G'day from cloudy Edinburgh. Yes, I know the title says John O'Groats, but really I'm in Edinburgh. JOG was a bit of a tourist trap (plenty of those about) and featured a tacky privately owned signpost. The post is set up each day by the photographer who will put your name on the sign and take your photo for £9.50 upwards (for a print). Needless to say I gave that a miss - the shot you see here is the view out past his sign and the hat is real! The ride up from...

This is the real blog for today - did yesterday's earlier. Now I am in Applecross, but first let me finish the Skye account: This morning I woke up really early, so had an early shower and fired up the bike about 5.15 am. I was heading out over the hill from the campsite, about 50 miles an hour went what I thought was a 'roo ran out in fron t of me. My brain was wrestling at that tiome of the morning with the conmcept of a 'roo in Scotland, but I managed to forge...

hello again. It seems a long time since I wrote the last blog in kendal. Since then I have changed countries, riding north from Kendal and achieving a long time desire to visit Scotland. When i rolled in on the M6 it was plain but green, then thropugh Glasgow on the motorway but I could still see some of the Georgian architecture amongst all the bustle. i'm not really a city boy though, sop kept on rolling until I arrived at Balloch, the beginning of Loch Lomond....

In a hurry again! I have 7 minutes, so... The weather is hot, the sun is out and I'm off to do a ride through the lakes distric before heading into Scotland finally. Yesterday got very hot on the bike, before getting soaked to the skin in a rainstorm. Was heading up the M6 motorway when the overhead sign said 'flooding' which filled me with confidence! The Ducati turned into a duck and we sailed through it all unscathed and kept riding until I dried out. Yester...

This brings me to the 'proper' blog entry for today, yes I am actually writing this from Bala in northern Wales. Yesterday, when I left the Gower Peninsular I consulted the magazine article I had purchased, showing the best motorcycle rides around the UK and into Eurpope. I set off to do one of the rides, near Brecon in the Black Mountains. The road was everything they said it would be, winding its way up and over the mountains, with sheep grazing nonchalantly at...