I've booked a table in the Black Bull for Friday evening for Susi, Strom, Neil, Tezza, SWMBO and myself at 6:45.
Goose and Goosette aren't turning up till later and I've heard nothing from Keiran and Wigton so they'll need to sort themselves out. But at least they'll know where to find us.

That's nice of you to invite us out to dinner Steve 👍😂                                                                                                                                                                             

Happy Birthday to Susi today.
You all have a good weekend, I'm sure Steve's got some good roads lined up.                                                                                                                                                                             

Have fun and Susi, make sure you raise a glass or 2 or 3 or .........................                                                                                                                                                                             

And we're here after 150 miles of grim Northern roads 😎                                                                                                                                                                             

Home safe after the most amazing long sunny weekend in Moffat. HUGE thanks to Steve_H for organising both the trip and the spectacular rideouts, thanks to Tezza for the fun rides and instruction with my new toy , thanks to Susi for the ride up to Teesdale and making sure I found the A1 coming south and cheers to Neil, Lindsey, Goose and Mrs Goose for the company. Hopefully I will have removed the 4 billion Scottish insects from my bike and gear before Llandovery!!!

The Saga of the Exiles

Thursday – Everything starts at the Teesdale Hotel, Middleton in Teesdale, for a meal and beers with the BM’ers Neil, Strom, SusiP, Tezza, Lindsey-with-an-e and myself.

Friday
Weather – banging hot.
Lindsey is driving up later. I load the bike and bimble down to the village to meet the other reprobates and their assorted mechanical contrivances.
The quick route to Moffat is around 90 miles from Middleton in Teesdale. Sod that for a lark, we’re off on holiday and I’ve promised them the long way round.
Over the hills we go to Stanhope, Blanchland and Corbridge follow, along Hadrian’s Wall to Chollerford (including and unscheduled stop for Strom to nail bits of his bike back together), up through the Kielder Forest and over the border into Scotland and Jedburgh for lunch.
That’s a good start!
Fed and watered we ride to St Boswells where we pick up the sublime A699 to Selkirk and the frankly pornographic A708 to St Mary’s Loch and finally Moffat.
150 miles of baking sunshine, traffic free roads and spectacular scenery.
Later we’re joined by Goose and Goosette on a pair of VERY LOUD tractors.

Saturday
Weather – still banging hot, and not a cloud to be seen.
A shorter ride is deemed sensible (or as near to sensible as we’re going to get). And I’ve got a pillion, so no silliness.
Out of Moffat we go on the little roads to Boreland, Eskdalemuir and the Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Centre. An interesting place, well worth a visit if you’re passing that way.
St Mary’s Loch and the Glen Cafe for lunch, it’s not too busy although there are plenty of bikes there.
We head back to Moffat via the Megget and Talla reservoirs and the Devil’s Beeftubs.

Sunday
Weather – still hot and sunny.
Goose and Goosette have to go home to do that work thing, Lindsey goes off for her own nefarious purposes.
This leaves us, The Infamous Five, free to do a longer, and possibly faster, ride. Dumfries, the coastal tourist route through Dalbeattie and on to Kirkcudbright where we stop for a walk about because Kirkcudbright is such a pretty little place.
Gatehouse of Fleet makes a good lunch stop, the A76 to Newton Stewart a scenic chance to digest and then we head inland to Thornhill.
And finally the Dalveen Pass to Elvanfoot (and we all know what that means) before returning to Moffat.

Monday
Bye bye Moffat. See you next year?

Great précis Steve and thanks for putting the route down in writing. I just played follow my leader all weekend so it is nice to see where we actually went lol. Thanks for such an amazing weekend and ‘yes’ deffo for next year 👍👌💃🕶️🌞🏍️🛵