Have you thought about completing the NC500 and want some tips, advice or recommendations..? Well here's a little bit about my 6 day adventure last year in the Freelander 2.
I'll give a rough idea of the route I took and then at the end add my list of activities and sights I wanted to see the most.
So last summer I decided that after many years of wanting to travel up to Scotland and complete the NC500 that it was time to do so, and I'm so glad that I did. 5 days of Scottish sunshine, beautiful views and wild camping sounds like my idea of heaven!
I finished work on Sunday evening and headed straight up to the Glencoe Pass, just a casual 6 hour, 300 mile drive from Stockport to my first camp spot. I always find that the Glen Etive turn off is a great place to wild camp and with it being roughly half way between home and John O'Groats it was the perfect first spot to spend the night. Especially since I was driving in the pitch black and with an 11pm arrival time its safe to say I parked up, popped the tent up and went straight to sleep.
Day two started very early, around 7am if I remember correctly and comprised of a couple of stops through Inverness and up the east coast. Yes, I decided to go anti-clockwise as most of the research I did for the trip said there wasn't too much to see on the east coast and they were right. A couple of lovely seaside towns but I wanted to get to John O'groats before night fall so plowed on as much I could with not too much sleep.
There is a camp site at John O'groats which was around £15 per night witch seemed very popular, however straight across the road was a car park you could stay overnight at for £2 and was just a two minute walk from the beach, shops and amenities. Since I had the tent and tried to keep my costs down (already filled the car up twice) it was a no brainier.
Day 3 and if anyone knows me, they know I love a boat trip, so I headed to the boat office where they had numerous trips including ferries to the Orkney islands, I booked a morning trip around a very small island called the Isle of Stroma. The tiny island has no inhabitants apart from the beautiful puffins that can be seen from the boat and plenty of seals swimming around in the icy cold water. Yes it was summer time but it was bloody cold that morning. The boat trip lasted a couple of hours and took you all the way around the island but also in to some of the cave areas to see the seals in the crystal clear water.
If you're up in John O'Groats I would definitely recommend doing one of the boat tours, the beautiful scenery, animals and wealth of knowledge from the captain made it a wonderful morning activity.
The afternoon I made my way over to Dunnet Bay after taking a few little detours along the way, finding a beautiful spot to take some pictures of my Emu.
Dunnet Bay is home to an awesome distillery and a gorgeous beach that I actually decided to brave the water in and it was surprisingly warm, though it was August so the height of summer and around 1-2pm with the sun blazing down, it was like being abroad actually. 100% reccomend if you're headed up there in the summer.
Day 4 I tried my best to fit in as many stops as I could to make the most of the day but also be close to the end of the route so that I could travel applecross on day 5 but also get home at a somewhat reasonable time on day 6. I managed to meet a new friend on day 4 in Achasheen, he was the friendliest little guy.
Applecross.. what an adventure that was! The beautiful scenery and the sheer steepness of the road left me speechless, and that's not something that happens very often. The journey was fairly slow as I managed to get behind some traffic but I can't say I minded as it gave me the opportunity to enjoy the experience and take everything in. I would not reccomend this route if you're in a huge vehicle, infact it's got a limit on vehicles even though some people ignore it and untimately get stuck.
On the last part of the journey my dad messaged me and made a joke that I should 'head to Lands End now' and me being me instantly thought that would be a great idea, however, I did have an early start the next day, heading to Silverstone, so thought I may be pushing it a little. I'd have arrived at around 9-10pm and then had to head back up north for an 8am briefing at Silverstone so ultimately decided against it. One day I do plan on making the journey down there to say I've been to both but I haven't quite managed it yet.
Recommendations:
For ideas on camping, both sites and wild camping spots I would highly recommend the 'Park4Night' app. The app shows you both free and paid for places to stay, be aware that a lot of people use the app so sometimes places can be full or booked up mega early so plan your route before you go!
PLEASE DO NOT CAMP IN PASSING PLACES!
These are put in place as you will see signs all over the NC500 that ask you to allow people to overtake as frustration caused by tailgating and slow drivers causes accidents.
Below is my list of sights (in no particular order) that I just had to have on my list to visit:
Smoo cave
Dunnet Beach
Boat trip full or half day from John O'Groats
Kylesku bridge
Golden eagle zip line
Balnakeil Beach
Applecross
Thurso
Dunrobin Castle
Obviously there are lots more places along the way and others may have plenty more reccomendations to add, but if I'm honest I'd like to do the trip again knowing what I do now and see much much more the second time around.
Costs:
Fuel - roughly £350 for the whole trip
Camping - £50 i wild camped a couple of nights and did manage to find a small site that only changed me £10 for the night as I only needed to put the ladder out and wasn't taking up much space.
Food - I took a lot of food with me, but also did a bit of a shop at Morrisons in Fort William where I fuelled up. I did eat at a few restaurants, takeaways and small village shops so roughly spent about £80-£120.
Time - I did the trip in 5 days, I wouldn't reccomend it as I felt as though I had to rush and I didn't get to see as much as I wanted to.
If you have any reccomendations for me on my next trip to the NC500 please let me know because I definitely missed so many wonderful places!
Great blog, nice tips on camping etc. Thanks Ema.