N YORKS, TWENTIES PLENTY, SCOTLAND TOUR JUNE 2018

[David-hrv]

My lips are sealed. Just keep making the payments into my account!

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

Now I am back, I thought I would do a bit of a write up of our trip for anyone interested.

Big thanks to everyone who took part and contributed in our trip this year. Gary, Trina, Terry, David, Elaine and Judder. Not forgetting all the people along the way who shared in our adventures.

First day was an early morning start in glorious sunshine and onwards to Darlington to meet Terry.Terry has just rebuilt his car and it looked amazing in the carbon fibre wrap and side skirts.

We made our way north via Kielder Forest and Hadrian's Wall before meeting Gary and Trina at the Kelpies.

The Kelpies are 30 meter high, horses head sculptures  that light up on a night and you can also visit the inside of the sculptures. They sit within a canal boat turning pool and there is a cafe and toilets but you have to pay for parking.

We then headed for Aberfoyle and the Dukes Pass which would be our first twisty and scenic road. However I would not recommend visiting here again as the roads around Aberfoyle are in a shocking state and we where constantly avoiding potholes.

We had a near miss here. A car in front of me just hauled his breaks on as a bus was coming pretty fast round a blind corner on a single track road. I ended up Turing into the path of the bus to avoid the car, Gary banged is breaks on to avoid the back of Buttercup. No harm was done but poor Trina got a bit of a shock.

Anyway we tracked on and arrived at out hotel at 7.20pm. It was a quick sign in and then straight back out again. 

We ventured past the "Three Sisters" and then straight down beautiful Glenetieve. This place used to be stunning and so quiet but now its full of camper vans and people parking cars on the verges and leaving rubbish. Its a bit of a disappointment but the place is still stunning. We ventured down to the head of Loch Etieve which was full of campers and people lighting fires.

We had a mooch around before venturing back on single track, twisty roads and in the dark. This was absolutely great fun. However when Terry got back to his hotel, he found they had locked the doors.  

As we came back it was around 23.15pm as we ventured towards the hotel and a rescue helicopter was circling high above. Hope everyone was ok and they all got down safely.

 

 

 

 

 

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

Second day was beautiful sunshine once again.

We had a great visit to the Commando Memorial at Spean Bridge. The cars attracted so much attention and we spoke to so many people here. Terry had a lady of around 70 years of age who asked to sit in his car. She negotiated the full roll cage and had a whale of a time. She looked so happy.

The memorial soon cleared and I set my iron flying but could not get a video feed. Turned out to be a dodgy SIM card so no film. Means I just have to go all the way back again.

As we left the memorial, there was an MX5 coming towards us. The passenger was stood on the passenger seat and I wondered what was going on. Before he even got to us, he was waving, smiling and shouting, "Its Buttercup". It was a brilliant moment and a great suprise. We later received a message on the forum and it was Alfascozzesi who had been following our adventures on the WWW.

We had to say goodbye to Terry at this point. Thankyou so much for joining in our adventure Terry. You where such great fun and we all enjoyed your company. Thanks also for the petrol. See you next time. 

Glenfinnan was the next stop. As we stopped in the carpark, a chap offered Gary his car parking ticket as he was living. Within seconds a car park attendant pounced and threatened to fine the man. It was so heavy handed and uncalled for.

We then ventured round the beautiful Ardnamurchan Peninsula. This area is beautiful with amazing scenery and roads. All single track but very twisty and scenic. 

We visited the Arnamurchan Lighthouse. This is the most westerly point on the British mainland.  Just make sure you have a full tank of petrol before visiting the lighthouse. You can get fuel at Strontian. The roads are really twisty on this road so just go steady. Great cafe and toilets with free parking. I ordered a tea for one and got 5 cups out the teapot. 

Just make sure you follow the traffic lights at the lighthouse. Not like the idiot who couldn't wait and had to reverse his car back round twisty and blind corners. One chap did the same and damaged his brand new Mercedes.

 

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

Day three was once again very hot with full sunshine all day.

We met with David at the Commando memorial before heading for the Isle of Skye via the Glenelg Ferry. The ferry sails over the Kyle Rhea straits and they looked absolutely beautiful. The paddle steamer, "The Waverley" was due later that day but unfortunately we didn't have time to stay. The ferry, is the MV Glenachullish and she was originally built in 1969 for the Ballachulish crossing prior to the bridge being opened in 1975. The ferry is the last operating manual turntable ferry in the world. The ferry dog called "Nak" to a liking to my karting shoes and she just would not leave my feet alone for the full trip across.

We passed a couple on a 50cc type moped doing about 4 mph. Heaven knows how they got up and down the roads to the ferry.

We travelled over Skye and back onto the mainland via the Skye bridge.

Quick picnic followed at Lochcarron before travelling up to Applecross via the The Bealach na Ba. The road rises to a height of 2,053ft from sea level in around four miles, and is so beautiful.  The pass provides some challenging driving in the country and it is all single carriageway. Unfortunately, Gary's car suffered a damaged radiator and had to stop at the top. The bonnet was soon off and a load of bikers came over to the car and they where offering bottles of water to help fill the radiator. It really was a great "spirit" at the top of the pass with much banter and p*** taking going on. We rang various companies and a plan was developed where a radiator would be sent by courier to a garage in Aberdeen, Gary would go collect and have his car back on the road within two days....and this is exactly what happened.

Whilst Gary was on the phone to the recovery company, Trina and David built balancing rock towers that overlooked the Isle of Skye. David cheated though as he did build his with a traffic cone.

I was going to make comments about David been the "Hero" of the day......but I wont. Needless to say we all stayed together until Gary and Trina where sorted.

The local recovery soon attended and they said they had removed a number of vehicles from the road that day as they where using the road as a race track. They where flying in for the NC500 and using hired cars to drive the route as fast as they could. Unfortunately they disregard the other road users.

From here I continued my way north on my own.

I stayed in a beautiful B&B overlooking Badachro Bay. The owners even had their own micro-brewery where they produced their own gin. It contained local, hand picked gorse blossom, wild  bog myrtle, rose hip petals and elderflower.

I went to the local pub for something to eat. I needed a mortgage to afford anything so the evening meal was biscuits from my hotel room.

 

 

 

 

 

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

Here is a film I made of Mine House that I always love to visit.

On this trip I was lucky enough to meet a lady who's nana used to live in the house.

 

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]

 

[Ali and Gail]

35 minutes ago, Geoffrey (Buttercup) - North Yorkshire AO said:

 

That is incredible mate, particularly the 2nd video as we were together last year to experience it for the first time, quite emotional really. 

[Geoffrey Carter (Buttercup)]