Featured Touring Off For A Ride, Back In A Bit....

With Bank Holiday Monday looming, then x2 days booked off gives me 9 days to do something more worthwhile
Leisurely up, breakfast and packed.



So that's a spare set of clothes including footwear, tent, sleeping bag, chair and cooking stuff with about x3 days of food.
All for a baggage total of 21 kgs.

 

So you know how sometimes problems have a common theme, well yesterday it was petrol.
I passed a service station at £129.9 and thought " oh I don't need any but that is cheap"
Umm

Well the next minute, not literally, I have 19 miles left
Great roads, not economy driving, and middle of nowhere.
Marvellous.
I pulled up and say to Google " Fuel petrol".
It diverts my route and so I crack on.
I now know where Otterburn " First school" is

Eh I appreciate I had my helmet on but

And with a VERY steady detour back to Bellingham saw me at MINUS SIXTEEN MILES comparing the range to the trip meter


Admin, double Pic won't delete

ZERO range was at 125 mile trip.




That's 16.46 litres into a 765

Edit. That can't be my fuel purchase as it's showing £159.9 / ltr
The diesel customer straight after me must've put a similar volume in. Anyway, it was over 16 litres I put in.

 

Once arrived at my camp spot for the night, I lit my trusty reliable 20 year old or so MSR XGK ready for a cuppa.
Tent pitched, chair erected, now where's the boiling water?



My super duper powerhouse of a stove was a damp squib with only tepid water and no ROAR.

A quick strip down followed and a blocked main jet was the culprit.
Rebuilt and food and drink were soon ready

 

It's not everyday that your local timber lorry grand prix blocks your road with an impromptu pitstop.



So basically the black and white had a brake issue at the bottom of the hill locking both back trailer wheels.
Despite being fully loaded he still managed to get 3/4 of the way up into a passing place so it just demonstrates how much power these tractor units really have.
Now, they were PROPER skidmarks, and for about 200+ metres uphill.
The blue and white offered air powered tools for wheel changing and started decanting the load via hiab.

Luckily for me there was a way around, so I Ieft them to it.

 

There is some cracking roads around Innerleithen and Peebles.
Well worth a visit!
The 765 running mid range between 6 - 9k rpm was in it's element

 

Onwards to Edinburgh and a "Random" coffee stop for fuel and refreshments along the way.

 

So you nearly had a Kelpies picture but at £1.50 to get into the carpark, and being from Yorkshire, this ain't happening

 

You know when you find an interesting country lane that looks good and may offer an ideal pee stop, well I think I've found the busiest road in Scotland

This is at the back of Knockhill and I can hear bikes being revved up as I type this.


Eventually managed to sneak a quick pic whilst nothing was coming.

 

I tell thee wot is worse, a Polish/Yorkshireman, by thay tek sum beatin
I once worked with one in a former life.

 

So today was a strange route indeed but by choice to avoid running the same roads.

Edinburgh, nearly Tayport, Dundee, then into the Cairngorms.

Here's tonight's pitch.

 

A perfect campsite really;
Local hardstanding for the bike.
A patch of grass that takes pegs for the tent.
Water source close by.
A wheelie bin
And even a bench to save getting my fold up chair out.

What's not to like?

 

If you're going camping then you need one of these.



A pint of milk is shown for scale.

It will carry x2 litres of water, but takes up very little space when not in use. Quite robust material with a nice big neck opening for cleaning, yet a small fine hole for pouring.
Saves all those back and forth trips for a cup at a time.