Monthly Club Run – Tranquillity

Eleven bikers gathered at Tesco, Bathgate, for what was billed as ‘Tranquillity’ – a serene run south which would culminate in us finding inner peace at Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan centre.

Our run’s spiritual leader was Peter Johnson, whose mission it was to lead us at a relaxed pace, and the most devout follower (TEC) was Steve Middleton.

Amongst the other disciples was a new prospective club member, Tim Jenkins, who had made a crusade from East Kilbride on his BMW R1250GS to join us. Like me he isn’t a big user of social media but (again like me) he had discovered our club because of its website.
It would seem that with the website, ‘If you build it, they will come’.
Anyway, Tim was a friendly guy and we’ll hopefully see him again on future runs.

Although start-time was supposed to be 10.00am, perhaps we were already a bit too chilled-out, because we didn’t set-off until 10.20, but such was our serenity, no-one seemed to notice. The weather was glorious as the sun gods shone from a clear blue sky and the temperature was a blessed 19 degrees.

Down the A706 we went, through Forth (the town, not the river) and then onto Carstairs. A few bikes ahead of me, Niall Finlay was gently weaving from one side of his lane to the other. Clearly this was a man who was ‘at one’ with everything. What was his secret to finding such serenity, contentment and looking like the world’s happiest biker? Turns out he was enjoying the music playing inside his helmet.

We then picked up the A73 and passed fields of sheep on route to Abington Services. The playful lambs in the fields were looking bigger than previously – thoughts turned to mint sauce and roast Sunday lunch……surely not unreasonable as it was approaching lunchtime on Sunday.

Four more bikers who were seeking enlightenment joined us at Abington Services, and we then continued along the A702, hugging the line of the M74 (did those people in cars on the motorway look at us thinking those numpties had taken a wrong turn?) and then crossing over the M74 near Newton Wamphray, as we serenely proceeded North along the B7076 near Eskdalemuir and with perfect timing we arrived at our lunch stop – the Monastery – at 12.30pm.

It turns out that Buddhist monks don’t eat anything after 12.00pm each day (who knew?) which might explain why the café was shut for ‘prayer time’. In my book, prioritising praying over eating just shows how dedicated those monks are. Despite no nourishment being available, we embraced the calmness of the surroundings, and those of us making our first visit, took a photo for challenge-site purposes.

Having brought us some spiritual energy, our run leader then prioritised the next stop (Scots Pine Tearoom) for calorific energy and took us on the enlightened path northwards along the B709 where the sheep seemed to be as entitled to use the roads as we were. Some of those lambs had clearly not even completed their Compulsory Basic Training as their road awareness was distinctly lacking, and there was at least one occasion where, if our leader’s pace had been less serene, one lamb – who was determined to be reunited with his dear mother on the other side of the road – might have been experiencing premature reincarnation.
This was the longest stretch of our run at about 50 miles and 90 mins, along the B7009 through Nether Dalgliesh, Ettrick, Newburgh, then left at Kirkhope along the A708 towards Innerleithen, where we joined the A72 past Glentress forest and on into Peebles.

Here, the owner of the town’s petrol station must have thought that he’d be able to retire on the day’s takings as we all pulled-in for fuel. Unfortunately for him, just one of our disciples actually needed topped-up, but we all joined him on the forecourt to keep him company.

From here it was a five-minute run to the Scots Pine Tearoom, where a collection of soups and scones enabled our grumbling stomachs to find peace once again. By now it was about 3.00pm and we enjoyed a chat and seat in the sunshine as the day’s pilgrimage drew to an end.

From here our group disbanded to find their various ways home and to spread the word that the path to true happiness should be taken on a motorcycle.

Sincere thanks to Peter for leading us on a great day out, and at a pace which was perfect (for slow me!)