaching Inn.
We park up and wander in to meet our host Ally who is most jovial on account of having some friends in for a drink.
We're shown to our room which is something else. It's just off the courtyard with it's own front door and a nice piece of steelwork outside to chain the bikes to, perfect accommodation for bikers. The room itself is spacious and has both a shower and bath – brilliant cos I love baths me – the bed is comfortable and the wardrobe is big enough to hang bike jackets up in.
OK, that's enough of the estate agent crap and we're off to the pub for food and drinks, both of which are very good, then we head to the bar to get drunk with our host. The drink flows and utter bollox talked by all and sundry although my heads starts to nod once Lindsey and Ally get on about accountancy software...
Sometime in the evening Ally decides he's going to come out for a ride with us tomorrow.
I'm feeling a little fuzzy on account of the Tenants Velvet consumed last night, still nothing a serious breakfast and copious amounts of coffee won't fix. Lindsey of course is a fresh as a daisy.
Somewhere, I don't want to be any more detailed than that.
I'm just finishing my toast when Ally bounces in, also bright and breezy, to see if we're still up for a ride. Is it me? Does no-one else have the decency to have at least a mild hangover?
So off we go. Initially towards the hills but the higher we go the wetter it gets so we about turn and end up, by various convoluted paths (Ally insists he was not lost), in the Kingdom of Fife. Gorgeous place, even the sun comes out and dries up all the roads. We follow the coast road round till we come to Anstruther, a really pretty little seaside town, where we stop for coffee and sticky buns and a walk about.
The ride from there to St Andrews picks up pace leading to some damn fine scratching before the final leg up to Dundee and then back to Longforgan.
Lindsey and I chill out for a couple of hours in our room before heading to the bar for some beer and food in that order before a rather early night to bed.
Wow it's looking like a nice day. We plan a route over breakfast and have it confirmed as a good 'un by Alli who regrets he can't join us today due to other commitments.
We take the easy route to Perth before picking up the A93. It all starts off innocuous enough but soon starts to open up as we approach Blairgowrie where we suddenly find ourselves passing the famous beech hedge. I raise my left arm and point it out to Lindsey (not that it's hard to see or anything) and at this precise moment a sparrow flies straight across the front of the BMW's bow wave and into my extended digit. Lindsey later reported the poor thing did and impressive double barrel roll before crash landing on the tarmac, I don't know if it survived or not – we can but hope.
North of the Bridge of Cally we stop at a roadside cafe/hotel for coffee, as we sit there bikes keep passing confirming our hopes that this is a good road. Just as we're leaving a girl on a SV650 pulls in, shortly follow by a guy on a R1150R. It seems this is a regular bike stop and they where meeting up with some friends from the local BMW club. We decide to bugger off sharpish before I'm forced to join.
From here on the road gets sillier and sillier and the traffic has the common decency to remain virtually non-existent as the road snakes through a collection of snow poles like some bizarre ski run.
Unfortunately by the time we reach Banchory the weather starts to turn so we stop for lunch then in increasingly aquatic conditions pick up the B979 to Stonehaven, a road that would be brilliant in the dry but a bit of a handful in the rain. Stonehaven likewise might be beautiful on a sunny day but in murk and drizzle it fails dismally to inspire me so we wuss out and take the boring A90 back to Dundee. In better conditions and with a bit more time and energy the coast road might be worth exploring but for today we've had enough.
Back at the Coaching Inn things are busy with loads of people eating then from about 8:00 onwards empty. Still this means I can get my beer a lot quicker.
Time for home. And it's pissing it down. Oh Shit. It's still raining after breakfast, after we're packed and after we're said our goodbyes to Alli and his merry crew. Then five miles east of Longforgan the sun comes out and my fingers start to roast in winter gloves.
Once south of Edinburgh we pick up the A7 again and indulge in a little mindless, wanton, hooliganism. Top fun. A68, Jedburgh then off on the back roads to Bonchester Bridge and Keilder.
So all in all and damn fine ride back as well.
Another summer of biking has started :-)