Trip to Scotland - Sept 2009 Day 0 - A working day but knocking off a few miles

Setting off at 6:15am was not the exciting start to such a trip that it should have been. The reason was that I had a full day’s work ahead in central London. The traffic was pretty horrendous and I consciously kept myself safe and out of the way, unlike the majority of bikes which appeared hell-bent on riding at a certain speed irrespective of the cars blocking their way. I found the NCP car park near Fleet Street and parked in a safe corner spot and left the bike for the day.

Leaving London at 5pm I joined the Friday afternoon madness as traffic pushed and shoved its way along the Edgeware road. After what seemed ages, but in fact was only 35 minutes, I joined the M1 and was finally able to let the GT off her leash. I noted that I had approx 2½ hours journey time and I raised the screen and settled down to a steady 85 (or so). A while later, I noticed the distinctive white lights of and Audi behind me. However my senses told me that this was a risky situation and that he was pushing me to move over; so I moved into the centre lane despite the fact that there was a line of traffic in the outer lane and that he had nowhere to go. I politely waved him to pass me; he did so in a rush and applied his brakes almost immediately as the line of cars travelling at around 70mph thwarted his progress. Meanwhile, I saw a large gap in the inside lane; so I made progress rejoining the outer lane some 300 meters ahead of the impatient Audi driver. Looking in my mirrors I was then horrified to see the Audi trying to overtake / undertake at any cost; I was pleased to peal off the M1 and join the M6; the Audi did not follow.

Approaching Birmingham I decided to take a rest by bearing right onto the M6 Toll which provided a welcome respite from the traffic; although it cost me £2.70 for the privilege! I can’t complain though because I paid no congestion charge (£8) to enter central London, I am allowed to ride in bus lanes to speed my journey and I was not required to pay for my car parking in the City either!

At 7:30pm the sun was setting in a deep blaze of red and precisely as estimated by my Sat Nav, I pulled into my B&B in Keele near Stoke on Trent some 20 minutes later. It's a nice place, run by a charming lady names Val; who also loves motorcycles. Lovely room, very comfortable.


There's a great pub opposite this B&B serving great beer. The problem, as I walked in rather hungry and tired at 8:15pm, was that it is so popular, I would have had to have waited more than 1 hour for a meal! Luckily I had bought some sandwiches from the M&S on the motorway. So I returned to my room and ate them, sipping a nice cup of Earl Grey.

I’ll be up early tomorrow, and following what I epxect to be a lovely breakfast, I set off to cover the 288 miles to Strathyre in Scotland. The weather forecast looks good.