This wasn’t going to be a big adventure. Just a wee Sunday ride out on Lora 💞 to give her a run, keep her battery okay and let you know that we’re both still here. I’d also fitted some new dog bones and wanted to make sure everything was all right, so that gave me as good an excuse as any to disappear into Galloway Forest Park for an hour.

There wasn’t really much of a plan beyond that. Ride from Dalmellington to Garryhorn, come back towards Dalfarson, find somewhere for a coffee and eventually go home again. Plus, of course, whatever other mundane discussion happened to enter my head along the way.

Act I – The Off

I headed out of Dalmellington towards the forest and, once we were clear of the village, gave Lora a little bit of stick. Up to the legal limit, of course. It doesn’t take much encouragement for a ZX-9R to gather speed and it was nice to let her stretch her legs for a while before traffic ahead meant settling back down again.

That was probably no bad thing because this wasn’t supposed to be a mad ride anyway. I’d fitted the new dog bones and really just wanted to see how she felt, give the battery a decent run and enjoy being back out on her. So far everything felt perfectly normal, which was exactly what I was hoping for.

Act II – The Sound

The road towards Garryhorn is hardly a punishment when you have to slow down either. Going past Eriff there are lovely views across Loch Doon, with the Rhinns and the Dungeon Hills beyond, and it was a cracking day just to be riding through it all.

Once the road opened up again Lora got another opportunity to stretch her legs a little more enthusiastically. She is still a ZX-9R after all, and occasionally it’s nice to be reminded of what she’s capable of. After that little burst of enthusiasm I settled back down and enjoyed a much more civilised cruise towards Garryhorn.

I was also listening to Lora as I went because I’ve been investigating the sound from her and working my way through the various possibilities. A ride gives me a chance to hear what she’s actually doing under normal conditions rather than sitting in the garage thinking about it, and nothing seemed particularly unhappy today.

Act III – A Brig

When I reached Garryhorn I stopped at the brig for a little while. There had been a lot of water coming down and the level underneath was very high, so I wandered over and had a look down both sides before deciding this was probably far enough for today’s little expedition.

If you carry on along the road from there, just around the corner it eventually turns into a path and heads up towards the old lead mines. It’s pretty cool up there and certainly somewhere worth exploring properly, but that wasn’t the mission today. I was going back towards Dalfarson to find somewhere for a coffee.

First I had to turn Lora around, which was slightly entertaining because the road was about as wide as she is long and I was rapidly running out of room. We got there eventually, at which point she wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about starting while hot. In your own time. Typical Kawasaki. She never did like hot starts.

Act IV – The Views

On the way back towards Dalfarson I had some other bikers come up behind me. I was filming, so I was sticking to the 60 mph limit and rather than have them sitting behind me I simply let them go past and carry on at their own pace. I wasn’t in any hurry anyway and the whole point of this ride was to have a nice cruise rather than get anywhere quickly.

The views were still doing a pretty good job of providing the entertainment and eventually I reached Dalfarson, where I stopped Lora and went for a wee wander. As usual it was extremely busy out there, which in Galloway generally means there was essentially nobody around.

Act V – A Gort

Once I was wandering around in all the motorcycle gear I caught sight of myself and decided I looked like some sort of 1950s alien or something. Hence, a Gort.

There are lots of little wee mounds around Dalfarson and I’d love to come back and climb all over them one day. For now, though, I was just looking for somewhere nice to sit. I spotted somewhere a little higher up that looked promising and thought I’d go up there for my coffee and look at the view for a while.

I didn’t want to go too far because I hadn’t brought any hiking gear, so I wandered around looking for a handy rock or something to sit on until I found a wee spot that looked about right. Up I went and, once I got there, the view was rather lovely. That would do nicely.

While I was sitting there I also provided the important news that I’m growing my hair again. Unfortunately I’m at that weird stage between it looking okay and looking shite, but I’ve got fed up with having short hair. I’m therefore currently in a land of confusion, although hopefully that particular crisis will eventually resolve itself.

Act VI – The Coffee and Pills

Once I’d settled down I got the coffee going and started talking about the more serious news from the last few weeks. I’d finally had all the hospital stuff done and got the results back, and it turns out that I did actually have a heart attack at some point in the past. They don’t know precisely when it happened, but the tests have shown evidence of previous damage and I’ve now been given the appropriate medication.

I became slightly distracted halfway through explaining this by a noise in the distance that sounded like a sawmill, followed by an attempt to work out exactly where the road I’d just ridden along went between the hills. It could have been one side of them, it could have been the other side; somewhere down there anyway. My usual precise navigational analysis.

Eventually the coffee was ready, which as usual was a posh latte, and I got back to what I was saying. I’ve been given statins, bisoprolol and aspirin, along with a fairly hefty dose of vitamin D because apparently I’m lacking in that as well. My heart rate, blood pressure and cholesterol and all that are sort of fine, but because of what they’ve seen from the previous damage they understandably want to reduce the risks anyway.

It just goes to show that you can have something like a heart attack and still think you’re functioning normally when you’re actually not. If there’s any useful moral to my rambling about it, it’s that if you persistently feel ill, get it checked. Tiredness isn’t necessarily just being genuinely tired, and there can be other things going on as I’ve rather conclusively found out.

Act VII – The News

There is some other news as well. Having announced that I had news, however, I then decided I wasn’t actually going to tell you what it was. I’m just going to do a video and show you.

Something different is coming and I’m quite looking forward to it. I know I’ll like it; whether everybody else does is another question, but I hope you all like it very much. You’ll just have to wait and see what it is.

By then I’d more or less achieved everything I’d actually come out to do. I could finish my coffee and head back because I thought I’d proved the dog bones were okay, which was the whole reason for the ride in the first place. Then it was home to make some dinner, relax for the rest of Sunday evening and go back to work on Monday as usual. Wonderful. Can’t wait.

I then started wondering what I was actually making for tea. Salad, pasta with tomato sauce and perhaps some southern fried chicken seemed to be the developing plan. Something a bit Mediterranean or Italian and vaguely healthy anyway. I’ll have to cut down on the pizzas, unfortunately.

Act VIII – The Gate

I started packing everything away and wasn’t going to bother rinsing the Jetboil because I was only about four minutes from getting back anyway. I had, however, somehow acquired a plant in it, which needed dealing with before I left.

I’d also discovered that my arse was wet. There were some cute little alpine flowers nearby, which I attempted to film before realising where the camera was pointing and having to clarify that I wasn’t deliberately trying to film my nuts.

On the more serious side, I think I’ve basically got to take things easy for a while, but not too easy. The doctor has said I’m still okay to cycle, climb mountains and carry on doing all that sort of thing, just keeping an eye on how I’m feeling because exercise itself is still important. I’ve still got to see the cardiologist for a follow-up appointment, so I’ll wait and see what she says as well, but in the meantime I’m just going to carry on. Most of the time I generally feel all right; I just get a bit tired.

By then food was becoming increasingly important, so I headed back and contemplated stopping at the Co-op on the way. Somewhere along the way I also decided I thought I was in the burn. Probably. My navigation skills have never been great really, so that was about as accurate a technical assessment as I was going to provide.

Act IX – A Conclusion

And that was really it. Just a little wee update rather than one of the enormous adventures. Hopefully normal service will continue with motorcycling, climbing, hiking, mountain biking and generally following my little wee adventures everywhere. Maybe further afield as well eventually, when I can afford it.

Thank you as always for watching and for all the likes, comments, subscribes and all that sort of malarkey. I really do appreciate it and I’m very grateful that people choose to spend some of their time following along, whether I’m halfway up a mountain, wandering around a forest or simply taking Lora out for a Sunday run.

By this point I was hungry, so I said goodbye and headed off to find something to eat, assuming I could persuade Lora to go into neutral.

Except apparently I wasn’t quite finished.

I spoke again shortly afterwards because I’d forgotten to mention one fairly important result from the ride. Lowering Lora by 25mm with the new dog bones had made absolutely no difference to the handling. She still felt perfectly normal, which was exactly what I wanted from the change.

Act X – The Shame

Then, almost at the very end, came the moment that gave the video its title. Lora suddenly reminded me of something fairly fundamental that I had somehow managed to overlook. Ah, you know what I’ve done? I’d forgotten to turn the fuel tap on.

What an idiot. How embarrassing. These things happen, don’t they? 🌚

Adventure Details

Date filmed: 13 September 2026
Published: 14 September 2026
Location: Galloway Forest Park
Bike: 1998 Kawasaki ZX-9R C1 “Lora”
Route: Dalmellington to Garryhorn to Dalfarson
Total ride time: 0.56 hours
Total time out: 1 hour
Ride distance: 22.4 miles
Walk distance: 30 metres
Ascent: 1,056 ft
Descent: 1,014 ft
Highest point: 994 ft
Lowest point: 538 ft
Difficulty: Literally a Sunday stroll
Total cost: Cup of coffee (free) and £19 for the dog bones
Items forgotten: Turning the fuel tap on and the side stand cup 🌚

Main camera: DJI Osmo Action 4, 4K 25fps, Wide Angle, RockSteady
Drone: DJI Neo 2
Handheld camera: DJI Pocket 3
Edited in: Adobe Premiere Pro 2024
Music: Clouds ©2026 John XploraLora