The Dead-End Run

It was rather cold at 5 degrees when I left Cumbernauld on my Tiger 900 at 8.15 to head up to Crieff Visitor Centre (with heated jacket and gloves on as well as heated grips, all of which were to remain switched on all day!) for what I anticipated would be an interesting run. Unusually for me I was first to arrive, closely followed by Ian Ness on his Tiger, Charlie Robertson on his RT 1200, Frank Dolan on his NT1100 and Kona on her newly serviced Yamaha Tracer. Finally, the person that lives closest to the start point rolled in on his Africa Twin. It just shows that if an unusual run is put on then it does draw people out, even although the forecast was cold with rain showers. After a brief discussion it was decided that we would stop at Spean Bridge for a coffee / tea and Invergarry for petrol before heading to the single-track dead-end road, scuppering Ian’s plan to ride up in a oner without a stop! We headed off through Crieff with Ian Ness doing TEC, turning left at Gilmerton to head over by Amulree to the A9 at Dunkeld. It was still only around 7 degrees as we headed up to Dalwhinnie, although at least it was dry. We then headed over the A86, with a short stop after Dalwhinnie while Kona whipped her seat off to access the power cable for her heated jacket (I am surprised she survived that long without heated clothing, as Kona normally has it plugged in during the height of summer!). The A86 was slower than usual due to a few lorries, but still enjoyable. We stopped at the café In Spean Bridge where Ian kindly treated us all to tea and coffee. Charlie asked for a bacon roll but was advised by the waitress that the kitchen had closed (and it wasn’t even 1pm!), so him and Kona settled for an Empire biscuit each.
Next was the run up to Invergarry for our petrol stop, unfortunately in drizzly rain to start, but with brighter skies in the distance. It is quite a pleasant road, with enough bends to make it interesting and enough straights to nip past the camper vans. We all filled up the tanks in Invergarry then spent ten minutes trying to re-attach Ian’s hand guard on his Africa Twin which was hanging off. Kona “wonder woman” Andrews Macphee came to the rescue with multicoloured cable ties, but unfortunately only the thin black one would fit through the screw hole – I think the pink would have suited Ian! All sorted, we doubled back to the A87 which we followed for five miles before turning left onto the Dead-End single track road to Kinloch Hourn. There was a sign at the start saying “Road closed from 8.30 to 12.30 and 2.30 to 5.30” which we all chose to ignore and rode on past! To say the scenery along this 22 mile single track road is stunning is an understatement, with beautiful views of lochs, rivers, dams, mountains and even some big friendly Highland Cows (they looked at us as if to say are you folk mad, but didn’t move off the road). The road deteriorated for the last five mile as we dropped down some quite steep bits to the tearoom carpark, just as the rain was starting. Well done to Charlie for negotiating the road on his RT!
The plan was to have a quick lunch then start heading back. However, Tony our host had other ideas! If you can imagine a cross between Manuel from Faulty Towers and Julie Walters doing her waitress sketch, then you will have some idea what Tony was like (I still haven’t worked out if he was being funny or if he really was like that!). We sat at two tables and Tony asked what we wanted – lunch! So, he shuffled through to the kitchen and shuffled back with four menus, two for each table – “this will give you an idea what we do” he said, but then added “we don’t have any of them but it gives you an idea of what you could have had!”. We decided on soup of the day and after shuffling back and forward to the kitchen a few times he said he had enough tomato and basil soup for four and one curry soup, which we took gratefully. Charlie asked for a bacon sandwich which sent Tony back into the kitchen to look to see what he had. He came back and said to Charlie “I suppose you want it cooked?”. Anyway, we eventually had our soup and a cup of tea and paid our dues. Our half hour lunch stop ended up over an hour and a half, which really mucked up our schedule.
Back on the bikes we headed back up the hill on the loose gravelly road before getting back onto the better surface about five miles further along the road. We had a brief photo stop above the loch just along from the Highland Cows, then headed back towards Invergarry. We came across a Road Closed Ahead sign and then a guy with cones across the road, but he fortunately let us through – the guys were just repairing some of the bridges and obviously didn’t fancy traffic passing next to their heads. It was then just a straight run back down through Spean Bridge, Fort William (and its horrendous traffic), and Glencoe to the Green Wellie where the folk with weak bladders pulled in for a “comfort break”, but as I was running well behind time I waved farewell as I scooted past down to Crianlarich, Callander and home. 346 miles for me with 8 hours 25 minutes riding time plus stops – a most enjoyable day with good company and mainly dry, decent, roasting hot weather (thanks to my heated jacket and gloves). Thank you to Ian McIntosh for organizing the run – there aren’t many places we haven’t been to, so this was a very enjoyable day out. Thanks to Kona the Cable Tie Wonder Woman, Frank, Charlie and Ian Ness for the company. This is certainly a run I would fancy doing again, but maybe with an earlier start (to allow more time sightseeing along the single track road) and in summer time if we every get one in future years.