Applecross | Bettyhill | NC500 | Scottish Highlands & Islands Travelogue 2018 | S1E13

And today we're traveling about 200 miles north approximately following the NC 500 route. From Applecross we take the Bealach na Bà cattle pass over to Loch Carron, from Loch Carron we drive across country over to Ullapool. From Ullapool we drive up the North Coast 500 route to Durness and then drive around Loch Eribol over to the Kyle of Tongue and then finally to Betty hill where we'll stay tonight. Well a pretty early start for us today, it was really windy last night and the iKamper tent really was trying to fold up on us - so we didn't get much sleep - we had to abandon the tent (again). So we did set off as early as we could this morning hoping to get a coffee down here on Shore Street in the Applecross Village to no avail - the coffee place wasn't open - and we also tried to fill up on diesel at the 24-hour diesel station here but I guess it's 24 hours of not accepting any of the credit cards we have so we're about an eighth of a tank ... oh yeah ... look at this on the left it's a pretty magnificent looking stag ... we passed this guy earlier on. Wow! That's cool. So yeah we don't have diesel ... well we have a about an eighth of a tank of diesel so we're gonna head over to Loch Carron which is over the Bealach na Bà which is the cattle pass ... I think we have enough diesel to get there and here's the stag again on the left, it's coming up ... there he is ... so yeah we're heading for the Bealach na Bà - the cattle pass - and that pass is actually the steepest ascent anywhere in the UK and I think it's the third highest road - third highest mountain road - anywhere in the UK so it should be pretty interesting and it is a little cloudy as you can see today from this elevation so let's see how that unfolds as we climb up higher into the mountains here to cross over the cattle pass. OK so we're entering the pass proper now. This is closed in the wintertime normally, it's not winter yet, it's October as we're recording this and it is a single track road of course. And as we did kind of expect it is getting foggy up here. It is steep too we've had to actually go down into first gear once or twice and the thing with the fog is you really you can't tell how steep it is. You can't tell how steep the road is and you can't tell how steep the drop-off is at the side and I think this is probably pretty spectacular during the summer when visibility is good. No vehicles up here though, or very few vehicles, so we haven't had to deal with that too much and I don't think we're very far from the peak now but from what I understand the way down on the other side is more sort of twisty, more like an Alpine kind of a road. And here we are now with a parking area so this must be the summit of the pass and quite spectacular I would imagine during summer months when there's actually some visibility. Not today though, so we're not gonna stop. And there is something coming the other way so, okay, it's flashing us on great ... Now it looks like there's a drop off to the left, and some water down there, so we're assuming that's passing spot here. OK there is kind of, it's more like a passing precipitous ledge, but I think we can get through. Alright! and the fog's really coming in now, it's definitely ... oh look there's a lochen on the left ... a lochen is a small loch ... I believe that's the right term for that. And it looks very much as though we do a sharp turn to the left here ... so this one's not quite 180 ... Elsbeth: you're doing amazing though Apple Maps: in 5.5 miles turn right on to A896 Steve: yes, thank you Apple Maps we'll be sure to make that turn. So there's probably a breathtaking view over to the right during the summer months. OK here we go, it's another switchback ... wow ... this one it's pretty much 180 degrees ... Not too bad ... I'm glad we didn't meet anyone coming the other way ... Ah! And speaking of which! OK I think we're both as confused as each other at this point ... I think he's actually backing up so we'll take the initiative and go forward ... I actually think he may have been better moving forward possibly but since I'm such an expert with this vehicle having driven it for so long and being able to expertly judge the width I'm sure this won't be a problem ... Yeah I think we'll have at least half an inch on the right ... And half an inch on the left! Alright, no problem, now if I don't miss my guess I think this is a left switchback ... it is ... It's actually ... I guess it couldn't be more than 180 or it would go under itself, but certainly really close to 180 degrees here and I think this is the tightest one ... that barrier is very close to me ... alright, no problem. Now there's a car behind us so we'll let him pass and then make the rest of the trip down to Loch Carron. So we're pretty happy to find diesel at Loch Carron, although at £1.36 per litre - almost $7 per gallon - it's a little pricey! OK full of caffeine, full of fuel tank and empty of wallet, gonna hit the road again. We're actually headed up to Ullapool mostly on the NC 500 route heading up to Durness and the north coast we haven't actually figured out where we're staying tonight but we're gonna head in that general direction and a lot of this route actually between Loch Carron and Ullapool featured on a previous video and that was episode 11 of the series Horgabost to Ullapool via Skye, so we're going to skip most of that route and pick this up right after Ullapool. And after a delicious lunch at the Ceilidh Place here in Ullapool - Ceilidh Place is a cafe, bookstore, and bunkhouse - very interesting. So we had a great lunch we're on the road again now. Unfortunately, we did have to deal with a bit of an issue with a vehicle and coming up today from Applecross to Ullapool we noticed that when we put the vehicle into top gear, which is 6th gear on this vehicle, there is a pretty noticeable noise coming from a gear box presumably and sort of a metallic grinding crunching noise. So the vehicle seems to move okay but the noise was such that we basically wanted to check it out. So we called Duncan at Scotland Overland and talked to him over lunch and you know we've decided that since the vehicle does not make this noise and gears 1 to 5 and since it would be hard to get a replacement to us expeditiously given that we only have a couple of days left, we're just gonna hit the road as it is and just avoid sixth gear basically. So there are a couple of implications with that and the first of which is that well obviously not going into 6th gear that's gonna impede our maximum speed. That shouldn't be too much of an issue today on these roads but it may become an issue later on and if we're traveling on roads for the highest speed. And also it's gonna impact our gas mileage or a diesel mileage you know we're going to be revving the engine a little higher. But we've decided to proceed and we'll just avoid 6th gear for now. So we're gonna hit the road head up to Scotland's wild North Atlantic coast, we're not sure exactly where, but hopefully we'll get there safe and sound! And we're approaching the land bridge here over the Kyle of Tongue and the town of Tongue is on the other side. And we're not too far now from our final destination today which is Betty Hill and Betty Hill it's not a person it's actually the name of a town so we're booked into the Betty Hill hotel tonight and we are very much looking forward to getting a proper night's sleep in a real bed especially after last night's abortive attempt to sleep in the tent! And I don't know if it's gonna come through really on the video but the lighting conditions here are pretty unusual sort of a low dark cloud layer and but it's it's sort of clear beneath that so I don't know if there's big storm coming or if this is sort of typical weather for the area or what. It's pretty unusual. And if I'm not mistaken there's a Land Rover over there over there on the right, so we have to say hi! [honks horn] OK I'm sure they appreciated that! So we've avoided 6th gear, the wheels haven't fallen off, so far so good today. And as the daylight fades here, arriving at the Betty Hill hotel, yep, in the nick of time. So we'll get parked and get our room, and hopefully get a bite to eat! And a view over Torrisdale Bay with that strange lighting that we talked about before. And an NC 500 route sign right in front of us! Perfect. If you enjoyed the video you can help us out by giving us a like! And if you want to see more of our videos you can click the subscribe button and don't forget to click the bell icon so that you're notified when we release a new video! Thanks so much for watching! See you next time!

Channel: four.wheel.travel

Views: 10,199

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: scotland, scottish highlands, scottish islands, land rover defender, overland, adventure, bucket list, road trip, travelogue, scotland travel, explore, photography, explore scotland, travelog, beach, loch broom, ullapool, dundonnel, gruinard, gairloch, sheildaig, glenn torridon, torridon, applecross, bealach na ba, cattle pass, lochcarron, loch carron, durness, kyle of tongue, bettyhill, ardvreck castle, fourwheeltravel, north coast 500, bettyhill hotel, road trip vlog, scotland camping

Id: tLemSHwczkk

Length: 18min 10sec (1090 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020