England|Summer ’23: Motorcycle touring|The Lake District to Edinburgh via the Kielder Forest Drive

Greetings YouTube! Join me as I leave the Lake District and head North to Scotland. I travel via the Kielder Forest Drive, a stunning 12-mile-long gravel road cutting a lonesome path through the Kielder Forest in Northumberland. Did anyone mention Midges?

Greetings YouTube and welcome back to my channel I’ve just ridden the hard not pass we’re about to head to the Kilda forest and then Scotland and the NC 500. let’s have it So having just ridden the Hard Knock pass and the Rhinos pass not to mention Newlands and Hollister earlier today I’m now on my way to the Kilda Forest so I’m going to do the Kilda Forest Drive which is a 12 Mile unpaved Road through the forest it’s the

Toll road I think it’s about four pounds something like that quite happy to pay that and uh I’m not quite sure where I’m going to end up tonight to be honest I’m ultimately heading to Scotland and to do the NC 500 the North Coast 500 route in an anti-clockwise Direction starting

At Inverness castle and working my way all the way around back down past Fort William and then and then that’ll be that little Northern tour over however um I seem to do miles and miles out of my way all the time just uh just to um get some decent footage now

The sat nav wants me to go back over hard knock pass I’d rather not to be honest I’d rather take a more Main Road and just get there I’m going to see if it recalculates if it doesn’t recalculate something in a second I will do it but

I kind of want to quit while I’m ahead to be honest it was a pleasure riding over it to film it for you see what happens if I ignore this U-turn they want me to do working our way along the coast now from get out to the coastline in the

Lake District and just past the seller field nuclear power station so by doing the Kilda Forest Drive I am taking a another slight diversion not too much I think not as big as diversion as I did earlier when I went back down south to to ride hard not pass

But a diversion nonetheless but I think it will be worth it it’s not every day in the UK that you get to ride 12 miles of unpaid Road so I kind of feel when I’m up this way and I’m near to it I should make the most of into it

Interesting to see and now six does now of it just sits there happy or it it’s not of course I will never trust it again now even if it decides to start working I’m sure the eagle lied amongst you would have noticed that I had a bit of a switch round I’ve positioned the iPhone where I can actually see it and uh BMW and F6 seems to be working again now but I put it onto Compass mode just to check I’m heading north from Mindy North and it seems to be agreeing with me so I’m sorted at the moment I’ll

Probably try and give it the benefit of the doubt again and see if it’s gonna behave itself but I do have a backup with the iPhone thankfully and then I have a backup with paper maps which are altogether less convenient on a motorcycle anyway says 48 minutes till the kill the first drive

Foreign and we are about to enter Scotland Scotland welcomes you hello It is very very nice to be back quite sure whether for this paved Road I aim to ride whether it’s going to take me back out of Scotland again so England or not I’m not sure we’ll find out soon enough so there we go passing back into England

Again briefly been in Scotland back into England to do the Kilda Forest beautiful Northumberland and when I come off of the Forest Road I’ll be heading back into Scotland again foreign I like it a lot I’m almost at the start of the unpaved road if Google Maps isn’t lying to me

Sincerely hope it’s not even if it was fully functioning I don’t think the BMW now six would have got me here couldn’t no matter how many times I inputted it it didn’t want to come up with killed a Forest Drive that’s on the sign fingers crossed it’s still open

Or is it nearly half past five well I’ve been on the road now probably six and a half or so hours killed a Forest Drive so it says rough surface suitable for 4×4 Vehicles possible by other cars with care 12 miles please pay a tall machine I’m very very happy to do that

All right right let’s have a look and that allows me to ride 12 miles of unpaved road which is a bargain I think there we go so should a ranger stop me I’m all good to go right here we go the the sun has gone in now whilst I was just answering a

Message but hopefully it’ll come back out I first read about this this route this uh unpaved Road in the adventure bike rider magazine I thought that’s a bit of me so it’s gravel for 12 miles hopefully nothing too too frantic it shouldn’t be and uh ABR say it’s absolutely fine on a big

Adventure bike sometimes a bit sketchy in the wet but it’s not wet at the moment so I’m looking forward to this very much and that’s the end of the tarmac there we go or is it I don’t know this could be the end of the tarmac there we go

It’s a little bit wet but the sun’s return there you go awesome so it has obviously rained here because there are puddles so it will take it a little bit easy but what a treat to be on an unpaved Road in the UK to be behaving itself now it’s bizarre oh it’s stunning

Really lovely nice and remote I do love standing on the pegs on the bike like I’ve said before it suddenly feels like I’m just gliding or flying through the countryside through the environment Great Road some of the gravel is quite big and loose so I will take care You do seem to have a place to myself brilliant [Applause] Beautiful colors you love the look of the Heather so I think the plan after I’ve exited the forest is to find a campsite somewhere near Edinburgh for tonight and then that’ll set me in good stead for tomorrow morning I can get up head to Inverness locate the castle and start the NC 500

From there which is the officially start to finish of it interesting to see if it’s as well signed posted as the wild Atlantic way which was an incredible infrastructure of signposts when I did it a couple years ago I don’t remember the signpost so much but maybe they are

That’s not every day I get to ride something like this But it’s a real treat talent to myself I can imagine during the day it could be um incredibly busy during the weekend or something you fried eggs though I’ve had it in my head that it’s been Saturday all day but it’s Friday so obviously at ten to six on a Friday

Evening if you want to taste a little bit of wilderness and unpaved Road this is the place to be halfway through it six miles to the a68 Travelers I don’t want it to stop want to stop for a second and uh see how quiet it is [Applause] Right I’m Gonna Stand still let’s see how much noise we got not a sound well I have been eaten alive by midges so it’s time to get going again and if you can see them flying around absolutely loads and loads loads of ninjas so let’s get moving and get away from them

Oh the gravel was quite loose under tire at the moment that’s okay keep my wits about me a little bit already been bitten all over my face I stopped for five minutes just to take a few photos that’s nice I like that I’m sure they’ll provide an awful lot of

Shelter but it’s nice yeah I stopped to take a few photos for five minutes and uh got eaten alive and I can’t get to my insect repellent without taking all my camping gear off the back of the bike so I thought I would just tough it out for a minute foreign

Must be getting near the end now I should have looked looked at what my mileage was before I started there’s the first person just as I get to the end riding a gravel bike as you’d expect very nice too I’d enjoy that right hopefully I’ve got some signal on

My phone now and what I’m going to do is see how far and how long it’s going to take me to get back to Edinburgh or back to Edinburgh I haven’t been there yet Forest Drive continue straight on not quite done yet anyway yeah I’m going to

Have a look see how long it’s going to take me to get to Edinburgh it’s quarter past six now I’d like to be if I possibly could I’d like to be putting my tent up within the next couple of hours it’s getting later in the season now so not so much daylight

And I’d like to get settled I still need to eat something but I don’t think it’s going to be anything particularly special today for uh my evening meal it might even be something as as challenging as a sandwich from Petrol Station I don’t know or maybe I can find myself a pub

And get a meal somewhere I’ll work it out as we go along as I often say the fact that I don’t have a plan is the appeal to me look at that that looks absolutely beautiful as does the sunshine back on tarmac now to concentrate quite so much all right

See if I’ve got any kind of signal keep forgetting that my iPhone won’t work with my gloves yes I have right okay I’m gonna sort myself out that was brilliant I loved every second of that I really did home for the night yeah I think I recognize this

In which case there will be a chance of a hot meal and a pint of beer and a hot shower which all works for me at the end of a long day on the bike the people about see it’s a lot busier than when I was

Here it was April last time I had the place to myself just about cool somewhere to lay my head When I’m settled the tents up and uh I’ve just eaten a sandwich and something simple so it’s time to end the video today I’ve got ourselves from the Lake District all the way to just outside Edinburgh and in the morning it’s off to Inverness to start the NC 500 I hope you

Really enjoyed today’s episode if you did please give it a like And subscribe and I’ll see you in the next one bye [Applause] thank you