Roads, Blip Meets and Kelpies

Back Blipped

Day Six of the Trip turned out to be the most amazing day yet.  

For all that, it started badly.  When we awoke the promised wet weather had arrived.  We got moderately damp waiting for the ferry, despite sheltering in the lee presented by Postman Pat's red van.  Fortunately for us the Ferry's loading officer took pity on us and we were amongst the first to board.  Safely on board, Mark promptly took the opportunity to grab a couple of hours sleep whilst I read my book.

By the time we arrived at Kennacraig on the mainland the weather was starting to improve.  It was still raining but after half an hour it began to stop.  We then came across the A816 to Oban - what a great road this is on a motorbike, even for sedate older chaps like ourselves.  The grins were back on our faces again.

We were heading for Oban to meet up with some local clippers organise by Wee Flecky.  Arriving at the Italian restaurant on the pier at Oban we were duly introduced to PictureMull, Maurice1948, apc54 and TMLHereAndThere. A very convivial lunch was had in their company over much discussion of all things blip related.  Our schedule for the day meant that this inevitably had to be a flying visit, which I rather regretted as no sooner had we arrived than it seemed to be time to go again.


It was at this point that I got told off by the harbour master for parking the Ducati on the pier - oops.  Fortunately Wee Flecky turned out to know him well, and before long, not only was he persuaded to allow the bikes to remain for a short period, he even allowed us to rearrange them for photos and agreed with good grace to take many of the photos too!  That Wee Flecky clearly has considerable powers of persuasion ;-)


Saying farewell we headed out on the epic A83 to Glencoe, the Bridge of Orchy and, eventually after many miles of hooning, Falkirk to see the Kelpies.  

Our hotel was some 3 miles from the Kelpies. As we had been sitting down all day (!) Mark agreed that we should walk there and back.  It was a decision I think he later regretted.  We decided to skip dinner as we had both eaten well at lunchtime in Oban, and of course we did have a cooked breakfast in Islay first. When we got back to the hotel just before midnight we were both knackered and suffering from low blood sugar.  Having said that, the Kelpies were magnificent.  I have an enormous number of shots of them, but I've picked this which seems suitably dramatic.


Mark's take on day six is here