P
ProjectImola004
Just visiting
A short account by the bloke who had to host the event!!!!
The images of the weekend are on the SDC site.
Well after feeling a little concerned at the speed at which members well pulling out, I thought that the now infamous Black Isle Weekender II was going to be another washout. Anyway, Scott, Tanya and DB arrived mid evening on Friday. I’d been standing up at the top of the drive waiting to get the gate, beer in hand and enjoying the lovely summer evening. The way the wind was blowing, I was greeted to the sound of two large capacity Ducati engines cruising down the Cullicudden straight from at least 3 miles out. – Fabulous.
After the standard meeting and greeting, intros with Rosemarie, the girls, the animals, Mark my neighbour. The boys de-leathered, set up tents and we settled down to a very tasty chicken dish (courtesy of a certain Mr G Ramsey and prepared by my good self of course!) and sticky buns for puddin’, followed by lashings of beer. (not ginger I might add!) Not too much mind as we had a few miles to cover the next day.
Stewart joined us later that evening to discuss out planned tactics for the ride on Saturday.
Saturday duly came; I was up with the Larks and was greeted to a cloudless sky, warm breeze (and as DB has already indicated – not Jock farting). I had the bikes all lined up and ready for when the boys crawled out of their tents. It was pretty much don the leathers and go, as we were eager to make the most of this glorious weather. Tanya had to difficult (not) decision of either spending the day horse riding and girl shopping with my Rose and the girls or coming out with us blokes. Umm difficult one really. Needless to say she chose the former!!
Unfortunately Mark’s Guzzi T3 wasn’t behaving and he made it about 2 miles before having to throw in the towel – sorry you couldn’t make it Mark.
After a brief stop at the Moore Emporium, being lightly poisoned by Montjuich fumes (worth it though) we set off into the Heart of the Highlands. Those of you who came up to me in ’06 (you know who you are) will recall the route we took northwards. We varied it slightly, taking the road up the side of Loch Shin with a few stops en-route for ‘comfort breaks’ and photo sessions, although seeing to my cost, the images posted on the SDC site, I can see these duel-purpose stops tended to roll into one!!!
Upon reaching Scourie, the next fuel stop for the Nuttermodard and Imolathurstyduc, it was commented that we could have been in the south of Italy it so lovely, we weren’t, we were in the Highlands of Scotland. If there was a god of motorcycling roads, he loved the Highlands I’ll tell yer!!
We took it in turns to lead as we followed the fantastic, twisty black stuff into Ullapool where we found the best fish & chip shop closed for lunch!!!
It was worth waiting for though as the Haddock was lovely, sat on the harbour wall the boys ripping the pish out of me constantly (mainly for taking a wrong turn early in the ride – as usual). Ullapool seemed to full of super-cars aswell, which were an added bonus and a feast for the eyes and ears. Not that our bikes were attracting much less attention!!
We had planned to stop at the Corrieshalloch gorge. By the time we’d taken off our helmets and pulled out earplugs etc. 3 large coach loads of tourists had arrived! So the process was hastily reversed and we were off again with another planned stop at Loch Glascarnoch for a photo-shoot.
At this point I was very much ‘on form’ and on home turf (read my own private racetrack) I lead us out and basically got carried away not stopping until a blow fuel pump/ignition fuse temporarily halted our somewhat rapid progress just after Garve. Culprit fuse changed, we stopped at Contin to wait for Stewart who, having gone out the back, as it were, unbeknown to us had been to-ing and fro-ing passed our planned stop searching for our whereabouts.
Was nice actually coz it gave us a chance to catch our breath again after such an exiting stretch of tarmac.
99s in Dingwall were the next call of the day followed by a leisurely return to Torvaig Towers where the stove on the patio was fired up and a delicious Indian takeout and more beer was followed by an evening of anorak talk about – you guessed it, bikes. Poor Dorothy and Rose were being very diplomatic, nodding in acknowledgement but secretly bored out of their skulls!
Sunday morning, a relatively early brekkie for the boys and they were off. Home safely as I’m sure you’ve now read.
Brilliant weekend was had, with thanks to Stewart for your help and beer, thanks to DB and Scotch for making the effort to come all that way, thanks to the great god Taglioni for inventing Ducati Desmos.
There were no issues, no problems, no ‘moments’ – just good memories made up in Projectimola country!!!
The images of the weekend are on the SDC site.
Well after feeling a little concerned at the speed at which members well pulling out, I thought that the now infamous Black Isle Weekender II was going to be another washout. Anyway, Scott, Tanya and DB arrived mid evening on Friday. I’d been standing up at the top of the drive waiting to get the gate, beer in hand and enjoying the lovely summer evening. The way the wind was blowing, I was greeted to the sound of two large capacity Ducati engines cruising down the Cullicudden straight from at least 3 miles out. – Fabulous.
After the standard meeting and greeting, intros with Rosemarie, the girls, the animals, Mark my neighbour. The boys de-leathered, set up tents and we settled down to a very tasty chicken dish (courtesy of a certain Mr G Ramsey and prepared by my good self of course!) and sticky buns for puddin’, followed by lashings of beer. (not ginger I might add!) Not too much mind as we had a few miles to cover the next day.
Stewart joined us later that evening to discuss out planned tactics for the ride on Saturday.
Saturday duly came; I was up with the Larks and was greeted to a cloudless sky, warm breeze (and as DB has already indicated – not Jock farting). I had the bikes all lined up and ready for when the boys crawled out of their tents. It was pretty much don the leathers and go, as we were eager to make the most of this glorious weather. Tanya had to difficult (not) decision of either spending the day horse riding and girl shopping with my Rose and the girls or coming out with us blokes. Umm difficult one really. Needless to say she chose the former!!
Unfortunately Mark’s Guzzi T3 wasn’t behaving and he made it about 2 miles before having to throw in the towel – sorry you couldn’t make it Mark.
After a brief stop at the Moore Emporium, being lightly poisoned by Montjuich fumes (worth it though) we set off into the Heart of the Highlands. Those of you who came up to me in ’06 (you know who you are) will recall the route we took northwards. We varied it slightly, taking the road up the side of Loch Shin with a few stops en-route for ‘comfort breaks’ and photo sessions, although seeing to my cost, the images posted on the SDC site, I can see these duel-purpose stops tended to roll into one!!!
Upon reaching Scourie, the next fuel stop for the Nuttermodard and Imolathurstyduc, it was commented that we could have been in the south of Italy it so lovely, we weren’t, we were in the Highlands of Scotland. If there was a god of motorcycling roads, he loved the Highlands I’ll tell yer!!
We took it in turns to lead as we followed the fantastic, twisty black stuff into Ullapool where we found the best fish & chip shop closed for lunch!!!
It was worth waiting for though as the Haddock was lovely, sat on the harbour wall the boys ripping the pish out of me constantly (mainly for taking a wrong turn early in the ride – as usual). Ullapool seemed to full of super-cars aswell, which were an added bonus and a feast for the eyes and ears. Not that our bikes were attracting much less attention!!
We had planned to stop at the Corrieshalloch gorge. By the time we’d taken off our helmets and pulled out earplugs etc. 3 large coach loads of tourists had arrived! So the process was hastily reversed and we were off again with another planned stop at Loch Glascarnoch for a photo-shoot.
At this point I was very much ‘on form’ and on home turf (read my own private racetrack) I lead us out and basically got carried away not stopping until a blow fuel pump/ignition fuse temporarily halted our somewhat rapid progress just after Garve. Culprit fuse changed, we stopped at Contin to wait for Stewart who, having gone out the back, as it were, unbeknown to us had been to-ing and fro-ing passed our planned stop searching for our whereabouts.
Was nice actually coz it gave us a chance to catch our breath again after such an exiting stretch of tarmac.
99s in Dingwall were the next call of the day followed by a leisurely return to Torvaig Towers where the stove on the patio was fired up and a delicious Indian takeout and more beer was followed by an evening of anorak talk about – you guessed it, bikes. Poor Dorothy and Rose were being very diplomatic, nodding in acknowledgement but secretly bored out of their skulls!
Sunday morning, a relatively early brekkie for the boys and they were off. Home safely as I’m sure you’ve now read.
Brilliant weekend was had, with thanks to Stewart for your help and beer, thanks to DB and Scotch for making the effort to come all that way, thanks to the great god Taglioni for inventing Ducati Desmos.
There were no issues, no problems, no ‘moments’ – just good memories made up in Projectimola country!!!
