Fair Weather Bikers

We got up at around 8am. Breakfast was very nice although Nig didn't have very much as he isn't really a morning eater.

The weather was damp and drizzly when we set off, but as we left Inverness it got worse. By the time we were alongside Loch Ness is was pouring down.

The roads were very slippery and we rode very carefully. About halfway down Loch Ness we saw a motorcycle being recovered after the rider had slid off in the wet. It really emphasized to us the importance of taking our time and ensuring we weren't pushing the tyres too much.

We turned off the A84 alongside Loch Ness to join the A87 to Skye. The weather never let up, which was a shame because the scenery is stunning in that area - it's one of my favourite regions in Scotland.

We stopped halfway to Skye at a pub to have a cuppa and dry out a bit. The people in the pub were quite rude. It was empty and they weren't happy with us putting our wet stuff on one table and sitting at another. They must have been expecting a rush or something, but eventually they agreed to let us on the condition that if it filled up we would move. They also kept walking past and muttering to each other about us - we kept hearing 'motorcycles' and 'bikers' being mentioned. We quickly supped up and left.

Further on we stopped at Eilean Donan Castle. We took a couple of photos but after the carry on at Urquhart Castle we decided not to go in.

Ten miles later we were onto the Isle of Skye. Even with the miserable weather we could see it was a beautiful island. After what seemed a very long thirty miles to Portree we arrived at our B & B.

As with the other two, we were impressed with the B & B - it was very nice. The nice lady in charge even let us put our wet gloves and boots in her airing cupboard and hang our our jackets and trousers up in the garage.

I changed into dry clothes, but Nig had no spare socks because he had binned them in Inverness to save weight! We got a taxi into town and asked to be dropped at a shop that sold socks. The taxi driver dropped us at an Outdoors Equipment shop.

Walking into the shop, one of the assistants immediately asked us if we wanted a coffee. As we'd just ridden 110 miles in the pouring rain we obviously said yes! Then we looked around the shop. It was without doubt the most expensive shop in the world. £15 for a pair of socks, £150 for a throw-over water-proof jacket and £180 for a sleeping bag - nothing flashy either - standard 2 seasons job. We took our coffee and left. Not too far way we found an Edinburgh Wool shop where Nig got 4 pairs of socks for £4!

After a nice burger at a local cafe we decided to have a few beers - our reasoning being we'd start early and finish early and have a good nights sleep. Well we started early at around 3:30pm. After going to the pub with the rudest bar maid ever and a locals or OAPs only pub, we eventually found a nice friendly pub. We didn't go back to the B & B until after they stopped serving at 11:30pm.

Obviously we'd had quite a lot to drink by then and when we got back to the B & B we did, unintentionally I might add, create quite a lot of noise. The nice lady in charge came and told us off - oops! So I went to bed and slept soundly and Nig listened to his MP3 all night.