The bed was super comfy and I woke up dying of thirst thinking it must be the middle of the night. Or rather I was hoping it was still the middle of the night because I needed more sleep! I opened the curtains a tiny bit to peek outside and was blinded by the sun. It was nearly 9 am and we were meeting for breakfast in 10 minutes. Bugger!
A quick shower and I met Paul and Jules for breakfast. I think they could tell I was a bit delicate and grumpy and they were kind enough to be nice. Or maybe they felt the same as I did and didn’t have the energy to take the piss.
We’ve met with the rest of the crew at 10 am and started the ride towards Mallaig to catch a ferry to the Isle of Skye. The journey started steady with nice roads and I just about woke up by the time we had our first coffee break at the Stalker Castle. We all had a giggle as some black tape stuck to Roey’s numberplate in a funny way to make the first letter F turn into a P on his numberplate FUF. What a funny thing to happen…
Roey also showed us his soft side by purchasing a cuddly Highland Cow toy for his granddaughter and named it Angus.
We carried on and soon stopped again to regroup just before we hit Fort William. Half of the group was booked on one ferry from Mallaig to Armadale and the other half on a later one. We decided to split and meet on the other side of the ferry journey.
Paul, Jules, Roey and I went ahead and once we’ve gone past Fort William and the traffic become lighter the fun begun, especially for Jules on his sporty BMW. By his own admission ‘the best bit of the road’.
Arriving at the ferry terminal we were all roasting hot and I ended up stripping down to my knickers, surrounded by our bikes, to take off the layers as I was starting to overhead. I never imagined it would be this warm in Scotland!
The ferry journey was lovely and we watched the world go by from the top deck. On arriving to Armadale we debated whether to wait for the rest of the guys and quickly decided that’s a ‘no’ and carried on.
The road to Portree was just beautiful. Not just the road but the scenery! There was a ‘wow’ and ‘look at that’ and ‘fuck me, this is stunning’ coming out of my mouth around every corner. I even got a glimpse of a highland cow on a hill, I so wanted to stop for photos but I think the boys were getting a bit fed up with it so I didn’t…
But when we did, I took a million pictures 🙃
On arrival to Portree we checkin in to our accommodation – Jules, Paul and I stayed in an Airbnb flat while the rest of the peeps chose a hostel. The flat had a living room we never used, three bedrooms and a kitchen with a large dining table where we all gathered in the evening for Paul’s G&Ts and wine.
It has proven a bit of a challenge to find a restaurant for all of us and after walking around a bit we managed to secure a table for all and had a hearty meal. After dinner we moved on to a pub for a few more drinks and shenanigans that I am not allowed to spill but I can tell you somebody ended up being refused any more drinks by the bar staff at the end of the night.