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Ooops! I thought I posted it here too 
Here it is:
Day 1
After the torture of A9, the single track of B9176 was a nice change and a good taste of what was to come. I've done the A9 bit in one stint, it took me about 3 hours of constant driving, but I was very grateful when it finished. The A9 is a torture. Constantly stuck behind a lorry doing 40 mph and when you manage to clear it, 2 miles down the road is another one, and then another one.
Had my quick 2nd breakfast and a coffee just after Inverness and went on the B9176 to join A836, went pass the Bonar Bridge to follow the A836 all the way to Tongue.
Let me stop here for some few random thoughts. The A836 was a surprise. I was expecting a normal A road with lots of traffic. What I saw instead was a single track road with almost no traffic whatsoever going though some really desolated places and some nice views. A really nice surprise hence the decision to follow it instead of going through the Ben Hope road, I'll do this one next time.
After Tongue I turned to A838 to go to Durness. Now, I am normally a guy who does the research before doing something. Well, when I was planning the trip I dropped the little Google Street View guy in the middle of Durness to see what to expect. It turned out I dropped it in in the only bit of the whole road when it has a lane for traffic going in both directions. To my surprise, the A838 is mostly a single track mountain pass. It is a great road, but there was so much more better roads to come.
I left the A838 and turned into the A894 and then B869 to hug the coast as much as possible. Again, some amazing views, many stops for photo taking and coffee breaks. At the end I decided I was running a bit late and I still had soooo much more miles to cover.
Even though I was running late, I just simply could not stop myself from leaving the B869 and going right into this strange road that makes the B869 seem like a motorway. Now, this road is something special. A few thoughts though, I was running late and it was going dark pretty fast. The first bit of the road I done in a relative daylight, but the last bit of it was almost in the darkness. By the time I hit the Lochinver area I decided to ditch the camera and photography and just stick to driving to get to my room in Ullapool in reasonable time (at this point I already phoned them and said that I'm running late).
This road is a very narrow, twisty and sometimes very very steep (25% gradient) piece of road. There was not much traffic on it at all, I think I saw maybe 5 cars on it all the way along. Now, what also surprised me, was how long the road was. I thought it might be a half an hour detour, but in fact it took me much longer than that and, as I already mentioned, when I got to the Lochinver area, it was pretty much pitch black already.
The camera was back in my bag by then and I just decided to go for it. Because it was monday night, most of the locals were already home and there were no tourist at that point anyway (other than me - a crazy derelict lone freak) so the road was pretty empty.
So the rest of the Day 1 route was done in darkness, which I regret, becuase I am sure that there was some nice photo opportunities along the way.
I got to Ullapool around 8.30 pm. Got some fuel, booked into my room, took a shower, ate something and went out for 2 pints. Back to my room and was already asleep around 10.30pm.
Did not really got much sleep at all, because I was waking up every 2 hours to check the clock, for some strange reason I though I have overslept. Even though I had my alarm set at 5.30 am. I got up before 5. Took a shower, eat breakfast, had a strong coffee and went out to my car and to see what was a very nice morning indeed. It was about half an hour to the sunrise at that point and there was no wind whatsoever, the water was like a glass. It was still quite warm (I was in my tshirt).
Took some photos and back to the car.
Day 2 - the day of extremes.
The beginning of the day I was ecstatic. The roads were magnificent, the weather was gorgeous, I was in great mood and singing along the way. I was stopping very often to take pictures. IIRC it took me 5 hours to do 80 miles. No worries though, I had all the time in the world, so was not rushing. The whole area around the Poolewe was covered in milk-thick fog so the progress was slow for about 45 minutes as well.
I think I got to the car park somewhere in the middle of Loch Maree around 12 o'clock. Stopped for coffee and some food. As well as some photos.
Then I turned to magnificent A896 with many more stops for photos and coffee. All the way I had this thought in the back of my mind that I don't have to rush. Even if I do the last bit in darkness it won't matter, because my mian goal was the Highlands' West Coast.
Applecross pass. Now, this bit deserves its own paragraph. The road is great with some really good views and some nice twisty steep bits, but the traffic on it was absolutely horrendous. I think that I had to stop or slow down to let go or be allowed to go every 2-5 minutes. It was no problem for the first 20 minutes but after that it became a chore. And after I met a very nice pensioner and his wife in a black jag who refused to reverse downhill and I almost completely burned my clutch reversing steep uphill, I was quite tired.
Some more coffee breaks and I got to Applecross Inn and at the time I was already a bit fed up. I asked for a strong coffee and up I went straight to Bealach Na Ba. By the time I got to the bottom it was already around 5pm. The weather was getting worse, so I packed the camera back in its bag and I decided to do some driving.
When I stopped around the Loch Cluanie I was really struggling for motivation. The coffee stopped having any effect on me some time ago already and the amount chocolate bars and bananas for some quick energy boost I was stuffing was not helping much either. I decided that the only remedy was to do some more driving. This time with loud music and tunnel vision. I think it was around 6.20pm by then.
When I got to Fort William it was 7pm. I knew that the rest of the trip would have to be made in darkness. No problem. I stopped for a very strong coffee, loaded up my disc changer with some more extreme loud music and around half 7 pm I moved off.
Now, I've done the Glen Coe A82, A84 and A85 few times before, but never in darkness. Well, it is a bit different  Overtaking in a complete darkness with mountains around, deer everywhere was a bit like a russian roulette. At some point the car in front of me started breaking hard. I hit the brakes too. He narrowly missed a deer crossing the road (few seconds later and he would smashed into it and I would smash into him). From this point I think I saw 4 or 5 deer along the way just on the side of the road.
By the time I hit M9 I was completely shuttered and when my GPS turned me away from the motorway into a road that was closed for some roadworks, I was ready to give up and take a nap somewhere on the side of the road. I was really having trouble with navigation and my brain was just slowly shutting down.
I finally got home just before 11 pm and even though I was very tired, I went to bed around 1am and didn't get that much sleep at all. I was having some strange dreams and constantly waking up to check what time it was.
Anyway, it was around 30 hours of driving (with many breaks though) in the last 48 hours. I still feel the effect of it, but even though it was extreme I enjoyed it immensely and I already promised myself to go back next year, with some more time on my hands and maybe my family onboard (can't wait to the "are we there yet" and "do we really have to stop every 10 minutes to take photos" phrases).
Absolutely amazing part of the UK. So much different to the everyday roads we see each day. In some parts it feels like another planet. There were so many side roads that I wished I had the time to explore and so many places that I wished I stopped along the way as well. Also all of those places would look very differently in a different weather conditions. You just can't get bored of it at all. I envy people living there.
I don't advise you to do what I did and do so much driving in 2 days, but I do advise you to go up north to see those unbelievable locations that are so different to what we are used to see every day. |
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Author: =adrian=
Author
24-11-2019 22:52:40