Sunart Wildcat Rally 2018

We’ve been going to Sunart Camping for a good few years now, becoming friends with Tim and Lynn who own and run the site. When I started my wee tour company, Passing Places Tours I was keen on putting a bike rally on at some point. For those of you who don’t know, a rally is basically just where a bunch of folk meet up and speak about bikes. Some bigger rallies have bands and stuff too. I’d spoken with Tim about putting on an event at his site, he was keen and suggested we do it for charity so the Sunart Wildcat Rally was born. We chose the name because the area around Strontian is a Scottish Wildcat sanctuary. We also chose the Scottish Charity Air Ambulance as our supported charity.

 

The rally was to be a one night event on a Saturday, with some people heading up on the Friday or staying on to the Sunday. Everyone that attended the rally got a t shirt and we had an optional ride out to Ardnamuchan Licghthouse on the Saturday afternoon before Tim cooking everyone a big barbecue on the Saturday evening, when we would have our charity raffle.

A group of us headed up on the Friday with the rally t shirts and raffle prizes divided up among the bikes. My usual route up seems popular, taking a spin through Glen Devon and over Glen Quaich to Loch Tay, it’s a great alternative to the busy A84. At Loch Tay we headed up Glen Lyon and over some really nice wee single track roads before joining the A82 at Killin and heading up to the Corran ferry via Glencoe. There were already quite a few folk at Sunart Camping who had opted to come up a night early and make the most of the weekend. It was good craic on the Friday night, with the majority of folk heading to the pub for food and a few drinks.

Saturday was rally day. I had organised a ride out to Ardnamurchan Lighthouse at half two, to give folk coming up on the Saturday some time to arrive. Some folk done their own thing, going for a ride over to Mull or exploring the Ardnamurchan peninsula. The run to the Lighthouse was well attended. Scenically, it's stunning but the road is a narrow single track, often with wee patches of gravel here and there. It's was some people's first experience of our Scottish single track roads and I think some folk found it challenging, especially the guys on the sportier bikes. Everyone did seem to enjoy the run, grabbing a snack or a drink at the café and having a look around the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and taking in the views across to the small isle of Rum, Eigg, Canna and Muck, and over towards Skye and Knoydart.

Everyone made it back to the campsite safely where we discovered we'd dodged some hail stones! We'd had sun for the whole run but poor Snake, who was stuck at the campsite with a broken down Honda Cub, had to find shelter, he said it had been really heavy! That evening we had a our barbecue and raffle. Lynn from Sunart camping had painted a picture of a Scottish Wildcat, so we had a separate raffle for that as well as an auction for a weekend in Strontian including mountain bike hire and a guided canoe trip. I had been given some great prizes for the main raffle and some of the folks attending the rally had very generously donated some really good prizes. Tim done really well on the barbecue and with everyone fed and the beer flowing the laughs carried on into the night.

The following day most folk headed home. I stayed up with a few of the guys and had a nice spin up the Roshven and Lochailort road. Paul, who had ridden up from Watford also changed his plans and stayed an extra night, heading for a ride around Mull and nearly missing the ferry back!

All in, it was a great weekend. We raised an amazing £1730 for the Scottish Charity Air Ambulance.

I'd like to give a special thanks to the following folk.

Motorrad Central, who donated Dirty Demo off road experience www.motorradcentral.com

Scottoiler, who donated one of their excellent chain oiler systems. www.scottoiler.com

Visorcat, who donated a visor cleaner. www.visorcat.com

Customized Choppers, who donated some bike related accessories. customizedchoppers.com

Winton Brewery, who donated some beer. www.wintonbrewery.com

The Strontian Hotel, for making sure everyone was fed and watered on the Friday and Sunday night.
www.thestrontianhotel.co.uk

And of course, Tim and Lynn at Sunart Camping. It was a pleasure sorting out the rally with you guys. www.sunartcamping.co.uk

If anyone is interested in touring Scotland with me, give my website a look. there's about to be a big announcement for some new tours and trips! http://passingplacestours.com/

Same time next year?


Mike

Wild Camping....

"I'm going to have to come in with you."

It's the last thing you want to hear. Rewind a few hours to when Aidan and I set off. Infact, rewind a few days. Aidan and I had been cutting about the place on the bikes, looking for spots in the Borders for a wild camping trip. There were plenty good options, but some map inspection came up with a destination on the banks of a nice loch to the north. We could have got there in a couple of hours easily, but I'd come up with a scenic route on the wee roads. Four hours later at about 6 pm I'm confronted with

"Ahhhhhhhh...... 

I'm going to have to come in with you"

Aidan stood with a blank look on his face. I could tell exactly what had happened. The arsehole had went and forgotten his fucking tent poles. 

"How the fuck?? How the fuck do you manage to come on a camping trip with no tent poles???"

I frantically wracked my brains for a solution. We can go to Tim's in Strontian, he'll have a cabin, it's only 3 hours away! We can make tent poles out of sticks! We will use your flysheet to make a shelter! Eventually I succumbed. I'd have to share my peaceful tent with Aidan's farts and snores. 

Still, the weather was great. We'd had an amazing run up through Glen Devon, through the Sma' Glen and over the Glen Quaich road where we cut off at Loch Tay. The scenery was as good as it can ever get in Scotland with the snow on the hills providing great contrast to the spring colours. Our camping spot was stunning. We'd picked up some coal in the shop but there was still loads of fallen wood close by to keep the fire pit alight well into the night. 

What sort of ringpiece forgets their tent poles? This kind.

With the fire lit, a meal and a few beers all tent pole calamity was forgotten about. It was a clearish sky, so I attempted some night photography between setting the world to rights as you do round a campfire.

The Horror.

Despite having to share my tent with Aidan it was a good night. A great breakfast was provided by the Bredalbane Bakery in Aberfeldy before an easy run home back over Glen Quaich. A braw wee break before the very successful Sunart Wildcat Rally the following weekend.
But more on that soon.

Mike. 

Winton Massif - Mair weekends....

Another weekend and another bike trip. This time we used the excellent Sunart Campsite as a base. It's a regular stop for us. Owners Tim and Lynne are into bikes and have some great cabins for hire. I was joined by Faither, Smille, Ferg, Sunter and new Massif folk Moose and Auld Mike (I'm sure he'll love that handle.)

Ferg and Sunter came down from Caithness in Sunter's van with their two Honda Cubs in the back. It's a good thing that they brought the van too. The back end of Ferg's cub was pretty rusty and fell off after some over enthusiastic riding on a bumpy road. We had a great couple of days battering about the place including a great spin up through Glen Lyon. If you get to the dam you can take the rough road back over to Killin, just remember to close the gates behind you.

Ferg "on it" shortly before his back end fell off.

Mikey Sunter having fun.

Tim's in the Massif too.

On the Saturday evening Tim put a barbecue on for us and we all had a great night talking bikes over several beers. It's what weekends are for. 

Braw.

Mike

Fancy joining Mike on a Scottish bike trip? Give him a shout at www.PassingPlacesTours.com.