imgur gallery here: imgur.com/gallery/hpw2u (because I'm a whore for upvotes)
I finished work at 10pm last Friday night (26/2/16) and decided that I wanted to do something with my weekend off, so I threw my sleeping bag in the back of my car, dropped by the local Tesco for RoadTripSupplies (a four pack of Monster, a three pack of Jaffa Cakes and a bag of skittles) and started driving north. It was bang-on freezing when I left.
A wee while later and I'm driving up the A9 through the Cairngorms. You'll have to put up with this photo because I didn't pack my proper camera and there was no chance of my phone being able to pick up the starkly-sillhouetted hills against the inky-indigo sky; like giant ocean waves frozen in time; snow picking out ridges and making the hills look like the bleached skeletons of fallen giants.
I saw -11c at one point.
There's not much to see at night in the North East of Scotland, but I spotted these two through a window... As a kid, I'd have loved both of these. As an adult, I'd take the Astra because I can't be bothered being associated with Ford silly-billies
A few hours later, it was time to sleep.
I posted this on Facebook and left it at that.
After about three hours sleep, I decided to look at where I was. That's Duncansby Head Lighthouse, I had slept in the car park.
Guess I should follow that road, it's the only one out of here.
This part of Scotland is bleak; big cliffs, no trees, lots of wind.
Every time I looked West I saw interesting looking things on the horizon; guess I was right to keep heading that way.
American chod spotted.
Pushing West.
Interesting bits getting closer...
Owe you one for looking.
Due to my woefully inadequate food supplies, I needed hot food. I stopped at a cafe outside of a place called Tongue for a ham and cheese toastie. The proprietors were English. There was a gift shop, I bought an 'I <3 Tongue' mug for a friend.
The causeway at Tongue; the lady at the cafe had suggested crossing it and taking the coast road. Thanks cafe lady, it was beautiful. My much-abused Volvo (150 miles of tough country lanes a day doing my job) was clean when I left.
Getting up into the hills now.
Frozen lake.
Crystal clear water. I stopped here for a while and ate some Jaffa Cakes.
Yet another suggestion - a road sign said to turn off here for a 'scenic route'...
Yup, that was the right thing to do.
I spotted this utter hero in his 2CV; I think he was fairly local and just out for a drive. It made me think though; maybe I should have taken my '73 MGB GT instead. Although I'm 6'3" and sleeping in the (modern, comfortable, insulated) Volvo was only just tolerable. A tiny 43 year old sports car with no carpets and a roll cage? Hmmm....
Scotland is basically one giant drinks cooler for your favourite beverage.
I should probably apologise for the low quality of the photos. I could barely see the screen on my phone so most of these are just guesswork... But this one? This one makes me kick myself for not having a better camera.
Around here there was a sign that said 'Would you like to take the coastal road to Applecross?' (seriously, polite signs up there) so I thought I should.
The road started to climb...
...and climb....
I turned off the main road way way back at the furthest inlet over in the far right of this photo.
The sun started to set as I approached Applecross, I stopped for a while just south of Fearnmore and watched the sun play around as it went down over the islands of Rona and Skye.
I made it to Applecross, and had steak at the Applecross inn; no rooms but they let me kip in the car park and use their wifi. Quite surreal. I woke at 5am and watched the day break in between watching Youtube and browsing imgur.
Morning in Applecross en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applecross
The previous night a friend messaged me at around 11pm and told me that I had to go across the Bealach na Bà ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bealach_na_B%C3%A0 ) and back at night. It was haunting; headlights picked up the edges of the hillsides, and deer kept walking across the road. After breakfast at the inn I decided to go back across in the daylight and was left stunned by what I had driven through the previous night without even realising. This photo is from about halfway up the Western side.
Reverse view.
At the viewpoint.
Starting to head down the Eastern side of the pass.
This is my last real photo of the trip... I should have taken more but from this point south I took the A-roads which (thanks to EU funding) were wide, flat, smooth and grippy. I managed dozens of miles without seeing anyone else and was just enjoying the combination of good roads and beautiful scenery too much to stop for photos. The A896, A890 and A87 are sublime.
Unfortunately, the roads got busier and speed cameras started appearing more and more frequently as I approached Fort William so I took the decision to bail home on Sunday afternoon. Took this when I got home.
If you have any questions then post them below. I do this kind of spontaneous Bullplop quite often so next time I'll take better photos. Part of the reason for going up and around Scotland was to test out how I deal with sleeping in the car in cold weather; I'm starting to plan a much larger trip which will cover about 8,000 miles. I've learned several lessons from this one so a few more shorter trips should hopefully get me prepped
*n
I finished work at 10pm last Friday night (26/2/16) and decided that I wanted to do something with my weekend off, so I threw my sleeping bag in the back of my car, dropped by the local Tesco for RoadTripSupplies (a four pack of Monster, a three pack of Jaffa Cakes and a bag of skittles) and started driving north. It was bang-on freezing when I left.
A wee while later and I'm driving up the A9 through the Cairngorms. You'll have to put up with this photo because I didn't pack my proper camera and there was no chance of my phone being able to pick up the starkly-sillhouetted hills against the inky-indigo sky; like giant ocean waves frozen in time; snow picking out ridges and making the hills look like the bleached skeletons of fallen giants.
I saw -11c at one point.
There's not much to see at night in the North East of Scotland, but I spotted these two through a window... As a kid, I'd have loved both of these. As an adult, I'd take the Astra because I can't be bothered being associated with Ford silly-billies
A few hours later, it was time to sleep.
I posted this on Facebook and left it at that.
After about three hours sleep, I decided to look at where I was. That's Duncansby Head Lighthouse, I had slept in the car park.
Guess I should follow that road, it's the only one out of here.
This part of Scotland is bleak; big cliffs, no trees, lots of wind.
Every time I looked West I saw interesting looking things on the horizon; guess I was right to keep heading that way.
American chod spotted.
Pushing West.
Interesting bits getting closer...
Owe you one for looking.
Due to my woefully inadequate food supplies, I needed hot food. I stopped at a cafe outside of a place called Tongue for a ham and cheese toastie. The proprietors were English. There was a gift shop, I bought an 'I <3 Tongue' mug for a friend.
The causeway at Tongue; the lady at the cafe had suggested crossing it and taking the coast road. Thanks cafe lady, it was beautiful. My much-abused Volvo (150 miles of tough country lanes a day doing my job) was clean when I left.
Getting up into the hills now.
Frozen lake.
Crystal clear water. I stopped here for a while and ate some Jaffa Cakes.
Yet another suggestion - a road sign said to turn off here for a 'scenic route'...
Yup, that was the right thing to do.
I spotted this utter hero in his 2CV; I think he was fairly local and just out for a drive. It made me think though; maybe I should have taken my '73 MGB GT instead. Although I'm 6'3" and sleeping in the (modern, comfortable, insulated) Volvo was only just tolerable. A tiny 43 year old sports car with no carpets and a roll cage? Hmmm....
Scotland is basically one giant drinks cooler for your favourite beverage.
I should probably apologise for the low quality of the photos. I could barely see the screen on my phone so most of these are just guesswork... But this one? This one makes me kick myself for not having a better camera.
Around here there was a sign that said 'Would you like to take the coastal road to Applecross?' (seriously, polite signs up there) so I thought I should.
The road started to climb...
...and climb....
I turned off the main road way way back at the furthest inlet over in the far right of this photo.
The sun started to set as I approached Applecross, I stopped for a while just south of Fearnmore and watched the sun play around as it went down over the islands of Rona and Skye.
I made it to Applecross, and had steak at the Applecross inn; no rooms but they let me kip in the car park and use their wifi. Quite surreal. I woke at 5am and watched the day break in between watching Youtube and browsing imgur.
Morning in Applecross en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applecross
The previous night a friend messaged me at around 11pm and told me that I had to go across the Bealach na Bà ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bealach_na_B%C3%A0 ) and back at night. It was haunting; headlights picked up the edges of the hillsides, and deer kept walking across the road. After breakfast at the inn I decided to go back across in the daylight and was left stunned by what I had driven through the previous night without even realising. This photo is from about halfway up the Western side.
Reverse view.
At the viewpoint.
Starting to head down the Eastern side of the pass.
This is my last real photo of the trip... I should have taken more but from this point south I took the A-roads which (thanks to EU funding) were wide, flat, smooth and grippy. I managed dozens of miles without seeing anyone else and was just enjoying the combination of good roads and beautiful scenery too much to stop for photos. The A896, A890 and A87 are sublime.
Unfortunately, the roads got busier and speed cameras started appearing more and more frequently as I approached Fort William so I took the decision to bail home on Sunday afternoon. Took this when I got home.
If you have any questions then post them below. I do this kind of spontaneous Bullplop quite often so next time I'll take better photos. Part of the reason for going up and around Scotland was to test out how I deal with sleeping in the car in cold weather; I'm starting to plan a much larger trip which will cover about 8,000 miles. I've learned several lessons from this one so a few more shorter trips should hopefully get me prepped
*n
