2 Fatties in a Fiat 500 - North Coast 500 - Day 3

[AJ86]

We woke after a lovely sleep and gathered our belonging and checked out of the hotel. We packed up the little fiat and headed out towards Lidl to stock up on snacks and drinks for the rest of the week.

Just outside of Fort William we popped into Costa for breakfast, and a couple of sausage sandwiches later we were back on the open road.

The side trip to Fort William wasn’t actually part of the NC500, so today we started the route and headed towards Gairloch, which would normally take around 3 hours and 130 miles (taking the most direct route). Back on the A82 past loch lochy again before going onto the A87 at Invergarry and past Loch Garry. We stuck on the A87 passing Loch Cluanie and Loch Duich. This was mainly a driving holiday so not a great deal to report along the way apart from how stunning the views were.

Our first real stop of the day was at Eilean Donan Castle, you could enter for a look around and a guided tour, but today was fairly full on with driving so we decided against it, but instead made use of their toilet facilities. We took the opportunity to have lunch here as well, munching on some goodies from Lidl earlier.

Looking at google maps I spotted another castle not to far from us - Strome Castle, it was a little detour from our route adding around 30mins onto the day. I really should do a bit of research into these things, rather than seeing a point on a map and thinking hey lets go there! We arrived down a rural track to what was the remains of Strome castle, and I say remains in the loosest terms, it was a brick wall around 2 foot high. My wife proceeded to laugh her head off, that I made such a fuss to come and see this castle, so we soon moved on and onto the main part of the day.

We headed towards the Applecorss peninsula, and over the Applecross Pass or Bealach Na Ba (didn’t even try to pronounce it!) This we named the wibbly wobbly road, and our first real experience with passing places. Its a great drive and perfect to do in a small car, have no idea how the guys did it in their motorhomes, the only way I can describe it is an alpine style road that you would expect going up a mountain in Switzerland. Shear drops one side and hills the other! The views while doing this was of course spectacular, but as driver I couldn't really appreciate them. We stop at the top for the views and of course some selfies, and congratulate some cyclists for making it to the top, at least it was downhill for them the rest of the way!

We carry on the other side down to Applecross and park up in a pub car park to stretch our legs and stop for a snack, it is here we spot a couple of Stags just lounging around, they must have been fairly domesticated as people were going really close to them for photos.

Back in the car we continue round Applecross peninsula and spot these guys having a walk in the road.

The day was getting on and I was getting fed up with driving by now, so we ploughed on and didn’t really stop until we reached Gairloch.

Our bedding for the night was at the Gairloch hotel, we struggle to find a place to park, but being in a Fiat we squeeze in between some flower pots. There was not a great deal happening in Gairloch and not wanting to loose our space in the car park we settle on hotel food, the restaurant was fully booked so they did a limited take out menu, which was perfect for us and we had some burgers in the room, followed by some of Lidls finest baked goods for dessert.

Today was a really long day driving, we covered around 6 hours of driving and around 180 miles

Day 4