The plan was to continue up the A1, skirt around Edinburgh and onto Perth where we are meeting up with Alain and Monica who are joining us on our ride.

The motorway is a great way to get from A to B but not a great way to see the countryside.  So we devised an alternative plan over dinner with more country roads and small towns.

On these back roads I’m surprised that the speed limit is 60 mph as they are narrow with (still 2 lanes) and stone walls near to the road. The countryside is very picturesque with lots of stone walls and loverly old stone bridges.

We followed a sign down a side road to an old historic village … I think we passed it without realising but ended up in the English highlands where the countryside changed considerably to a more barren landscape inhabited only by scraggy black faced sheep. 

From our random detour, our next stop were Roman ruins at Corbridge. This was fascinating and on display were a number of roman artefacts they’ve dug including tools and other implements, but it also included remnants of Roman armour that’s survived all this time.

Looking at the ruins, I’m surprised that people are allowed to just wander over them.

And then we were in Scotland

Today we had another 200+ mile day and on these backroads and with so much to stop and look at, it’s harder to make up the miles …

… oh, look at that cool bridge…

where was I … that’s right harder to do the miles.  I was conscious that we had planned to meet up with Fraser in Perth (our overnight location) who makes great motorcycle travel content. So we needed to get cracking in order to get to Perth on time.

Pulling up at our accommodation, after battling Edinburgh peak hour traffic, Alain and Monika had already arrived and were settling in. It’s great to catch up with them as its been four years since our ride in Switzerland. For the next 10 days we’ll be riding Scotland together.

Fraser’s YouTube channel – Travels on my motorbike

Todays Distance – 210 miles