Just back off holiday

[PeterN]

We have just returned from our annual trip in the 2.0.Hdi estate to the far north of Scotland, beautiful scenery, very little traffic or people - just what we like. We covered just under 2000 miles at an average indicated consumption of 64.3 mpg, when actually calculated it came out at 58.172 mpg, average speed 43 mph but that includes many miles along single track roads.

Still not bad when you consider the load, two of us, neither particularly lightweights plus our luggage, a large German Shepherd and my ham radio gear. I rarely drive above 60 mph and keep the revs low. It does around 50 mpg locally but we do live in a rural area and rarely venture into big towns.

For a 14 year old car with 237,000 miles on it I don't think that's bad.

Peter

[Doggy]

That's pretty impressive.

Hope you had a great holiday. Whereabouts were you, if you don't mind me asking?

[PeterN]

We stayed in Rogart near Lairg but visited friends in Wick and several other places.

Peter

[highlander]

I was born in Thurso; my parents still live there. The A9 (North of Inverness) can be fun to drive - some proper twisty bits, especially around Berriedale and Golspie.

If you go up that way again, leave Wick via Thurso, and head west out of Thurso, past Reay, past Bettyhill, past Tongue, and then head south down the west coast from Durness to Ullapool, and head back cross-country to Inverness before heading south down the A9. That "loop" (Inverness -> Thurso -> Durness -> Ullapool -> Inverness --- all 305 miles of it) has some spectacular scenery, and can be done in a day. It's staggering if you get a really nice day for it.

[Welly]

Surely you haven't been to Scotland until you've stayed in a guest house on the outskirts of Glasgow, got completely off your face on strong ale in a scruffy pub in Town, loudly pronounce in the place how much better it is in England because it "doesn't rain as much", get forcibly thrown out by the doormen, find you've had your Wallet stolen and can't remember the name of the Guest House or whereabouts it is?

[steve_earwig]

Them's some impressive consumption figures, I don't think I got close to that driving Miss Daisy across Europe a couple of years back.

and my ham radio gear

The last rig I had was a little Yaesu handheld (which I gave to my nephew so he could listen to air traffic (didn't seem much point in having it here). I can't imagine what you might be taking with you that would be heavy, unless it was an FT! or similar, complete with genset and an omni...

[PeterN]

Highlander.

We know the area well. For 17 years we stayed in a cottage at Bilbster on the Wick/Thurso road, sometimes twice a year until they let it to a member of the family, it belongs to the Miller family who seem to have quite a presence in Caithness. We visited just about every place in the years we were there in fact we know Caithness better than Dorset!

We still go there every year although we have been staying in Sutherland for the last 10-15 years but still do an annual pilgrimage to John O Groats and visit friends down by Wick harbor. We love the the north coast especially Torrisdale and have done most of the forest walks. We used to have friends in Castletown.

We try and travel the Lairg to Tongue road every year, must have the most fantastic range of scenery in the country. I have always thought I would like to video it but I'm to late now there are several on YouTube.

Steve

The rig is an IC706 HF/VHF although there is not much 2m activity up there now, the rig is quite light as you will know but I take and old fashioned proper power supply with a transformer in it and it weighs a ton. I have made a 40m dipole out of a length of figure 8 telephone wire, split to give approximately 1/2 wave at 40, tied a knot in it and use the rest as a balanced feeder into an elderly KW Easimatch ATU, works a treat will tune up on nearly every band.

I work mostly 40m from there and contacted a special event station in Fishponds, about a mile from where we live! I don't do much radio from home now, the last page in my log book covers three years!

Peter

[Doggy]

The north sounds fascinating. I've never really strayed north of Inverness / Ullapool, must put that to rights some time soon.

[steve_earwig]

I've only been to Sconny Botland once, to a mate's wedding in Edinburgh. I had a migraine, I threw up

[PeterN]

The best bit is north of Inverness - if you like peace and quiet that is. The traffic is increasing but its still only like it was down here 50 years ago. We stayed at a cottage in Bettyhill on the north coast a few years ago, the two lane road ends at Lairg, its single track with passing places from there on, it was about 60 miles from there to the cottage and we never passed another car.

The west coast is very beautiful and warm but there are to many people and to much traffic for my liking, and there are the midges ....

When we first went to Wick in the '70s it looked like the east end of London after the war, the only industry was Caithness Glass, we were able to walk all around the factory right passed the glass blowers, health and safety has a lot to answer for.

There was an airport, ex USA air base, with a set of traffic lights on the runway to allow you to cross when there were no planes coming or going, it consisted of two Portacabins in a field with horses. Next to it were a couple of small exWD looking buildings surrounded by a wire fence attached to which was a sign saying "Wick industrial estate". A new glass works was built on the nearby land which you could observe from viewing platforms but is sadly no longer there as the firm went bust, it now belongs to Dartington Glass down our way.

Over the last few years a real industrial estate has sprung up including a huge Tesco's. Wick is now quite busy but as soon as you get out of the town it all goes quiet again. As you come into wick on what was the A9 there is a substantial shopping centre where ther used to be fields.

The nearest big town is Inverness, over 100 miles away, it used to be 150 miles until the built bridges over all the lochs and straightened the road out. Our first trip up there took us 23 hours but you can now do it in about 14 plus breaks although being retired we are in no hurry so we break the journey at Carlisle at a Travelodge.

If you like the countryside a trip up there is a must, even on the M6 the traffic quietens down and scenery improves as soon as you reach the Lake District. There is a completely new A9 from Perth to Inverness on which the traffic is increasing but it goes completely though the countryside with only slip roads to access the towns if you need to.

Go on, you know you want to.

Peter

[highlander]

There is a completely new A9 from Perth to Inverness on which...

... there's average speed cameras in force the whole ... damn ... way ...

Ostensibly to cut down on road traffic accidents - but you know what would work better? Dual the whole road. The accident blackspots on the A9 are solely on the bits where it keeps changing from single to dual carriageway, and on some of the bizarre T-junctions of small roads joining the main road. Dual it, and turn those little T-junctions into proper slip roads. Yes, it'll cost more, but the standard of driving on that road has, if anything, got worse since the average speed cameras came into force.

At least there are no cameras (average or Gatso or anything else) on the A9 north of Inverness.

[PeterN]

Well of course when we first used it, it was almost empty and you could get your foot down, now it can be slow, but now I am slow, so it doesn't bother me all that much but I agree it does need dualing, I thought there was talk about doing it. I know from traffic reports that the part by Dalwhinnie seems to have more than its fair share of accidents. It actually has road junctions there which after miles of road with flyovers and sliproads has got to be dangerous, we got held up there by an accident. Lovely part of the world though.

We used Perth Caithness Glass as services for many years, nice little resteraunt but of course that's all gone now so we go to Tesco's on the bypass.

Peter