Was a small group of us, 8 in the hotel, (PeteL, GrumpyFrog, Budd, Little Chris, HuskyJames, Kermetlefrog, Edward, Tony.mon) me in the van, Mick Curley (a new mate of Budd &Chris, on a big BMW GS) in a tent, and well groomed Andy in a B&B a mile down the road.
The drive up on Friday was bad for most of us, combination of heavy rain and volume of traffic on the M6 made my trip a nightmare, and took about 2 hrs longer than usual. PeteL did come past me on his bike, but this year I didn't feel jealous , as the rain and standing water was unbelievable, and in the end I got there before him as he had to stop to shelter and recover, and even he gave up on M6.
Some of the others coming over from the east and west, like James coming over from Ireland and the tynedale & Yorkshire lot faired better but Stuart and Tony driving down from the north also had similarly sh1t and slow journeys, and arrived much later.
I collected the BBQ And beer supplies at the supermarket in Dumfries, and got the van set up with an awning to shelter under, and Tony also provided a nice red gazebo to increase the rain cover.
Sister Liz also showed up and Alan also made it across from his holiday in NewGalloway so we all had a great catch up over burgers and beer and music, With Stuart providing a bottle of whiskey as a night cap (you left it in my van, so I will bring it to Wales for you).
Weather radar was consulted in the morning over a full Scottish fry up, and it was looking better if we went west, but we could see by afternoon it was going to get evil, So it was declared a wet race
Up to this point I was the only firestorm, with 3 BMWs, 3 KTMs, 2 Aprilias, 1 husky, 1 Suzuki, but just As we were just finishing breakfast, a new form member (ItsaKeeper) Jim turned up on a nice dark blue Storm. Jim was from Ayr, and had ridden down this morning to join us.
So we donned our rain gear and got on the bikes in a bit of medium rain and headed off to make the most of the great roads, and after about 30mins, the rain eased right off, and the roads were getting a lot dryer, so we were now smiling and made great progress from New Galloway to Newton Stewart, and then from NS to Girvan even better
.Decided to grab a coffee in Girvan and then the heavy rain caught us. We sheltered in various doorways, but after consulting the weather radar again it became clear that the rain was staying here and our only solution was to start riding east to get away from it, so off we set onto some new B roads I had spotted as an option to cut out a busy boring section.
These roads turned out to be gems (well some bits needed resurfaced, but others had been, and they were great), and would have been great fun in the dry, but in the wet conditions were deserving of smooth Riding and lots of concentration, and unfortunately Jim had a low side off on a tight right hander, which scuffed up the right side of his bike, and the shoulder of his jacket
. Jim was OK, but said his shoulder was very sore and as he only lived about 12 miles away, he would go home, so I told him to message me when he did, and we reluctantly set off into lighter rain.
A quick petrol stop in Dalmellinton and then onto another B road that I only discovered last year. this year I went the opposite direction, and we all were shocked to find that in this direction it is booby trapped!!!!!
Our side of the road was blighted with manhole covers on the apex of every bend, not just one cover, but usually a pair which were laid out so if you sat up to avoid the 1st one it would send you to the 2nd one and if you sat the bike up to avoid that one you were on the verge...... In the dry it would have been a bit of a worry, but in the rain it was like a minefield, but in the opposite direction it is fine!!! And I have no idea what needs so many steel covers, it's in the middle of nowhere.
From there we did a bit of main road, then another new B road to get me to the top of the world famous Dalveen Pass. Prior to getting on the main road, Kermetlefrog had swapped bikes with HuskyJames, so James is on the mighty V4 Tuono, and Ian is on the big SuperMoto, and when we get on the B road, which is fully dry, it's clear that Ian is on the best bike for this road.. He is having so much fun and apart from the suicdal sheep, we have added another great new road to my list.
Now we are at the furthest north part of my loop and it's time to turn south into what is looking like ominous clouds, but first it's the Dalveen Pass and it looks like if we hurry
, we will get to ride down it in the dry...... So as we leave the 30 limit and hit the national speed limit, I look at James (now back in his Husky) and I drop my arm as the start flag for our high speed decent of this thread of tar clinging to the hills. It's like skiing, just continuous left then right, then left, then a bit of a straight then more left, right. We don't see a car for 20 miles, and when we get to the bottom we pull over and high 5 like a pair of kids, then when we look at James rear tyre its steaming!!! the water he has just ridden through as we stopped in the lay-by is turning to steam with the heat in the rubber, that says it all.Pete, who had been acting as backmarker for the ride (thanks Pete) let loose on the pass too, and although riding solo says he has never had such a buzz on a bike in a long time..... Stuart on the other hand realised he was getting tired and and losing is rhythm , so at the bottom of the pass took the main road back to hotel.
We took the narrowest A road in the world south towards Dalry, and despite the sun showing its face for a couple of miles, the rain returned with a vengeance and that tight twisty road was like a river, and frankly not too much fun.
We filled the bikes up in Dalry and set off in the wet for the final section of great A roads from Balmaclellan to Corsock to Crocketford. And this was fun for a bit, light rain and nice bends, but then they sky opens and it's not rain like I have ever seen before, it is hitting so hard, and the drops are so big it hurts! I look to see if there is anywhere to stop and shelter, but it is the middle of nowhere, and short of riding up a track to a farm and hiding in his hayshed, there is nothing. So I push on to the church passing cars who have stopped because they can't see, and go and visit Normans grave. He must have been laughing at the state of us as water pours out of our gloves every time we clench our fist.
Only 6 miles to go, we are all soaked and the rain is easing back to a more normal heavy rain, so we set off on the last leg back to the Inn on the loch, where beer is opened even before wet clothes are removed.
Epic day with more good weather than we thought we would get, but the last drowning made us look at the people jet skiing on the loch and think they looked dryer than us, and we still didn't know if Jim had got home.
