Riding through a section of the Stelvio Pass
Main image: taking a
break high in the Dolomite
mountains
Article
10
POLICE WORLD
Vol 59 No. 4, 2014
The Scottish Motorcycle Touring Group was formed about a year and
a half ago to complement the Section UK Motorcycle Group allowing
local rides - often at the last minute, bearing in mind the ‘great’ Scottish
weather. The Group’s popularity has grown and it now has over 160
members on its Facebook hub. Tom McInally reports on their latest
adventure.
L
ast year we organised 15 events ranging
from evening rides to a trip to Germany
involving our IPA friends in Holland and
Germany. It wasn’t long before demand for a
longer ride gathered support and the Italian Job
2014 plan was hatched.
Section Italy was organising their 4th motorcycle
gathering in Panchia in Northern Italy and it
coincided perfectly with our plans. Soon we had
13 members signed up for the trip.
The interim
committee, consisting of Tom McInally, Dougie
Wright, Start Blaikie and Ian Buchanan, was
formed and the responsibilities were shared out
and the work on a plan commenced. We were
determined to keep the cost to £700 for the 14
nights which included everything including the
‘Chunnel’ home. With the ferry and tour booked
and deposits paid a guide brochure was printed
and it was green for go.
Unfortunately a tragic event occurred only weeks
before we left when one of our team, Alex Brown,
a former support staff member from Lothian and
Borders Police, tragically died in a motorcycle
accident on the Isle of Skye. Needless to say the
whole team was devastated by this news but, on
the insistence of his family, we continued with the
plans for the trip and on 30 May we set off from
various parts of the UK including Norwich, Wales,
Yorkshire and various parts of Scotland.
Many of us were meeting each other for the first
time at the ferry terminal in Newcastle but it was
one of those moments where we realised we had
a great bunch of people and the banter was soon
in full swing. We boarded the ferry and off we
set for Holland. Amusingly, two of our members
decided to take a nap in their cabin before
dinner. On waking they noticed that the time was
09.30, which, they thought, was half an hour
after disembarkation! On with the bike gear and
they insisted that the staff take them to the car
deck. After some resistance the staff obliged and
on entering the area they noticed no bikes had
disembarked and no one else was there... Yes...
it was 9:30pm and not 9.30am so red faced they
returned to their cabins.
Arriving safely we were met by our IPA
Netherlands Motorcycle Club friends and had
breakfast with them before exchanging gifts. They
then led us almost all the way to the German
border which was a great start to the day.
That
evening we reached Bad Lauterberg in the Harz
mountains where we were to stay for three nights.
In the morning we booked a guided motorcycle
tour of the mountains and organised a BBQ for
the following evening. The Harz mountains have
some fantastic twisty roads - with one section
boasting 35 bends covering only a few kilometres
of downhill road. Up and away we headed for
our hotel just south of Munich before heading
to Austria and through the alpine Grossglockner
pass and glacier into Italy and our destination in
A view of the Stelvio Pass
In the Dolomites
