The NC 500 trip write up

[AMCQ46]

After NI trip a few of us had decided to add a trip to the highlands and to do the NC500 route.

We landed back from Ireland noon on Monday and headed back to the farm to find the vans and for Kev to fit a new back tyre.
Mark and I cheated a bit and dumped our luggage in Kevs van.



So for the trip up from sw Scotland on the Monday we caught a few rain showers but mostly dry.


This was the small ferry from
Gourock to Dunoon where we stopped on the way up.
Not much going on there!


1 night in Dunoon





Then next morning bright sunny day for the ride to Invergorden. We followed this route but when we got to fort Augusta we went on the B roads on the south side of the loch.



The trip meter as we left Donoon showing the total mileage since I set off for Ireland on Thursday.



Only took photos at Inveraray





But you could happily spend a full day on the roads on that western area above Glasgow, and it is a great way of avoiding the tourist queues that clog the road that goes up past Loch Lomond.

But our goal today was to get to basecamp at Invergordon

Then decamped at Tatties cottage and went to the shop for beer.





Invergordon is on the coast and looks to be famous for being where the oil rigs come in for repair.



The official NC500 route looks like this


But we planned to base in one location and do 3 loops.


To be continued.


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[Dickiebig]

Looks great! I would be very concerned about fueling how did you overcome this issue ? Are the fuel stations on these routes

[AMCQ46]

Looks great! I would be very concerned about fueling how did you overcome this issue ? Are the fuel stations on these routes

last time I was up here was 25yrs ago on a 350LC, and it was a very real problem, especially on a sunday when everything was closed, but now there are a lot of places with a 24hr self service pump now, and I had their location marked up on a map so we could plan round them

I had 2 extra cunning plans

1) I used the KTM adventure bike with at least a 200mile tank range
2) I carried a 5l can as back up for the storms

[uk13iker]

Looks like you’s had a good week on the bikes. NC500 is another trip on my list to do I know Kev likes it so maybe can organise another one up there next year.


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[AMCQ46]

My gas stop map




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[Dickiebig]

Top man, your on the money there!
Interesting, what was it like, I understand alot of locals are unhappy with, in particular, camper vans?

[AMCQ46]

Top man, your on the money there!
Interesting, what was it like, I understand alot of locals are unhappy with, in particular, camper vans?

I think the camper van problem is caused by multiple issues, and based on what I read on one of the camper Forums it looks like:
1) they are a growing hobby so there are many, many more doing this visit, and a lot of them are hired for the week so the drivers don't have too much clue about the rules.
they are blocking the single track roads by stopping in passing places to get out and take photos,
they are not pulling over to let others overtake,
they don't know how to get the vehicle round the hairpins on applecross pass.
2) they are seen to be putting nothing back into the local tourism sector, as they do the big shopping in Inverness, then don't use local shops, restaurants, B&Bs or campsites etc.
3) they don't understand that the Scottish rules on wildcamping are only for tents not motorhomes till they get there, so there are groups of them filling up carparks at night and causing a lot of "no overnight parking" restrictions to be introduced.
4) they are accused of leaving a lot of litter when they move on, And perhaps the worst is they are seen dumping chemical toilet waste.


on the plus side, I thin the COVID restrictions had slowed down this years van attack on the Highlands, so although I saw a fair few Vans on my trip, it wasn't the overkill numbers I had read about

[AMCQ46]

Wednesday forecast was good and We knew Thursday was going to be wet, so we wanted to make sure we did the best roads in the dry.
So for Wednesday we chose the north west loop.


Trip meter at the start of the day.









Firestorms having a drink





The roads crossing the Center are all single track, but a lot of the coast roads are the most amazing flowing conventional a roads.

A lot of fun


Mileage at end of the day.



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[sirch345]

It looks like you had a great time

Thanks Al for putting this up, and for including the photo's

The KTM with the bigger fuel tank came into it's own on this trip,

Chris.

[Pete.L]

Scotland, sunshine, bikes and mates. Not a lot could be better than that.



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[Dickiebig]

Scotland, sunshine, bikes and mates. Not a lot could be better than that.



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A little tipple to toast the end of the day, perhaps

Tbh it all looks fantastic

[AMCQ46]

What, like this?






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[Dickiebig]

What, like this?






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[rollingthunderx2]

You passed my work on the West coast.Achiltibuie up from Ullapool.
Great roads there.
In my 20s a run on Sunday was thurso to Ullapool for dinner then back to catch the pub.

[AMCQ46]

Realise I stopped the write up after the 2nd day, so heres the follow on.

There was a bit of an incident at the end of day 2 and sorting that out resulted in the whole of day 3 being lost for riding

So day 4 (Friday) was going to be the last dry weather day ( in fact the forecast for Saturday was going to be grim!!! ) so after much deliberation , a few of the lads decided that with 600 mile ride to get back home planned for Saturday, they elected to avoid the rain and head home Friday.

I decided that I had come all this way and I wasn’t going to go home till I had seen some more of the highlands, and if I got wet on the way home.... so be it.
so a solo trip out to Applecross was my plan for Friday.



Top of Applecross pass. Not much traffic






Then lunch stop at Sheildaig … recommended




Now on the way back home, the sun is out near Dundonnell



Then stop for a shandy




Then Back to the cottage for beer





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