Past Yon Bonny Banks

After posting yesterday I went back to work and collected the car, so I now again have my choice of modes of transport parked outside.

In the late afternoon I climbed into leathers again and set off towards the wild blue yonder. Well, Loch Lomond direction anyway. The roads heading away from Glasgow weren't too busy although it seemed that there were a lot of people coming to the end of their trips and heading back in the opposite direction to me. Lots of police traffic cars too, sitting at the side of the road in various places. I was in no hurry though, and just dawdled along at 60mph admiring the view and enjoying the sensation of riding again. It's called touring!

So I found myself passing Arrochar and following the road up to Rest & Be Thankful (where I took the top photo on the way back) where on a sudden whim I turned left down the single track road for a few miles to Lochgoilhead (where I took the bottom photo, and incidentally the brown stuff on the ground below the bike was there when I parked, it isn't mine!).

Now I know there are a few people who read this Blog who know me and there are one or two who have known me for a fairly long time. But I'm guessing there aren't terribly many reading this who know that I used to frequent Lochgoilhead, and the little village 5 miles further on, at the end of the single track road, called Carrick Castle. That was in the 1980s, and the reason that every weekend I would drive my scabby old car (can't remember what it was, other than it was scabby. Maybe a Morris Marina or Hillman Hunter) the 75 miles from home to Carrick Castle was that my girlfriend, later my wife, lived there. We'd take it in turns staying at each other's houses (well, parents' houses actually) but because she couldn't drive at that point, every Friday I'd drive there and one week I'd stay for the weekend and drive back on the Sunday, and the next weekend I'd collect her and drive straight back, repeating the 150 mile round trip on the Sunday when I took her home. And that was in the days before the Loch Lomond road had been upgraded, so it followed the shore very closely and very twistily. Happy days. Very happy days. I called my ex-wife just about the time I took the bottom photo, just to ask her to guess where I was standing. I hope she has as happy memories of those times as I have.

So what about that scenery then? And all well within an hour of home.

Today the weather forecast is for more sunshine, so I might head off in a different direction. Maybe Ayrshire. Maybe Dundee. Maybe the Borders. Haven't decided yet.