Wednesay May 20, 2026
Brora, Scotland
Distance traveled: 116 km. Cumulative distance: 2199 km.
Weather: 15 - 17 degrees, scattered clouds, no rain (on us), though our B&B host asked us when we arrived if we got wet.
We were up plenty early today in order to ensure we had enough time to get to the train station, which was a 20 minute walk. Uber is few and far between in Inverness - I had checked yesterday to assess the possibilities of catching an Uber and the Uber map showed two cars and indicated the wait would be 4 - 30 minutes. I could have asked our hostess for the number of a taxi but we had already walked the distance and then some a few times and we judged we were up to the task, though it meant of course, dragging our luggage: two suitcases and two carry-on bags. The suitcases we had rearranged strategically so that, upon arrival at the motorcycle shop, we would not be sorting through our luggage trying to decide, then fit our belongings in the motorcycle panniers. Last night, we had laid all of our clothing on the bed, the divided it into what was going motorcycling and what was being left behind at the motorcycle shop. Everything going was loaded into my suitcase and everything staying went into Nan's. We each had our own helmet and boots packed in our respective carry-on bags, though Nan's wouldn't zip up so she had to have it hang open all the way to the motorcycle hire place.
At 1.6 km, the walk wasn't too arduous though I was glad to arrive at the station, which was 45 minutes before our train departure. This allowed us to get a couple of go-big-or-go-home-lattes and drink them before boarding the train.
We are starting to figure out the procedure for the train. I have the ScotRail app on my phone and the tickets come in the form of a QR code in the app. Taking the train from Edinburgh, I wasn't quite sure how I was going to get us both through the turnstyle on one QR code so I encourage Nan to just step smartly behind me as I showed the QR code to the scanner. Well, this worked, though Nan nearly got arrested because the ScotRail employee standing at the turnstyle admonished her for not showing a QR code to go through the turnstyle. Today, I recognized that there were two QR codes, so clearly, one each. From Edinburgh, there were four, which made no sense to me. I scanned myself through, swiped the next QR code, handed Nan my phone and she scanned herself through, eliminating any chance that ScotRail had a scan of her face and that they were watching her next attempt to sneak onto a train.
We had learned from our last train trip that the carriage nearest the gate filled first and quickly so I suggested to Nan that we make a break for it and head straight for the furthest door of the two-carriage train. Well, other than the first door on the first carriage, all the doors remained locked. We could see people on the train having accessed it through the first door, then dragging their luggage, bicycles and what have you the full length inside the train to the second carriage. Many people, us included, stood around baffled by the procedure, waiting for a train door , other than the one nearest the gate, to open. We basically gave up and started to walk back towards the gate to access the train from the one open door when I saw the furthest door open so we rushed down there. The train Captain was standing at the door and I said to him that the other doors wouldn't open. he told me the Conductor (ie First Officer) hadn't showed up yet so he had opened the doors.
Nan got on first and immediately secured two seats together. Not everybody was so lucky. A group of four elderly Americans were standing around our seats nearly coming to blows with the group of elderly Americans who were occupying the four seats across the aisle from us as one group was sitting in the reserved seats of another. The seated group got up and moved and were actually able to sit together. I immediately thought, "oh, oh". There are actually white cards on the backs of the seats indicating and I looked around and with relief, discovered that we were NOT sitting in reserved seats. That was a relief. I hated the thought of getting into a fist fight in a narrow train carriage aisle with a bunch of seniors. I mean, seniors older than me. The train pulled away from the station and I had a closer look at our tickets. WE had reserved seats! and ironically, they were only one group over and across the aisle. Where the first group vacating the seats across from us had moved. They were in OUR seats. But we were moving and we were only going two stops so I decided against making a fuss.
I had been instructed that when we departed the train, we were to take the walking overpass over the rail line to the parking lot on the other side of the station so we had to lug our suitcases up a pretty high, steep set of stairs, then over the tracks and down the other side. As we approached the "down" stairs, a man approached us an immediately started talking to us in a foreign language. Scottish Gaelic, I think. I thought this was the guy here to pick us up, he was so chatty (even though I had no idea what he was saying). I asked him if he was Raymond (our ride driver and owner of the motorcycle shop). I didn't catch his response but he then started walking over the tracks so I figured out that he was probably not Raymond. As it turned out, Raymond was waiting for us. Get this: he was driving a 1977 left hand drive Ford LTD! The same as my first car (though mine was a 1976)! This thing was a huge boat. About 40 feet long, 10 wide and weighed what much have been 20,000 pounds. Going over a bump, the car would ride up, and up, and up then eventually come down in the next block.
Arriving at Raymond's shop, we immediately saw a Firebird, about the same vintage as the LTD, parked in the yard. He told us that he had swapped out the engine and put in a diesel. It gets 40 mpg. He also said that cars over 40 years of age were exempted from a number of road taxes and fees.
Our bike was on the apron waiting for us: a brand new 2026 BMW F800. It had 307 miles on it. I hated the thought of dropping a brand new bike. He proceeded to tell me a story about a customer who was out on a bigger BMW and that the police had received an emergency call because the bike's sensors had indicated it had been in a crash. The sensors signal the BMW Hive in Munich, who call the nearest police station to where the bike pinged and the police called Raymond. It is not clear to me why they didn't dispatch a police car but Raymond hadn't heard anything about a crash. He just figured the guy had had a tip-over so why worry? So I decided not to worry about dropping the bike. Aside from which, our bike was not linked to the Hive mind.
I completed the paperwork, we packed the panniers and Raymond asked me if I wanted a lower seat. I tried out the stock seat and concluded it was a little high for me so he swapped out the seat and put on a lower one, which was much better. Then he installed a wiring harness to allow us to connect one heated liner jacket at time. We both brought our heated jackets but figured we could manage with taking turns on the harness if it got really cold. On our last day of riding home from Alaska with my old gang The Frugal Bunch, it was pouring rain, bordering on snow, and the fuse on Nan's harness was failing. Not entirely failed, mind you, because it showed there was still a connection but when she applied juice, her jacket would not heat. I ended up putting on every single clothing item I had with me so that I looked like the Michelin Man and Nan was able to connect to my harness. Trying on the riding gear, I FELT like the Michelin Man. We have been here three weeks and it seams like a steady diet of bad choices is catching up with me because I had to choose some motorcycle gear that was clearly larger than my gear at home. Raymond had told me about a client that needed a 6XL riding suit. That could be me by the end of this trip.
I took the bike for a pre-spin to make sure that I would be ok on it. It does sit pretty tall plus, he had the suspension firmed up appropriate for riding two-up. It's ok for me; the only thing i don't like is that the side stand seems a little short for the bike so that it leans over a long ways when it is on the stand. It is an effort to get it upright when I am starting out. I would not be able to get the bike straight up if Nan was sitting on it. Once a stationary motorcycle with weight starts to lean, it only has one way it will go.
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| That's the steed! Raymond didn't indicate if it was named. Yet. |
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| Raymond installing the wiring harness. |
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| Inside the shop. There is a lot of stuff around. |
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| Nan waiting to try on gear while I get other stuff sorted out. Full equipment comes with the motorcycle rental. There is no negotiating for "extras", insurance, panniers etc. Despite this, the price was still very competitive. I think Raymond thinks it is just safer if the price includes riding gear; that way, everybody has it. The gear is all in good shape and looks like it gets turned over regularly. He said he replaces some every year and when we picked a couple of pieces of rain gear that were damaged, he immediately "binned" them. We had brought our own helmets, boots, and gloves. I didn't feel queasy about using his gear at all. |
After my test ride, I found my way back through the industrial maze of roads, Nan and I saddled up and we got on our way well before noon. We actually have a modest ride today, not wanting to be too ambitious on our first day on a new bike.
We puttered along some back roads and on some highways. The first back road was REALLY back. Also, it was totally erroneous as I turned about 50 feet too early at our FIRST intersection. Whatever.
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| It's pavement but the edges looked really soft. |
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| Boneyard along our first "side trip". |
Our route took us out to Portmahomack. I didn't have any agenda other than lunch. As it turned out, Portmahomack didn't have a lot of choices for lunch. Not sure what the industry is there; a small harbour had a few boats but I don't think they were commercial boats. There was a hotel that appeared to be closed for the season. We did see a sign for a golf course when we first rode into town so we thought we would just look around for that and if they had a "hole 19" we could eat there.
We did come across the golf course, which was basically an open field with tees, fairways and greens but NO TREES. Driving by, it would be pretty hard to discerne there was a golf course if you didn't know the place.
We walked in and there were six people inside already. The two staff members looked up at us and it seemed as though they were thinking "we're getting slammed!". It was about 12:30 pm. The one staff was writing up the "specials" board and the other was behind the bar pulling some beers for the table of four gals. Retired gals, would be my guess. The two big burly guys were having tea and biscuits. We waited for a while before they got around to dealing with us - bigger fish to fry, I guess - but eventually we did get menus, ordered some food and then at the last minute, decided on some homemade cheese broccoli soup to start. One of the staff gals was trying to tell the two big burly guys they needed some home made stawberry tarts but to no avail.
The soup was amazing, clearly home made and a good start to lunch, especially as we hadn't eaten yet today. I had a "club" sandwhich and Nan had a BLT. Neither looked like we would expect from back home but they were really good. My club, had two pieces (my preference) of thick bread that couldn't have been out of the oven for more than a couple of hours, freshly fried bacon and chicken salad with greens and tomatoes. Nan's BLT was similar, with bacon, lettuce AND tomato! Also on fresh out of the oven bread. We were in a little bit of awe how good the food was. I was expecting it to be a menu of deep fried chicken sticks and French fries ("chips" here) and that sort of thing. There was that stuff but healthy options were available.
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| Nan's lunch. We did forego the strawberry tarts. |
We did have to get gas because the gas tank of the bike was not quite half full when we picked it up. There was no discussion about returning the bike with gas in it. When I went inside to pay, a lady who filled up behind us was inside stressing as she wasn't sure if she had put gasoline or diesel in her car. She decided that she will find out in about 10 minutes but she hoped she had put gas in it. Here, the diesel pump handle is black and the gasoline one is green.
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| Our B&B for tonight, Clynelish Farm. That is a 160 year old house. |
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| The laneway into the farm yard. They have dogs, sheep and cows. |
We got to the B&B about 3:30 pm. A little early for the tastes of most B&B operators but she was fine with it. We got a little tour of the house and then we went for a walk around the property. We are next door to Clynelish Distillary. No, that didn't mean anything to me, either but appartently, it is one of the four distillaries that makes whisky for Johnnie Walker. They are not open to the public.
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| Raymond's LTD. |