After doing the Jacobite train, the next day Zed went along the West in order to start the North Coast 500 at the Kyle of Lochalsh just across the water from Skye.
For those who don't know, the North Coast 500 officially starts at Inverness ( castle) but since we were already on the West coast we decided to start at the Kyle and go North from there eventually returning via Inverness later in the trip.
From Fort William we did a detour to see the Marines monument and memorial at Spean Bridge. Well worth a stop if you are in the area and very moving.
After, we made our way to Tingle Creek by the Kyle of Lochalsh for our next overnight stop. Zed did pop across the Skye Bridge from there to explore the famous island. Whilst at Tingle Creek Zed saw the Royal Scotsman luxury train which was a bonus.
From there the next day it was onto the NC 500 proper joining at Lochcarron.
From there it was up to Ullapool via Kinlochewe and Gairloch. In the early part of this section we started to get into the Single Track roads with passing places. As the land is fairly open visibility is good and planning which place to pull into was straightforward. We decided not to do the detour into Applecross as there was still uncertainty about the petrol situation. We had managed to fill up in Fort William with E5 but it had been frantic and after the Jaguar filled the pump was shut down lol.
Zed studies the official map:
20211015_135224_resized[48118] by
Ann Edwards, on Flickr
Marines memorial at Spean Bridge:
P1130919 by
Ann Edwards, on Flickr
Zed on Skye with the Skye Bridge in shot:
245131707_1029819417798240_2431024471960068475_n by
Ann Edwards, on Flickr
Looking across to the mainland from Skye:
P1130929 by
Ann Edwards, on Flickr
Gairloch Harbour:
P1130962 by
Ann Edwards, on Flickr
P1130960 by
Ann Edwards, on Flickr
Some road trip!
P1130953 by
Ann Edwards, on Flickr
Ullapool Harbour:
P1130969 by
Ann Edwards, on Flickr
Part 3 to follow shortly!