My travels...

Day 1 : From home up to IJmuiden for the ferry to Newcastle

Conditions :

Dry and temperature around 18°

Distance : 216 km

Off we go 🤘🤘
As could be expected not much to tell, it's just the ride up to IJmuiden for the ferry
We were able to board very quickly, so not much waiting time to spent on the docks...
And about Skye...
She started getting a bit more nervous after some 80-90k, but could be because we had a lot of traffic (and -jams) 🙄 And when arriving in Ijmuiden, she had already calmed down enough to go and greet all new arriving bikers 😄🤭
Off course, at the check-in they had to look twice, "we don't see a lot of bikes with a dog as a passenger...😁, can you scan her chip please ?"
Boarding passes and passports were checked (yes... also Skye's 😁), and everything's OK, so it shouldn't cause any issues when entering the UK 💪💪
For me, Skye's my hero for today 👊👊
On to tomorrow... but first... a quick visit to the Skybar, thursty weather 🤪🤪

Day 2 : From Newcastle to Melrose

Conditions :

Dry and temperature around 21°

Distance : 160 km

The first ride on UK soil
I must admit... after embarking the ferry yesterday, Skye was the centerpoint of attention to all bikers 🤘 (and there were lot's of them...). 
Even at the border control in Newcastle this morning, the officer checking my papers (and Skye's) turned to his younger female colleague "Hey Daisy... look what we've got here...😜"
Her reaction ? "Oowwhh, but she's sooo cute...".

No need to say we passed the controls with flying colors 🤭
The ride, which would take us halfway to Glasgow, was somewhat with a "been there, seen that"-feeling for me, but it's still beautiful none the less, especially with my furry friend riding with me 😉👌
And I also noticed Skye loves the country-roads a lot more then city-traffic, she was a lot more at ease today 💪💪
Tomorrow... up to Motherwell to meet the Scottish friends Denise, Derek, Alex & co for diner together. It looks like it's becoming a tradition 🤪😁

Day 3 : From Melrose to Motherwell

Conditions :

Dry and temperature around 22°

Distance : 132 km

Not really much special to mention for one of the shortest trips of the holiday. Just riding up to meet with the friends for drinks and diner 🤘🤘
Just a few pics taken on the road, and Skye's first ice cream 🤪🤪
As of tomorrow, roads & rides will become more epic, amongst which riding along Loch Lomond on the way to Dalmally... I'll be on some known territory 🤘🤘

Day 4 : From Motherwell to Dalmally

Conditions :

Mostly dry with just some 30min of heavy rain when nearing the hotel, temperature around 22°

Distance : 238 km

After a lovely diner with the Scottish friends yesterday evening, two of them (David and Alex) decided to guide me for the ride up to Dalmally. Since they know the region better then anyone I've let them "show me the way" 🤔😳
Well... what was supposed to be a 170k-trip ended up in a few k's more (being 238k 😁). Not really a problem for myself, but I noticed Skye was getting a bit tired at the end, but once again... she "performed" magnificently.
And what's more.... when we made a quick stop on a few of the parking lots for motorbikes, she was a real star ✨💥. Lost count of the number of bikers who came asking if they could take a picture of her 🥰
I'll have a lot more to upload once I've downloaded the files from the GoPro, but this will be for later. First a well deserved diner. And this diner will be, totally by coincidence, with a couple from Germany which I met on the ferry from Amsterdam 3 days ago, seems we had booked the same hotel 👊👍

Day 5 : From Dalmally to Kyle

Conditions :

Dry & temperature around 22°

Distance : 181 km

Here we finally are... our homebase for a 3 day discovery of the Isle of Skye 🤘🤘
And again, most frequent question of the : "Do you mind if we take a picture of her on the bike?" 🤪🤪 But I also got some "feedback" from several people who had been riding right behind me for some time and told me they could see her enjoying the ride 👌💪👊
I've got some great vids on the Gopro and will try to upload them in the upcoming days, but already some pics to give an idea of the scenery 😉

Day 6 : Near hotel

Conditions :

Heavy rain before noon, afternoon dry & temperature around 22°

Distance : 80 km

After the first 5 days on the road to get to Skye, and due to the rain in the morning, we decided to have a short "break" and have just a little look around the region. We took some time to check out the last remaining manually operated turntable ferry, which we'll be taking probably tomorrow.

And when a local gives you a tip... you go and check it out

He told us to just ride along the coastline up to Corran and enjoy some epic sceneries along the road. "Just ride until the road ends, you'll see it when you het there", he told me 😯😁 And so we did....

Forecasts for today are looking promising, so today will be Skye's first visit to ....Skye 👊👊

Day 7 : Isle of Skye (1)

Conditions :

Dry & temperature around 23°

Distance : 232 km

We had a great ride on the isle, bit longer then expected/planned, but no regrets...Went up the east side of the isle (via Uig), all the way up north to Kilmaluag, and back down through Portree. Great sceneries all along the ride... 👌
The Old Man of Storr was on the "wishlist", but too many people and an undoable hike (for us) of some 2hrs. But the Kilt Rock Falls were also impressive, as well as a lot of viewpoints along the ride 🤘👊💪
And to end the day we decided to take one of the most challenging single track roads I've ever driven in Scotland, up to the manually operated turntable ferry to Gleneilg (and as of now I definitely hate campers and campervans on this kind of roads, they should be banned 🙄😳🤔)

Day 8 : Isle of Skye

Conditions :

Dry & temperature around 22°, with just a bit lesser temps when riding the west side of the island

Distance : 260 km

As always, all good things come to an end (or almost...) 😯, today was our last day in Invershiel near Isle of Skye for our 3 day tour of the island, tomorrow we're heading of to Luss, on Loch Lomond 👍
And the weather-gods have really been on our side these last couple of days, today again some 20°, sometimes partially clouded, depending on where we were riding on the island...
The ride was the longest of our trip (some 260k) and took us to the west side of Skye, all the way up to the lighthouse on Neist Point. And again some stunning sceneries, even though we had to "pass" on some of them, Fairy Pools was a long hike and Dunvegan Castle was way to crowded (that's what happens when the weather's on your side ;-) )
No worries, still enough to see, and we managed to take our first drone-shots of the trip 👍👌

Day 9 : Kyle to Luss

Conditions :

Dry & temperature a staggering 24°

Distance : 236 km

Here we are, on our way back home 😌, 3 days to Newcastle, first stop in Luss.
We've left the Highlands behind us, and it shows, in several ways... already missing the tremendous hospitality and kindness of the Highlanders, both towards Skye as to myself 💖💖
Off course the sceneries are changing as well, and we made lesser stops for pics (I must admit, it's the part of Scotland I've been passing through ore then once before 🤪). None the less, here's a few. Landscape remains stunning most of the times 😉

Day 10 : Luss to Peebles

Conditions :

Dry & temperature still some 23°

Distance : 163 km

Should have been the shortest trip of the journey (some 130k) but if you take a wrong turn and it takes some 15k before you notice... (and not the best thing to do in Scotland when you're almost on an empty tank...)

Once we had passed Loch Lomond, we were in the more "inhabited" part of Scotland...
This also means the sceneries have become less "epic", and since we had all the time in the world, I decided not to look for them anymore for photographing, but I wanted to try and grab a picture of anything that "caught my eye", whatever it was, a house, a landscape, whatever...
Tomorrow we're of to Newcastle for the ferry... homeward bound

Day 11 : Peebles to Newcastle

Conditions :

Dry & temperature still some 23°

Distance : 162 km

Last km's on British soil on our way to the ferry back home...

Day 12 : IJmuiden to Back Home

Conditions :

Just a minor drizzle of rain when getting of the ferry, temperature some 16° in the beginning, up to 23° when arriving at home

Distance : 245 km

End of the journey to Isle of Skye :-(