Fleeting moments

The sun perked up as we crossed the Tay Road Bridge in Dundee

The weather hasn't been too kind over the past month, actually it's been pretty drizzerable with rain falling everywhere we have been every day. The few exceptions being a couple of days on the Isle of Man when the rain abated. It's very much curtailed, but not completely stopped, our motor bike riding.

After five days of continuous rain without riding we remounted and road the Kirkstone Pass in difficult conditions.

Actually the bike decided not to start after five days sitting out in the rain, but fortunately after a bit of coaxing from a couple of burly blokes we got it going again, just losing an hour of time. On another occasion in a wet Cotswolds the battery on the bike died and we had to get a new one. However this resulted in the security system/immobiliser locking us out of the bike. It was so wet and raining we had to wait a day before we could work on the bike electrics outside and bypass the alarm system.

A short sunny period in a very soggy Cotswold village.

The sun teases us for a few seconds in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Now I begin to understand the British obsession with the sun, when you haven't seen it for five days, and it's supposed to be summer, any glimmer of sunshine becomes a joy, even if only for a fleeting moment. Photography wise, moody shots in the rain are wonderful but trying to keep the camera dry in the rain without water all over the lens is a significant challenge. When the sun comes out to play there are fantastic scenes with little hills or fields of sheep being lit up with a spotlight. Trying to captures these is a challenge because most often when it happens there is nowhere for us to pull off the road safely, or if there is the ground is too soft to support the motorcycle sidestand!

A few moments of sun in the Lake District National Park

This week had have arrived in Scotland and the rain has continued, but there have been some extended sunny spells to keep us motiviated to ride through the rain periods. The little fishing ports along the coast in Fyfe provide some great photographic opportunities.

Pretty Pittenweem in Fyfe

Well Scotland is going to be the penultimate ride of our tour and so this will probably be my last blog for now. It's just a couple of days ride back down south to prepare the bike for sale to go. Thanks so much to all those who have helped us along the way, especially Mark and Sam who helped to get us out of a significant problem with the bike.

Finding a place to pull off for photography in the Yorkshire Dales.

I hope you have enjoyed joining us for some of the time, and as always, thanks for visiting!

Murray