Day 5 Inchy to Braemar

Another good nights sleep in our private room, not surprising given the amount of sleeping tonic we downed the night before! After breakfast we start a leisurely ride in good weather up towards Kylesku bridge

 on to Scourie and then Durness . The roads around here are great fun and on a good day like today the scenery is excellent.

We fill up at Durness which always reminds me of the film Local Hero? The one where Denis Lawson runs the pub/post office/accountants etc. Here the same people have the shop opposite the garage and when you pull up for juice someone comes out of the shop and yells "Help Yourself" You then go into the shop to pay, and the chap says "How much did you put in?"

From here we take the road out and on to Loch Eriboll and past a spot we call Ponty Cafe. This is a place where we once stopped for a cuppa and it`s run by a bloke from Pontefract, now exiled to the North of Scotland for probably taking far too long to heat a pan of beans, don't ask!

Following the road to Tongue we then head South on the A836 past Loch Loyal and Altnaharra and down to lairgs where we meet 2 blokes from Lincolnshire. After a bit of a chat about the state of the nation/fuel prices, BMW`s, the 1972 Munich Olympic games,dogs & caravans on boats! We set off again to Steve`s preferred eating destination the truckers cafe at Tore, the well known purveyors of all things fried. Steve asks for a filled baked potato but they haven`t got one, apparently they haven't realised that these too can be deep fried. Nige is starving and just asks for the all day breakfast. The ensuing oil laden super cholesterol heart stopper arrives and whilst it fills a gap Nige realises that he prefers a salad. Steve gets some scrambled egg & bacon and a good deal less Exxon.

From here it`s a short trip to our digs at Braemar hotel. Nige has booked 2 places in the bunkhouse but when we arrive there are a good number of bikes already in the car park. One group is the AJS owners club who are here on a John O Gaunts to Lands end run and the other is a party of about 9 bikers travelling around similar to ourselves. The upshot of this is that even though Nige booked in January there are now no places left in the bunkhouse, Soo.........." I`ll just have to give you a lodge for the same price" says Ronnie's missus, ( See previous blogs for a breakdown of characters ) Now a lodge costs £75.00 a night but we get one for £36.00! Not only is it a good deal cheaper but it is much quieter and more private. Steve is impressed, he can now throw all his belongings into his own room and run around naked...................Which he does.

After last nights frivolities we decide a quiet night in at the Braemar hotel is the order of the day,

 so after a very nice evening meal of fresh cooked salmon and spinach topped off with sticky toffee pudding it`s into the bar for a few jars of Guinness & cider, a chat with a nice couple of retired teachers from Middlesborough, and earwigging the AJ owners anorak club arguing about technicalities and dates set by the Manx Grand Prix club being all wrong! and then bed.