Longest Day Up

I woke up much later than I wanted to, I guess I was still catching up on sleep from the ride up. Quick cup of tea*, strapped my luggage and the fuel can onto the back of the bike and said my goodbyes, Raz was already busy working well before nine. Like Falkirk, Middlesbrough clearly has seen better times and the evidence of those is in the architecture of some public buildings. I set off to find a petrol station before getting on the motorway and was merrily gawking at a church spire when I realised I'd switched my brain off and was heading straight towards a high curb, followed by a low stone wall. I just managed to miss it, partly by getting my left foot down but I had been milliseconds from having an incredibly stupid low speed lie-down. I managed to safely navigate to the petrol station whilst cursing my gormlessness and felling sorry for my hurting toes. I'd genuinely like to spend a few more days looking around Middlesbrough and generally the north ...

Onto the M9 and the next destination for me was Middlesbrough. My cousin Razmee lives there and I'd not seen him in over a decade since my brothers funeral.  I've only been to this part of the world once before almost twenty years ago when I was on a course in Teesside but staying in Hartlepool so there were a couple of things I wanted to look at this time around. I ended up getting on the road later than I wanted to, I'd lingered too long at the Wheel and the Kelpies so any planned stops along the way were going to have to be abandoned. Google maps had suggested I take the A1 which was fine with me, although I knew it would mean more average speed cameras again and originally I'd planned to stop and have a look around Bamburgh Castle or Lindisfarm and the Holy Isle. Berwick upon Tweed looked interesting too, but it'll all have to wait for another day. Shame these lovely castles have been inconveniently placed a long way from Cornwall. Just before B...

I leave the wheel on what's becoming an increasingly warm day and head to find a petrol station and some lunch. Judging by the pre 1900's buildings Falkirk must have been a prosperous place in it's heyday, but it's certainly suffered in recent years. There are signs of investment though such as the wheel and the next site to visit. I fill the bike up at Tescos petrol station and push it out of the way so another car can get into the pump whilst I'm browsing the meal "deals". Spicy chicken pasta and pickled onion Monster Much if I remember rightly. The lady at the till couldn't understand how another car had filled up before I'd paid for the fuel and I really struggled to decipher her accent, but I just kept smiling and waving my credit card around. The racket of the blowing exhaust as I left the forecourt had a dozen pairs of eyes locked upon me, all thinking idiot . At least I presume it was because of the exhaust... Five miles ...

The ship I've been intermittently working on for the past few years has a lot of Scottish people onboard who had given me plenty of advice upon places to see in that there Haggistan. Eilean Donan Castle was one that I wanted to have a nose at but was a bit too far out of my way. The first and last of the three places I visited today were from suggestions, the middle one was my must see. During the 1850's, for some reason or another the Victorians fell in love with the story of William Wallace. Enough that in 1861 they started building a monument to him on the Abbey Craig, a hilltop overlooking Stirling and a pebbles throw from the university. After a rather nice breakfast in the halls I rode to the visitor centre where they have lockers to pop your bike textiles in whilst there and the nice lady in the gift shop looked after my lid as it wouldn't quite fit. I walked up the hill and climbed the 67 metre high gothic styled monument to a chap who undoubtedly l...

  Not long after the group photo people started to disperse in ones and twos. I stayed around to chat to a few others but with most people having a long way to travel I left them to it and started heading south myself. It was a strange feeling being back on the bike, despite it only being six hours since I'd parked it up. I had thoughts of visiting either Duncansby Head to the East or Thurso to the West, but the former would have been down some tiny tracks and the later was half an hour out of my way and with no surf to tickle the reef there wouldn't have been much to see. I headed slowly to Wick and filled up the bike, nodding to two other LDU'ers as they did the same. With a full tank I started to bimble towards Inverness along the coast road but soon found myself riding with a little more enthusiasm than necessary. Somewhere along the A9 I saw a sign for a cemetery with a commonwealth war grave overlooking the sea so I sto...