Crossing Bealach na Ba (Pass of the Cattle)

Today was one of the highlights we were looking out for, taking the Bealach na Ba to apple cross, most people we spoke said “don’t do it, it’s to steep. You blow up the engine”. Off course we knew better and headed towards the start of it.

On the way we passed Eilean Donan Castle, so we stopped for a visit. Donan Castle was built on an island, locked in between three lochs. Loch Duich, loch Long and loch Alsh. In history a very important watch out point and ruined somewhere around 1700. Around 1920 someone decided to rebuild it and now it’s open for public. It’s nice to walk trough, and it gives stuning views over the lochs. You can even see the Isle of Skye from there.

In the shop i found this cookingbook about food and Whisky. Off course I really needed to have that. 

The whole trip today was beautifull, with small roads, tunnels that only fits one car, and amazing views.

But the highlight definitly was reaching the top of the Bealach na Ba in one piece and without any problems. It’s a single track road with passing places and going steep uphill the first half, and then down offcourse the second half. Untill 1950 it was a dirt road, and untill 1970 it was the only way to reach Applecross. Nothing mutch changed after 1950. It has a bitumen covering, but isn’t in too good a shape and still looks more like a foothpath than a road. At most places it’s only about 3 mtrs wide.

At the top Tos really needed to cool down a bit before going downhill. The meet thermometer ended up being very usefull to the temperature of the coolingwater. 

Also a great moment for some pictures of our victory.

At the end of the road was Applecross waithing for us, so now we are enjoying a well deserved drink before heading to town for a meal.

We ended the day at the applecross in sitting on the terras. Enjoying the sun an local beer. We had exelent locally catched langoustine en lamb for dinner. During coffee with scotch whisky we saw the sun set. The temperature dropt rappetly after the sun went down, so we ended the night inside the pub with a rare, very nice whishy called Bunnahabhain. It was a special botle Small Batch distilled 18 years old one. Perfect ending of a perfect day.

Change of plans, visiting the Caladonian Channel

Yesterday evening we decided to change the startingpoin of our tour. Instead of going to inverness, and start the NC500 there at the official starting point, we would drive from Perth to Applecross, making Applecross the start of the NC500 for us. By doing so we would pass the Caladonian Channel, something I want very dear. 

And so this morning we started packing the Van, when our neighbour dropped by. He is driving this really cool, very expensive Maserati. But was also camping in this small tent with his wife, so funny.

Anyway, he really liked Tos, so much that he offered to swap his Maserati for it 😂. Naturaly we declined. But it still gave us a good feeling.

After saying goodbye we left the campingsite towards Fort August. At Perth we had some delay because of road works, but after that is was okay. The scenery was really fantastic, blue skys, great views, and an occasional sheep on the road. 

Just before Fort August we stopped at a petrolstation for some groceries. Supermakets are very rear here, so the petrolstations are also the lokal supermarket. Anyway, this one also had a carwash station. And because Tos was dirty, and the weather was nice, Tanguy decided to give him a bath.

Tos and Tanguy ended up much cleaner than before.

After the shower we headed on to Fort August to visit the Waterlock of the Caladonian Canal. We arrived at 16.30 hour and saw that the next lock passage would be at five. Good reason to waith and have a beer.

At five there was some action in the water, but unfortiunatly no boats who wanted to cross. So we had our beer for no reason, what a shame 😉.

Time to find a place for the night. Walking back to the van we saw another HY van parked at the Loch Ness tourist boat jetty. No way we could leave without a picture of the two cars together. 

After the picture moment our search for an overnight spot started. The owner of the loch ness van told us about a nice parkingplace in the forrest, sounded great, but at arrival there was this sign saying “no overnight camping”. And being the good tourists as we are, we  left the spot in search of a campsite. We found a camping on google, just a bit further along the road. It turned out to be a tents only camping. And also terrased, no way we could camp there. So we went back to Fort August, just to find out that the campsite there was still closed till june 😤. So we decided to continue our way heading to Applecross and stop at the first parking suitable for overnight camping. We found a nice laybye along the A887, so we diceded to spent the night here. 

The bbq was delicious and so was the whisky afterwards 😊

Day one, from ijmuiden🚢 Newcasle to Kinross

Yesterday we left sunny IJmuiden behind us.

This morning we woke up quite early and a little bit wasted from a very nice evening on the ferry.

We listened to very nice live music on the sun deck, actually enjoying the sun, and some beer and Hugo (my no.1 drink this summer), did some whiskey tasting in the shop, had a Dutch plate and gin-tonic for diner, listented to more music in the pub, and ended dancing in the night club. 

So waking up at six wasn’t planned, but luckilly we fell asleep again.

At eight we got our wake-up call and got ready to check-out. 

At nine we drove off the ferry, and at 9.30 we were on the road. 

Goal for the day was getting past the Forth of  Fifth bridge, and maybe to Perth or even Pitlochry. We took the coastal route along the A1. At Berwick-upon-tweed we left the A1 and drove into town for some lunch and coffee. Lunch was delicious! And being able to sit outsite in the sun did help.

Shortly after lunch we crossed the Scottisch border, felt like comming home.

At Edinburgh it was a bit busy, but still nothing really frustrating. Also a fog had appeared, so we missed the spectacular views while crossing the bridge.

Luckilly the fogg dissapeared later on, so when we left the mainroad for some smaller ones the Scottisch landscape was fully visable to enjoy.

At a gas station we asked for a nice camping. Last night was kicking inn, so finding a campsite was the best thing to do. This man in a very nice and very classic car from 1928, gave us directions to a camp site close by. The lady from the station gave us directions to another campsite, she even called somebody to check if it wasn’t too full of plastic camper vans. Very nice, and exactly how I remember Scotland 💙.

The first camp site didn’t exist anymore, so we went to the second one. Luckily we could park at the tent field, instead of lining up in the plasticbrigade.

Our neighbours are happy bikers, who are very nice and friendly.

The sun was shining at his best, so we can say that it is a very good  start of the holiday.

Met HY Tos naar Schotland

This saturday it is finally time for our three week Scottisch Holliday. Our first holiday in Scotland was in 2005. We went to the world meeting in our first HY van “Otje”. Before the meeting we did a road trip wich ended unwillingly on Skye. After a car accident involving us and a very large truck we had to leave Otje behind and continnu with a rented camper. Everthough the ANWB helpt us very well, it wasn’t the holliday we wished for. So since 2005 we always had the plan to go back to Scotland to finish the roadtrip as planned. 13 years later the day has finally come!

So this morning we left The Hague in our second HY van “Tos”. Otje and Tos are daughter and Father in a dutch childrens story, so that’s why our second HY van is called Tos. In the movie they drive a HY van.

We bought Tos shortly after we lost Otje, in 2005. When we moved to Scotland in 2006 We used Tos to take the first stuff with us. So it is acually the second time for Tos to visit Scotland. He even stayed in Scotland longer than we did. We left him, and most of our cars behind when we returned to Holland in 2007. They were stalled in a shed of a friend of Tanguy in Peterhead. It was in 2011, that Tos finally returned to us, still looking the same crappy way as we bought him. Then it took us another two years to completely renovate him and make him look the way he does now.

This morning we left The Hague at 10.40 hour, with 30253 km on the counter. After a short stop at the supermarket and liquor shop to buy the neccesary drinks for scotland (even whiskey is more expensive there), we took of to IJmuiden to cach the ferrie to Newcasle. We did a litle d-tour because our Tomtom was under the assumpion that it is oké to take a road that is closed, but we still arrived in IJmuiden way on time. Even early enough for a beer and lunch at restaurant “het hoofd van de Haven”. Tanguy took the fish and chips to get into the holliday mood and I took the dutch kroket because they don’t sell them in Scotland.

At 14.00 hours we drove to the check-in and at 14.50 hour we were save on board and in our hut. Fastest boarding ever.

Now we are enjoying a refressing drink at the sun deck, waiting for the ferrie to leave at 17.30 hours.

Dag 15, 16 en 17: Helsinki - Den Haag, via Travemünde en Oldenzaal

De overtocht van Helsinki naar Travemünde was vooral heel lang en saai. We vertrokken al later omdat veel vrachtwagens vertraging hadden door de sneeuwstorm in Helsinki. En onderweg hadden we tegenwind waardoor het ook allemaal niet opschoot.

Varen is ook niet echt mijn ding, ik word al zeeziek op een steiger, dus het waren lange uren gevuld met slapen, hangen en maar weer wat slapen. Uiteindelijk konden we vrijdagnacht om 01.00 uur van de boot af, drie uur later dan gepland.

Je zou denken dat we lekker uitgerust waren, maar niets is minder waar. We waren duf en gaar.

Gelukkig hadden we een hotel in de buurt geboekt dus snel daarnaartoe.

Onze verlichting achter had het grotendeels begeven, het ijs in de wielkas was op de boot gaan smelten en heeft waarschijnlijk toen het uit de wielkas viel de bedrading kapot gestrokken. In het donker rijden was dus niet zo’n goed idee. Gelukkig fungeerde Superfinn als achterhoede en deed het mistlicht het nog wel zodat we nog enigzins zichtbaar waren, we zijn veilig in het hotel aangekomen.

Daar was het eerst tijd voor een biertje, op de boot hadden we de hele dag niet gedronken omdat er noggereden  moest worden. Dat biertje ging er dus wel in. Ook team Utka kwam nog even buurten, gezelligheid ten top dus.

Om half vier dan toch maar weer naar bed. Ik was bang dat we niet konden slapen maar dat viel gelukkig mee. Al snel sliepen we als roosjes.

De volgende ochtend na een lekker ontbijtje onze autootjes nog even naast de porsches bij de dealer aan de overkant geparkeerd voor we weer op pad gingen.

En daarna de duitse snelweg op richting Oldenzaal. Na een stop in duitsland voor een vroege lunch met curryworst en schnitzel, en nog een stop bij de duitse groothandel om goedkoop wat wiskey in te slaan, waren we om klokslag vier uur in Oldenzaal waar het ontvangstcommitee ons al stond op te wachten.

Gert-jan’s moeder had heerlijke erwtensoep gemaakt, dat ging er wel weer in. 

Omdat we niet in het donker wilden rijden zonder goede verlichting, en omdat het gewoon ook heel gezellig is, zijn we bij de van Aspertjes blijven slapen. Om half tien lagen we al in bed en sliepen gelijk.

Na 10 uur heerlijk geslapen te hebben voelden we ons weer enigzins uitgerust. Tijd voor ontbijt en daarna maar eens kijken of we de verlichting weer enigzins aan de praat konden krijgen.

Dat is maar gedeeltelijk gelukt, maar in ieder geval deed het knipperlicht naar links het weer, maakt in ieder geval het inhalen weer wat makkelijker. De rest van de bedrading is echt aan vervanging toe, dat komt dus wel weer als we thuis zijn. Kunnen we gelijk wat extra lampjes achter boven aanbrengen 😊.

En nu dus de laatste kilometers op weg naar huis. Draakje heeft er zin in, het weer is heerlijk, een mooi ritje dus. Onderweg komen we af en toe de gebruikelijke “gevaaropdewegtypes” tegen, maar over het algemeen is het een rustig tripje.

Zo thuis de auto uitpakken, wasje in de machine en met de beentjes omhoog op de bank. Het waren 7000 mooie kilometers waarin in we leuke lieve mooie nieuwe mensen hebben ontmoet,herinneringen  zijn gemaakt, verhalen gecreëerd en genoeg inspiratie is opgedaan voor een volgend avontuur.