I've just come down from the Isle of Skye...

Hi de hi everybody! Home from Skye, few things to sort out then a report to do here and for the mag...pop back shorty, sorry, shortly and check it out.

Ok everybody, I've just been negotiating with the boss at Classic Bike Guide, and I'm afraid I'm going to be slightly limited in what I can say on here about Cubbies First County - INVERNESS-SHIRE. Reason being is that the mag want a full and proper spread about it, detailing where how who what why and when etc. I can however, put some of the extra pics on here and tell you that it was a great success!

The Isle of Skye, Inverness-shire 222 miles from the safety of Cubbie's temporary shed.

Not only did I set off 2.5 hours after the rest of the gang from the club, but I only arrived 2 hours after them. Now work that out bearing in mind they were all on BIG fast MODERN bikes! You should have seen their faces, talk about jaws on the floor! Apart from blind panic on Thursday when I couldn't get the right oil for the oil change and I had the wrong rocker feed pipe (for the second time) and I noticed one of the engine mounts was cracked, and on Friday morning when I realised I didn't have breakdown cover, pretty much everything went to plan. Apart from the petrol tank situation and my new speedo having a teeny problemo......Absolutely worn out by the time I arrived at the pub on Friday, spent the rest of the evening supping water and looking after my elderly comrades. Oh, played a bit of pool too but really need to get some Dennis Taylor glasses. No sleep at all that night due to being surrounded by snoring men. VERY crabbit by Saturday but the sun shone and I visited several places that I can write about, unfortunately didn't make it to the sword maker but that's another story. I did get an ice cream though, so can tick that off the wish list. That night was spent in the pub too making sure none of my lot caused any trouble - have to confess I must have got my eye in for the pool as I started beating the local 'talent'. No, really, I did. Probably something to do with wearing me leather trousers. Sunday, up at 7am, woke Vic from his drunken slumber and set off for a nice ride home at a leisurely pace, up the south side of Loch Ness and over the hills - those roads were just made for Cubbie - - - - whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh!!!!!!! A couple of the lads with me on the way home suffered minor technical hitches, one of whom was riding a Velo, tsk tsk and the other one nearly lost his kick start. Arrived home some 500miles later, worn out but so completely chuffed to bits with the bike and the trip and whole idea of Cubbies Counties, I just know it's gonna be great.

The owner of Uig Bay Campsite kindly donated my camping fees to the Cubbies Counties cause, so that's really kicked the whole thing off nicely. All I need now is for you lot to dig deep and help me make a stack of cash for two worthy charities. In case you're concerned where your money might go, I've set up an official bank account to deposit any money I collect along the way, and if at any time you wish to send your money in, you can either go to your nearest branch of the Alliance & Leicester and put it straight in (account number available from me for this purpose), or send me a cheque and I'll pop in t'bank.

So how about £5 per county and £10 for the islands? Sounds good eh, and there's no way I'll ever complete all 33 counties so you needn't worry about having to shuck out hundreds of pounds.... ;-)


...I’m no very big and I'm awful shy,
And the laddies shout when I go by,
" Gorgeous, where’s your Cubbie."