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NC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿NC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
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NC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

November - December 2023
  • JG TRAVELS
First road trip in our finally finished campervan! Read more
  • JG TRAVELS

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  • Scotland Scotland
  • England England
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Camping, Couple, Home, Nature, Sightseeing, Wilderness
  • 1.3kkilometers traveled
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  • 22footprints
  • 19days
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  • JG TRAVELSJG TRAVELSNC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
    3
    1

    Day 10. Torrindon to Loch Maree

    November 27, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Today when we woke up and opened the blinds we saw a stag standing just outside. He's a local celebrity named Callum and very friendly, he came straight over to the van and even put his nose out to touch James. Afterwards, we headed to a local campervan point to restock all tanks and then onto Ben Eighe nature reserve. We had read about a must do mountain walk, it was 4 miles long and climbed upto a point half way up Ben Eighe, it was quite an adventure but a really well laid out path. We sat up the top for ten minutes before the long, slow and icy descent. Very good walk, definitely got the heart pumping.
    We drove down the Loch and decided to stop for the night after finding a cosy spot next to the Loch, great find! Cosy night in the van deserved after today's effort 😂🥶    Read more

  • JG TRAVELSJG TRAVELSNC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

    Day 11. Loch Maree to Badrallach

    November 28, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C

    Today we woke to a lovely morning, after a cold night in the best pitch. We had some breakfast and headed off upto Badrallach, en route we stopped along the way, a Nato submarine base at Loch Ewe which was cool. We then headed north to a funny sounding place called Melon Uldridge where we played on the beach with Maddy and had a kick about with a football. After a while we headed back to the van for some lunch, we realised then that we had little water so then slowly headed off on a scenic drive to Badrallach where there is a year open campsite at the end of a 20min drive around the Loch. When we arrived it was all loched* 😂 up but after a making contact with the owner, he gave us the code and told us how to turn all the electic on. We took Maddy on a short walk and had a great shower before hunkering down for the night.Read more

  • JG TRAVELSJG TRAVELSNC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

    Day 12. Badrallach to Stac Polladiah

    November 30, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C

    The following morning we realised that we didn't refill our tank before heading down the field, we knew this would go one of 2 ways with the grass and mud, either will be successful or we won't be able to go back onto the grass. The gravel track wasn't wide enough for the van, so it was quite slippery trying to go uphill for water, and even worse once the tank was full. The owner of the campsite then came down to meet us, which was slightly embarrassing with a semi stuck van!
    The owner suggested we parked up at an area half gravel half grass, James managed to turn the van around and back it into the space. Our electic hookup wouldn't reach that far and we both noticed a strange smell.... I went to have a look around and discovered we were about 5 metres in front of the sess pit.
    After all that effort, we concluded that we weren't prepared to pay for another night here as we can camp for free without smells 😂.
    After packing everything back into the van, we headed off to Ullapool to restock on food, fuel and gas- which we managed very easily with no hastles.
    We continued north and ended up at a car park at the bottom of Stac Pollaidh. The car park was big and flat, but next to quite a busy road.
    We explored the area with Maddy, then had a Thai green curry for supper, before playing rumikub and listening to some old tunes from back in the day with some beers. Was a lovely night!    Read more

  • JG TRAVELSJG TRAVELSNC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

    Day 13. Stac Palladiah to Kylesku

    November 30, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ 🌧 4 °C

    Today was a beautiful morning, we were going to walk to the top of Stac Palladiah but decided to carry on along the NC500 as we woke up later than planned. We followed probably the most scenic back road yet viewing the Summer Isles and surrounding islands, following the sea all the way to Lochinver. We think we saw 2 seals, only problem with the road was the length we are.. The road was for max 8 mtrs and we are 6 so when we met people it was a nightmare especially when we passed another ambulance same size as us😬 after safely navigating we got to Lochinver. We were both desperate to have fish and chips so stopped at one of the first cafes we have found the whole time up in Scotland still open and had some. The recommendations said they were amazing and they certainly were.
    We enjoyed this and then restocked tanks before taking Maddy on a riverside walk, the falls were raging so it was super cool to see. Upon returning we headed along the road to a castle ruins and walked as close as we could get. Afterwards we headed down the road and turned off towards Drummeg, we found a lovely park up with great views. Tonight is going to be a cold one so got the van toasty ready for a cold night, the van stays at 19 degrees easily throughout the night so we hardly notice inside. We had a lovely spaghetti bolognese and watched 007 show on amazon , mum you must watch it, it's so good! Heading into the Lonely Lands tomorrow onwards, where they have the lowest population in the whole of the UK and basically nothing about... But we can't wait to get even more wild.. 😁    Read more

  • JG TRAVELSJG TRAVELSNC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

    Day 14. Kylesku to Durness

    December 1, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 3 °C

    The weather was amazing this morning, glorious sunshine but very cold. The road was glistening with the ice.
    The roads seem much more narrow up here, with literally no room for error, even trickier with the ice. We succesfully managed to drive down to the main road and start our journey to Durness.
    Our first little stop off was at Old Blairmore beach, once again the whole beach to ourselves. Maddy had a run around and managed to find a dead seal washed up, which was really sad. We stayed on the beach for a good while, playing football and throwing maddy's ball.
    After walking back to the van, we had a quick bacon sarnie and carried on our journey - next stop Smoo Cave! Smoo Cave has the biggest entrance of any sea cave in the UK. Allt smoo plunges 25 metres down a sink hole into an inner cave.
    Smoo Cave was a great little visit, there was a launderette just up the road from the car park, so we put a wash on whilst we had a look around smoo Cave. The waterfall in the cave was so powerfull and loud and the cave was lit up with pretty lights.
    Finally our washing was done, we sat in the van and had a tidy up whilst the washing was drying and planned where to stay for the night.
    Luckily, there were loads of places to park up, we had a choice of three close to eachother and decided to stay at the spot most northern facing to see the northern lights.
    We weren't disappointed at all, lots of activity that you could just about see by eye, but really vivid through a camera. We stood outside in the freezing cold taking loads of photos, I had to keep retreating to the van as my hands felt like they were going to fall off, fair play James for staying out so long!
    We warmed up inside and had some more venison for supper, it's so good! We then opened our Colin the Caterpillar advent calender, cheers mum and decorated the van with Tinsell.
    Afterwards, we played rumikub and watched some Netflix and headed to bed.    Read more

  • JG TRAVELSJG TRAVELSNC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

    Day 15. Durness to Skerray

    December 2, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ⛅ 1 °C

    Another beautiful but frosty start this morning , with sheep bleating outside our window !
    After a quick cup of tea and a freshen up , we headed toward Skerray , only about an hours drive away .
    The drive was super scenic , with snowy hills next to us and frozen lochs dotted around. We stopped off along the way when we had signal to do some research , we also took Maddy on a little walk as the area was so pretty .
    We continued to a little park up at Skerray harbour . The little twisty roads were really starting to get icy , but all was good and we got there safely .
    There was a tap with drinking water there , so James thought we should empty our drinking water tank and get fresh water . Not surprisingly , the drinking water tap was completely frozen . Not to worry , as we still had about 3 litres in bottles , phew !
    Braving the cold , we walked down to the harbour with Maddy , sliding all the way down the ice on the road . We didn’t stay for long before heading back to the warm van .
    We had an early supper tonight , pork and Mediterranean veg tray bake , it took ages to cook. Luckily we were distracted by the northern lights outside.
    After a few rounds of rumikub and some reading , we made some tea and headed to bed . Temperatures cold tonight , but Van stayed toastie.    Read more

  • JG TRAVELSJG TRAVELSNC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
    1

    Day 16. Skerray to John O' Groats

    December 3, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    Today we woke up to our coldest night yet - 7, not surprising as we are not far from the place where the lowest ever temp has been recorded in the UK. Mad to think weather has been this cold at home. All the tanks frooze overnight , luckily we carry water on board and got a heater we can use to defrost the tank when driving. It was - 3 when we left around lunchtime after giving Maddy a very quick run, luckily the Scottish are set up for winter and all the roads were gritted and safe with only a couple of patches of black ice. We headed along the top coast and although still pleasant scenary, definitely not as nice as the previous few days. So we decided to drive all the way to John o Groats as it was too cold to do anything today also. Along the way we saw some crazy blokes heading out with surfboards. We also stopped at a Nuclear power station to have a quick look from a viewpoint, not to exciting 😂. You can go for a walk along the beach but apparently it's radioactive so we gave that a miss... We stopped at Thurso to restock food and fuel and found a Lidl... So we went abit mad and struggled to fit all the food into the van😂. We stopped at Castle Of Mey, which was the Queens mothers house which was beautiful but sadly closed. We then drove onto John o Groats campsite as tonight is the night for our every 5 day shower.. We do however stay very clean with flannels washes everyday. This is quite a posh campsite but right next to the John o Groats sign.. Its expensive at £32.50 but looking forward to a good shower and plugging in for the night to restock batteries 🤓🤓.Read more

  • JG TRAVELSJG TRAVELSNC500 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

    Day 17. John O' Groats to Helmesdale

    December 4, 2023 in Scotland ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    We woke up and took full advantage of the amazing showers at this campsite, feels like being in a warm pressure washer 😂. Afterwards we headed to the famous sign to take the obvious John o Groats pictures, we also headed upto the Duncansby head lighthouse to go and have a look at the Duncansby Stacks which were interesting, but it was very cold so we headed on.
    We wanted to visit 4 castles enroute today but only 1 allowed visitors, it was called Sinclair and Girnigoe which in its day was a magnificent castle and still is one of the best to visit in Scotland. We drove through Wick which was dreary but temptingly average house price is £120k... We drove down the east coast and decided to fast track another day as wasn't an awful lot to see and we could see mountains in the distance, so we headed for them. Enroute we stopped at Whaligoe steps, which is 300 steps etched into the cliff side and has been used for 300 years for fisherman bringing in their catch. We didn't walk down due to conditions and James slipped over twice on the boggy path to the lookout, which was hilarious. Still happy we went to have a look though.
    Afterwards the roads started to get more icy, so we decided to find a park up. One had a short but steep entry and unfortunately we headed a little to far forward so had to go down it and attempt to get out, this was fun.. But erm stressful haha. Afterwards we headed down the road and found an icy pull in so made camp for the night, we were both slightly anxious about getting off from here but luckily managed to with ease... We watched BBC series "Time" which is super addictive and had a lovely massaman curry then went to bed.    Read more

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