TEAM ADVENTURE
The team heads north in search of great roads, great scenery and a great new route
The North Coast 500 is a legendary road adventure. Atrue once-in-a-lifetime experience with a worldwide reputation. But there’s a problem. What if you don’t have an entire week spare to do it in? What if you’ve got a long weekend and that’s it? Or perhaps you don’t fancy haring around on a daily destination deadline – maybe you want to stop and take some of it in. Do not worry because help is at hand. Yep… we’ve been to the pub, had an argument and come up with a great idea.
It's a new route, one you can do in a day or two quite easily and one that takes in much of what the NC500 has to offer without the huge distances and potential of being either stuck behind a motorhome for most of it or terrified by bikers ‘getting the knee down’. The route description is part of this feature… as is the map, which is important because taking a wrong turn up in the Highlands can lead to a long detour. Saying that, any detour up in that part of the world is going to be enjoyable. Perhaps getting a bit lost is what it is all about.
Getting up there in the first place was a bit of a mission with Matts Tomkins and George, myself and Craig Cheetham all making our journeys in cars with varied pedigrees. What unified us all was the need to make the journey in affordable transport, albeit something that would make the trip truly memorable, too.
Craig won the motorway section of the adventure with his leather-clad Primera repmobile. Tomkins probably found the best balance between practicality and driving pleasure with his inherited Focus. Matt George had the best views with his ‘the sky is my ceiling’ E36 cabriolet and I was taking a punt in my £750 Coupé. Best noise and fastest… but flakiest build quality.
We all made it to the start of our adventure in one piece, minus a windscreen wiper on my part, the Fiat having developed a need to snap its water smearer halfway up Slocht. Still, we set off into a Scottish winter with bundles of hope in our hearts and miles of sweeping corners in our sights. The roads just got better and better as we headed away from Loch Ness and up into the hills. Here is why winter adventures really work. Roads that, in holiday season, are clogged, are suddenly free to enjoy. The odd car or lorry, and that’s about it. Suddenly you feel yourself falling back in love with the art of driving.
By the time we reached the Applecross Pass we are all in a state of bliss. The weather wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t horribly wet either, while the views were, at least, viewable as we climbed up, clinging onto the valley side and then negotiating hairpin after hairpin. It’s probably as close to an Alpine experience as you can get in the UK and it is
