Some good info on the overnight parking there - I did see lots of these bays and avoided them because I wanted to have a few beers. The last thing I wanted was to be asked to move when I was over the limit!
Definitely worth knowing for future trips though.
Anyway, the pics have finally uploaded to photobucket so here's a little write-up of where we went and where we stayed etc
Before we set off, we filled the van with Wotsits, cereal bars, beer and sleeping bags which altered the ride height nicely.
Pretty standard at the front:
With all the weight beer and curse word at the back:
We pumped up the tires, filled the petrol tank, bought a map and left late (4pmish) on Tuesday 22/03/11 with the milage (kilometerage) on the wagon at 231,932:
Leaving from Edinburgh, the three of us hit the M9 past Grangemouth and headed out towards Duke's Pass. We didn't have much light to play with seeing as we left so late so didn't get much further than this on our first day.
Got a few shots of the van just as the sun was going down from one of the view points off Duke's Pass and then set up camp in a small car park next to Loch Venachar.
Our first man fail was our inability to light a fire despite finding copious amounts of dry sticks and wood and dousing them in white spirit. Oh well! The van was pretty warm anyway with all our bedding and beer jackets.
The wagon provided us with light while we built our fire:
And has an interesting blue glow thanks to the previous owner's addition of blue LEDs for interior lighting!
We woke up thinking "curse word this, we should pitch the tent next time". This was the first time any of us had slept in the wagon so we clearly needed to work out some comfier sleeping arrangements!
Got a few more shots of the loch before we set off the next morning.
We took heed of generally01's advice and headed over to Crianlarich, Tarbet and Inverary.
Stopped for a break at Loch Lomond and got a few more snaps before taking a wrong turn and attempting a three-point-turn in a passing place on a single track road. I successfully reversed into a rock in doing so. Thankfully the wagon has a tow bar though so protected the back bumper! Man fail two!
Loch Lomond:
With the wagon enjoying the view:
And the wagon next to the rock that jumped out at me:
We trundled past Loch Awe...
...before taking the long route round Loch Leven which was a great wee road. So far I enjoyed this bit of road and Duke's Pass the most and would love to take my MR2 to them one day.
We continued on our way to Loch Linnhe where we saw some scuba divers and parked up for the night.
The third man fail came about when my friend attempted to cook sausages on the camping stove that we brought along. We didn't have any methylated spirits so white spirits ahoy!
Mmmmm raw...
This should help sort that out:
We still refused to pitch a tent and but refined the sleeping arrangements slightly to give us a bit of a better nights sleep. Even just two nights in we were a bit sick of Wotsits and cereal bars so we headed to Fort William for a McDonalds...
Saw a nice place to park up next to Loch Lochy so pulled up for another pit stop and photo opportunity.
There was a little waterfall/stream across the road so got a couple of snaps of it while we were kicking about:
We plodded on up to Invergarry and over to Loch Garry which was a pretty cool sight.
Somewhere along the A87 between Loch Garry and Eileen and Donan castle we spotted snow so stopped to frolic:
We rocked up to Eileen and Donan Castle for a toilet break and scope around. Didn't go into the actual castle itself but got a couple of shots around and about!
I was excited about the next bit of the journey - I'd heard good things about Applecross as it's right on the coast and the weather was good so I was prepared for some pretty epic views!
When we first joined the road out we saw a couple of Ferraris finishing their sting through Applecross though I was driving so didn't get any pictures of them unfortunately! Saw some maniac cycling up it as well - must've been knackered!
I was a little worried about how the van would handle this road 'cause it was the probably the most treacherous we'd been on by this point. There were some first gear hill climbing moments but we made it all the way to the top without a problem!
And there were some spectacular views from the top of the hill out towards Skye.
The roads were deadly quiet after this point and it was getting dark again so we decided to park up and set up for the night again. This was definitely the best sleeping site of the trip so far - the views over to Skye, Rona and Raasay were fantastic.
Got a room with a view too:
A bird curse word had been riding with us on the driver's door handle since we left:
And my stickers seem to have held up pretty well too!
A rogue packet of Wotsits...
We set off the next day and filled up again at Kinlochewe up the road.
And headed off towards Ullapool... this is somewhere in between!
Stopped for a chippy in Ullapool where we saw an MX5, Subaru Legacy, Evo and Porsche something-or-other that had razzed past us earlier that day.
We were making much better time than we originally thought we would so we continued North after stuffing our faces. I had originally planned this part of the route but removed it because we had to be in Inverness at a specific time to pick up a mate. But he backed out so we were much less restricted and could take it on again!
I think these pictures are from somewhere near Knockan - down the road from the Falls of Something! My rubbish navigator didn't have a clue where we were so we missed them, but still got some shots of another bit of falls just down the river.
I can't remember the name of this castle but it's on Loch Assynt and it began with an 'A'...
We decided to go on a little detour into Stoer to try and find somewhere to camp for the night and in the hope of seeing some more cool curse word.
The road was windy and single-track, with only nutjob locals driving on it:
A sheep got all up in our grill...
...before we rocked up to Stoer Point which is the home of a sweet lighthouse...
...and more stunning views out over the sea:
We didn't see a problem with parking up here for the night so that's what we did!
I opened the book of the wagon and used the rear seats as a tripod to take this shot of the lighthouse after night had fallen:
And another one once it got a bit stormier:
This one's from the lighthouse looking out at the wagon:
And the next morning's view off the cliffs!
We continued on our way up to Durness. It was nice to get on some roads that weren't single track, but they were just as nice and twisty!
We passed by Kylesku...
...and found a place to stop for a much needed toilet break...
Didn't get many photos between Kylesku and Durness but I'd love to go back up there again, the roads would be great fun in a sportier car!
We did eventually get to Durness, where pulled up to a quaint little petrol station.
A young chap sprung out from across the road and filled up the wagon for 147 pence a litre.. BARGAIN!
And we continued on along the north coast, round Loch Eriboll (also a nice wee road - can see if anything is coming up in front from miles away) to Tongue.
If you look closely in this picture you can see a stag checking us out...
...here!
After this we bombed down to just north of Bonar Bridge to kip for another night - was pretty knackered by this point!
The next day we continued south and avoided the A9 pretty much entirely, apart from here...
We continued over to Nairn before heading south towards Grantown on Spey.
A curse word-tonne of Lotuses past us while I was taking the above pictures. It was pretty stunning to see them all cruising along together, and you could hear them roaring off into the distance for miles! Nae pictures unfortunately though!
The last stint of the trip was pretty much solid driving. Blasted down over Cock Bridge:
Past Glenshee with its sever lack of snow!
And to my our mates' place in Dundee where we crashed on a living room floor rather than cramped up in the back of the wagon!
And that pretty much concluded the trip... with the odometer sitting on 233,332km...
which at this point was exactly 1400km!
MOT time come the 16th of April...
Hope there's not too much poor grammar and misspellings in here... it's taken a bit of time to write up! Hope you enjoy it.
