Your most memorable drive

Big Rat · February 10, 2017

10 minutes ago, Chuckie478 said:

About 3 years ago 2 friends of mine decided they were going to cycle Lands End to John O'Groats unassisted. They were a bit worried about what was going to happen either end so I volunteered to drop them off in Cornwall and pick them up 3 weeks later in Scotland. The trip to Lands End was uneventful and not really worth mentioning. We ended up staying the Friday night (after work) at the hotel right at Lands End and I pushed them off early the Saturday morning and I went back home.

I decided to make a bit more of a trip of the other end and with regular updates from my friends it was obvious they were going to make it to John O'Groats with a couple of days to spare. We had hotels booked for the "finishing" day so my plan didn't change and on one day mid-week 2.5 weeks after they started I left home in Somerset and drove over 550 miles to Fort William which was to be my rest stop for day 1. My plan was to get the crap bit out the way in one hit and then have a couple of days flying round the highlands before meeting my friends. 2/3s of the way up I was slightly worried I'd messed up as I was more tired than I was hoping for. Thankfully after getting off the motorway at Glasgow and going East around some roads I'd done a couple of years earlier in my BMW I had a petrol related adrenaline rush. 125 miles flew by and I ended day 1 where I was supposed to much more awake than I was expecting. Shame I'd missed dinner but never mind.

Day 2 was shorter but more fun. The road from Fort William to Mallaig is great fun and one I'd done a couple of times before. Up early for the blast down the A830 and stop in Mallaig for the ferry to the Isle of Skye and breakfast. A days hooning round the Isle of Skye was finished with a 70 mile trek to Inverness for the next bed (and I managed to get food too).

Day 3 was a bit shorter and the day I was meeting my friends in John O'Groats so north from Inverness and then cut across country and basically up the middle and across the top. I'd done the loop from Inverness to Ullapool, Durness, Thurso and back to Inverness in one day in my BMW a couple of years earlier (that's a different story). Thankfully this day was a bit shorter but no less fun. At the end of the day met up with my mates, loaded the car up with 2 bikes on the roof plus all their luggage (weighed 45kgs plus bikes) ready for the next day.

Day 4 showed a different side to the car. Having put up with me using much fuel for 2 days it was time to start the slog home, all 700 miles of it. 3 people, 2 bikes on the roof plus all that luggage (plus my stuff) and we cruised from John O'Groats to Carlisle for our midway stop. Comfortable, fairly fuel efficient (still got 30mpg) made this bit just easy.

Day 5 is more of the same from day 4 apart from more motorway. It's quite difficult to limit yourself to 70 even with all that stuff.

5 days and somewhere in the region of 2000 miles later I was back home and back to work Had to pay for the petrol I suppose Always amused me of peoples reactions being overtaken by a car with that noise and cycle bars on the roof

That's a heck of a lot driving, with my appetite I would have spent more on food than fuel !

Big Rat

Toothy · February 10, 2017

Great reading Chuckie.
I still have the map from trip I made last year...
Works out at 1600 miles. Probably a touch more for random detours. 36 hours of driving (not including the many, many stops) over 7 days.