So it’s the start of 2022 and I’m now living alone in my flat and wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life and I came up with one word: TRAVEL. It’s a simple enough word, but one which can lead you anywhere you want to go.
I did have a brief moment of lucidity, or maybe it was a bad take-out, when I thought about getting a camper van but my first love has always been two wheels – so two wheels it is and two wheels it will be. After a lengthy search I knew I had found my new companion so after a catching the train in Glasgow to I ended up in Inverness where I had to stay overnight stay in a cold and noisy hotel (why do people always assume they are the only guests in a hotel and that other people could be trying to sleep..?)
It had snowed overnight, but I needed to get to Elgin and fortunately it was clear so I caught the morning train to Elgin and was picked up at the station by Anna and Merik – who were selling the bike. I took over the keys of my new life-companion – a Suzuki V-strom DL 1000 – and made a wobbly exit down their drive, where I promptly dropped the bike. Mind you, there was about two inches of snow, so maybe it was 50/50.
It was cold and it was also lightly snowing – but, wearing my thermals and lots of extra clothes under my motorcycle clothing we headed south along the Aberdeenshire coast. I could have cut inland and gone south along the A9, but it seems they were getting the worst of the snow so I decided to stick to the coast road.
It just goes to show how determined you can be when you have a goal.
Just south of Aberdeen the snow thankfully stopped but it was still bitterly cold. Hanging on for dear life I persevered until we reached the warmer parts of central Scotland – and then home. The Suzuki V-strom is here, it is now and its going to be my new companion for the next few years and the many thousands of miles because we’re definitely going to travelling far and wide.
