Just back from our tour.
We were away 9 nights altogether, including a couple of overnight stops on the way to our first night at our departure point in Nairn, and a couple of nights in Northumberland on the way home.
The actual NC500 drive was spread over 4 days
Nairn-Bettyhill
Bettyhill-Lochinver
Lochinver-Gairloch
Gairloch-Inverness
Sadly my planning was badly affected by our recent house fire so we were largely making it up as we went.
First day we stopped at Wick, JoG (horrid place but one has to do it) and Castle Mey (Prince Charles's B&B). 15 miles from our first stop at Bettyhill we were sent on a 40 mile diversion on a single-track, passing-places road owing to a heath fire closing our intended route.
Second day we spent a bit of time in the local museum at Bettyhill, whose main focus is the Sutherland clearances, our next principal stop was at Durness before a fairly early arrival at Lochinver.
Lochinver-Gairloch was a good drive. We added in the Rubha Mor peninsula.
Gairloch-Inverness included the coastal route to Applecross and Bealach na Ba, the pass of the cattle, which is almost alpine in one small stretch - but easy driving in a small, agile car.
On the way north, we had a night in Dundee so we could visit the V&A there. Nice building but content minimal - apart from the Scottish design gallery, there is a videogames exhibition on just now that I couldn't really engage with at all. Dundee has brushed up quite well with the waterfront redevelopment.
From the Dundee to Inverness and Inverness to Edinburgh on the way back we went via the Cairngorms both ways. Some of the nicest roads on the whole trip, and a lot more fun than the A9 even if it takes longer.
All told, we did just over 1800 miles at about 46mpg. Not bad at all, as it included some fairly enthusiastic driving where possible.
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