Minirolls Musings

Want To Go List

I’ve been building this list for years. Basically, whenever I see something on the net or get told of a cool place, I search it out on Google Maps and save it for later. I’ve got pins dotting my entire map now of interesting places across the globe.

Sir William Wallace Monument

Setting off from Nethybridge hotel we aimed for the centre of the Cairngorms, and Balmoral Castle. Of course, as soon as we got onto some fast roads we completely forgot about looking out for Balmoral and blew straight past it.

Where We’ve Bin

We left the Air BnB pod after a significantly more basic breakfast and set off into a clear but much cooler morning. Crossing Bonar Bridge gave us our first giggle of the morning. Edd and I had connected headsets again and the lunacy bantering back and forth had us crying with laughter.

Remote Roads

Today my favourite thing was making it to Lairg without running out of petrol, because honestly, it was a close call.

Fish Finger Food

Today was a big mix of varied terrain and views, we had; Pine forests, Barren rocky hills, Pristine white sandy beaches, Boggy heather valleys, Craggy mountain views, Rocky lochside fishing villages, Wide open highlands, turquoise blue sea coves. But for the first half of the day, you’d have never known. It was veiled in thick impenetrable misty rain.

Double Cheesecake & Dancing

After an acceptable breakfast, Aimi spent some time cleaning her gigantic screen having realised it’s unusable when road crud gets on it. We decided to take the direct route, avoiding the motorway and Glasgow… because Glasgow. This meant we were up into the hills on small roads straight away which challenged Adam.

Prep For Rain

It seems everyone has come around to my way of thinking at last. It’s only taken 17 years…

I’ve had an (air quotes) “adventure” bike since 2009 and never looked back. And while I spend an alarming amount of time drooling at the BMW K1100 cafe racer custom bikes on Facebook market place, I’ve never bought one. This is mostly because it’s really hard to buy something you know isn’t going to be as good as something you’ve already got. Even if it’s all about “the experience”…

Kayto’s Glimmer

On a standby flight means being there early, so this morning I was first up and, having packed the night before in a chocolate frog-fuelled rage, left the house before seeing anyone else. My flight was at midday (I hoped) and then the team’s flight was at midnight, so they had another 12 hours to play in Tokyo.

Going Harry Potty

Travel advice isn’t something I’ve taken from social media before, but on the run up to this trip I had collected a number of interesting places.

100 Year Old Sushi

Checked out of the swanky Asakusa hotel after WAYYYY too much breakfast and dropped our bags at the new AirBnB. The team is meeting up for the final couple of nights before our Japan adventure comes to an end.

But first – Ramen.