I've got a hairy.......

........Hat

Going to work in Russia for six months from end of November and the hat may come in useful


I will be in a place called Yayva about 900 miles east of Moscow as the crow flies. Thinking of doing a separate blog whilst I'm there - watch this space.
Russia blog here http://twoalsintheurals.blogspot.com/

24th

Homeward bound today and it's the A68 rollercoaster for 95 miles all the way to the A1 at Darlington, then the 113 mile motorway slog down the A1/M62/M18/M180/A15 to Lincoln.




Border at CarterBar - this is the English side of the road, just the rock!! The Scots side has flags flying, big welcome sign etc - bet they have a burger van as well when the suns out.
1661 miles overall for the week

23rd

09:30 start from Grantown and the first 60 miles or so is through Tomintoul, over the Lecht and then along Glenshee. Roads wet and the road gangs have been out with the gravel - but a cracking start to the day for all that


Looking west along Glenshee just after the ski centre.
It's a bit of a drag from Blairgowrie, around Perth and then around Edinburgh.


Take a road past the White Adder reservoir and head towards St Abbs & Eyemouth for an ice cream, then across to Jedburgh where we staying at the Meadhon House B&B. Bikes get locked up in a garage, and we have a bit of a pub crawl starting at the Caters Rest for a very nice steak pie, then some dodgy hotel bar, Belter Bar and finally the highlight of the night the Railway Tavern. Great little boozer with all your typical locals having a crack and taking the piss

Location:Blair Ave,Jedburgh,United Kingdom

22nd

Stayed at Morags last night in Fort Augustus - full of gap year types on tour buses (yanks, Aussies, Canadian, japs) but it keeps the place lively especially as it has its own bar and the live music entertainment was quite good.
Heading eastwards today to get away from the rain, but have to put up with it for the first couple of hours. The dam at Loch Laggan has got the spill ways open- quite a sight.





Breakfast in The Pantry at Newtonmore to keep us going for the rest of the day which is a trip up to Portsoy via Strathspey. Sun is out in Portsoy and time for an ice cream from the Beggars Belief.











Retrace our steps to Keith, then to Tomintoul via Glen Rinnes & Glen Livet. Stop at the Old Fire Station Cafe in Tomintoul for tea & scones and then a quick blast west along the A939 to Grantown where we're staying at the Kinross House guesthouse. All in all 204 miles for the day.
Dinner tonight at a Chinese, but it's not the best. We're off beer tonight but it's an evening of scotch & dominoes back at the digs. Steve is useless and it's an honourable draw eventually between Al & Nige.

Location:Forest Rd,Grantown-on-Spey,United Kingdom

21st

Wet and windy. We left Skye two by two just like Noahs f*****g ark it was raining that hard. Windy as well so had to give Glenelg ferry a miss because Steve was a wimp and came back to mainland over the bridge.
Drying out at Dornie





Not many pics today as couldnt be arsed to get camera/phone with it so wet. Decide to go straight to Morags at Fort Augustus and get there about 13:30. Funnily enough wer'e in the same room that we had last time!!
Fort A hasn't got much to entertain you for 8 or 9 hours so it's off to the pub!!! Would you believe get talking to a few folk who live about ten miles from me and one of them went to same school - although about ten years before me!! Small world.
Back to the bar at Morags and cheap whisky seems to be the drink of choice - we'll pay for it in the morning.

20th

226 miles today from Ullapool to Waternish on Skye. Followed the coast road through Gairloch, Torridon etc but gave Applecross a miss this time. Showers, bit of sun and drizzle was what was on offer weatherwise





Stop for a brew at The pier at Gairloch and pop into the shop for lottery tickets as it's become a bit of a custom everytime we pass it! Not sure why as we've never won anything on the back of it.


Wind getting up and gusting quite hard. Doesn't stop us heading up to Kilt Rock on the north east of Skye


Or up and over the Quairaing to Uig and then along to Waternish and the Lorgill B&B.
Stein Inn for supper tonight

19th

Today's jaunt is from Glenuig to Ullapool via the east side of Loch Ness to Inverness, then up to Bonar Bridge via Struie Hill andwest along Glen Oykel to Ledmore Junction and down to Ullapool. All in all 186 miles for the day.
Starts off grey & drizzly and first stop is Glenfinnan











You usually have to buy a ticket to go up the monument, but no one about and the doors open so up we go!!! Steve in front and it's a very narrow spiral staircase. The opening to the platform is a square hole at the top of the stairs about 2 foot square- with all the bike gear on Steve can't get through without a squeeze so after all that we turn around and go down again - we chickened out
Stop for lunch just north of Inverness and then pop over to the Falls of Shin to watch the salmon leaping the falls and fail miserably to photo it!!





We're stopping just outside Ullapool at the Ardvreck House B&B. Great location with a view out of the lounge overlooking the town










Owner of B&B takes us into the village, and it's off to the Taste of India for tea. Recommend this Idian, but bit of a crisis when we find out it's cash only, don't take cards. Squire of Epworth lends Al £20 and alls well.
Couple of drinks in the Arch then taxi back to the Ardvreck.

Location:Garve Rd,Ullapool,United Kingdom

Scotland part 2

The slackers have turned up at last, and even reported in to the boss


Time to have a drink at last

Scotland part 2

Early start to catch up with Nige & Steve at Glenuig this afternoon. Leave Lincoln at 07:00 and the first stop is the butty bar at Scotch Corner for a coffee and fried egg bun.






Weather is looking good so far, but grey skies over the top at Stainmore but no rain!! Onto the M6 and then cutting over to Dumfries and then up the A76 etc to Kilmarnock, Irvine , Dalry, Psisley then over the Erskine Bridge and along Loch Lomond.





Get a text from Nige whilst i'm stopped in Crianlarich and it seems he might have been only 20 miles away at Kilchun Castle at the time. Suns out now as I go over Rannoch moor and into Glencoe











Making good time so take a detour along to Kinlochleven - always passed by but today's the day!





Into Fort Bill for a fuel top up and then along the road to the isles to Glenuig where we're staying tonight. Been before and it's a ver y nice gaff!!





Went along the little road past the pub and came across this beach





As you can see, spoilt with the weather still but not banking on it for rest of the week.
469 miles today , nice and steady and supping at pint of Cairngorm Stag by 16:30. No sign of Steve & Nige, the slackers.

Location:Lochailort,United Kingdom

Its been a while but........

......annual back end trip to Scotland starts on Sunday. Usual suspects involved - Nige from IoM and Steve, who are going up a day earlier. I'm meeting them at Glenuig.
Will be posting daily as long as the Iphone doesn't get waterlogged - weather forecast looks like something Noah would recognise.

Norway 2011 overview

What a trip! Ive updated the daily blogs with route maps to give an idea where I was. Very good weather overall, with one wet day, and two dodging showers but mostly dry. Total mileage in Norway was 3587 miles, managing to get 200 miles above the arctic circle. Bike didn't miss a beat, the only maintenance being a check of tyre pressures and an oil top up on last day but one (500ml)
Don't think you can go far wrong wherever you go in Norway.
Using the Immingham freighter is a definite recommendation if travelling solo, perhaps not so cheap if you have a pillion but you'll have to do the maths on time & cost dependant on your situation. Me & the bike cost around £460 return for a 26 hour trip with own en suite cabin & all meals. Very convenient from north of England/ midlands.
Accomodation in Norway no problem, especially for the first three weeks in June ( Norway schools generally finish last week in June so that's when holiday season starts through to mid august). I only prebooked the first night and the nights on Lofoten, everything else was on spec the day or so before dependant on where I planned to be.
Wouldn't bother with tent next time but would use combination of hytte and Vandrerhjem hostels. 300 to 450nok for two bed hytte on reasonable sites and 300 to 500nok for private en suite room in Vandrerhjem incl breakfast. Cost depends on popularity & location. Most of the rooms I had were twins so a cost saving can be had if you don't mind sharing with a mate. Also its worth getting a YHA card as this gets you 10 to 15% discount in hostels (card is about £15 in UK - there is a tesco clubcard deal at the moment which gets you one for £5, but theyre available to buy at the hostels in Norway for similar UK price). Whatever you've heard about Norway being expensive is true, so budget where you can or start saving.
I mainly self catered, took some ready meals and used local supermarkets. I thought there was a great shortage of places to stop on the road for a snack/drink other than petrol stations, but these were fine. Not many roadside cafes like in UK. Take a bottle of your favourite tipple, managed to make my Glenlivet last until day 11!!!
Thoroughly recommend the Hardanger hostel as a base for a few days.
Buy a statoil mug on the first day of your trip and maximise those coffe stops!
I was reasonably organised and had a rough itinerary, but use the local tourist info offices for ideas on places to see plus plague the life out of the hostel staff who know the area.
Gravel roads are great fun and generally take you out of the way to the best spots. Off the main roads you don't get the choice anyway.
Definitely go to the Lofoten Islands, you'll need a minimum of 3 days to do them justice, it's just a long way there and back unless you're going to Nordkapp anyway.
If you have an iPhone get the free Viber app for 'free' (uses your contract allowance) international calls & texts to other iPhones with Viber - works via Internet so you need a connection but I got one every night as every hostel had free wifi - otherwise this blog wouldn't have been done daily.
By the way, all the daily blogs were done using my oldish 3g Iphone with an app called 'BlogPress'. There may be others but this app was even easier to use than Blogger itself!!!

Can't wait to get back there and will definitely return 2012 if not sooner!!


Posted on the go

Norway day13&14

13 - unlucky for some, and in this case last day but one of the trip, the final one spent crossing the north sea on the Tor Begonia again from Brevick.
Lofthus only 4 1/2 hours or so from Brevik, so plenty of time for a few stops. Must say that the Hardanger Hostel was the best of the trip(and cheapest) and worth bearing in mind as a first night stop if landing at Brevik in the future.
First quick stop is down the 13 at Odda....


Alot of industry here, well they've got to put it somwhere.
A bit further on another stop at the Latefossen falls, which are so close to highway 13 as to spray it and then run under it.


The road turns into the E134 and now skirts around south of the Hardangervidda and gradually rises up to bleak plateau


Spot a speed trap here - a cop crouched behind a tripod mounted camera gun halfway along a mile long straight, with his mates in a coned off layby awaiting customers with a credit card machine no doubt. The cop was sat on his arse behind the tripod and resembled a wildlife photographer in a hide - only about 3 foot high and you'd never spot him. Just as well he was clocking traffic on the other side.
I'd checked the rough guide, and it's a worthwhile detour up highway 37 to a town called Rjukan, scene of one of the most daring sabotage operations of World War 2 on the heavy water plant at Vemork - remember 'Heroes of Telemark' with Kirk Douglas??


Accessed via a single lane suspension bridge - bikes can go over and park right next to the museum, cars not and stay in the car park and use a shuttle mini bus to get up there


The gorge sides are vertical - the saboteurs climbed down into then up the gorge, in February with everything covered in ice and then escaped the same way. An amazing feat when you see the gorge in reality.


The Vemork power plant is now an industrial museum and I spent a good 2 hours there. Worth a visit


Education & Culture visit completed, a steady run down to Brevik, keeping an eye out for these guys


No elks(moose) to report and I get to the North Sea Terminal at about 20:30. Very early as it happens as the ship hasn't got in yet, so the guy in the harbour office suggests killing time in Brevik itself. It's a nice evening and Brevik village turns out to be quite charming - surrounding a marina and everyone out & about in their boats


Back to the terminal for 22:30 and the ships unloading so they take pity and let me on


Sailing is at 03:00 but there's a bit of a commotion when they discover some illegals in a lorry trailer. The delay with the customs and cops mean we lose our harbour pilot slot and we don't actually sail until 10:00 - a seven hour delay. The ship must have made time up overnight as we eventually dock at Immingham on a grey & drizzly Saturday morning at 09:30. From there it's just under a hours run home to Lincoln.


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Norway day 12

Only 106 miles today. Mid morning start, early finish and more of a 'visiting' day.
Rough plan was to trundle along highway 7 to Geilo and go up any interesting looking side roads
along the way.First interesting one was signposted in Ovre Eidfjord to Hjelmo, and on the map had a few squiggles!!!! This is what turned up a few km along








And this is what followed when the tarmac run out and the gravel began


























Then the hairpins started in earnest








Until about 6 miles later it's the end of the road and I'm on top of the Hardangervidda plateau


























I reckon it's an access road to a parking area for the hikers. So, that was a good start, and nows the fun on the way down back to rejoin highway 7.
Not more than 6 mile or so further on from Ovre Eidfjord there's a set of tunnels that corkscrew their way up - one of them I'm sure did 3x360 whilst in there as I was forever turning left!!!! Exiting these was a waterfall - the Voringsfossen, apparently the best known waterfall in Norway, plunging 182m








And by the look of this, it wasn't the only thing plunging over the edge








As I'm lingering having a drink & snack I'm leafing through a tourist guide and it seems one of europe's biggest hydroelectric power station is just down the road. Daily guided tours and sad bastard that I am, it's a busmans holiday as I get there for the afternoon tour. Sima Kraftverk is the place.








The turbine hall is 700m inside the mountain, and you get there by bus. Quick look around the turbine hall and then out

















Just above the power plant is Kjaesen mountain farm, previously inaccesible by car but now accessed from a road built during the power station construction in the 1970's. There's also a 1mile long unlit tunnel at the end of the road

















The purpose of going all the way up is the views over Simafjorden from the farm







No fences up here and it's 600m straight down when the grass stops!


Not been much more than 40 miles from base today, but been enjoyable and interesting, and I'm back at Lofthus by 16:00.

Location:R13(old),,Norway

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