Scotland Road Trip

[njkmr]

Hi Guys,
after recently buying an SLK55 AMG I decided it would be good to add to the 9000 miles it had on it already.
Me and the wife decided to have a few days travelling through Scotland to places we had not been to before.
Here are the details of what was a superb 5 days ,in case anybody is wanting to do something similar. We didn't really have a set route ,we just decided pretty much ad hoc as we went.
Monday we set off from Manchester.
Drove up to Aberdeen.
Tuesday went on to Inverness through the Cairngorns past a ski resort, Lecht I think it was called, totally green at the moment though so no snow there, which wasn't a problem for us as the roads were fantastic. Drove on up to Wick .
Wednesday drove up to John o Groats then across the top of Scotland to Thurso Tongue, Bettyhill , past Dounray and then down to Ullapool.
Thursday drove through Kyle of Lochalsh onto Skye over to Uig where we got the ferry to Lochmaddy in the the Outer Hebrides. (we had lived in the outer Hebrides 25 years ago for 13 months so this was a visit really to see if anything had changed ,although it really does have some beautiful beaches.)
Friday we set off back but couldn't squeeze on the midday ferry so had to wait 8 hours for the next one so we drove around and found a great beach near Bernaray on the Island.
Got off the ferry at 2200 on Friday and set off back towards Fort William, Loch Lomand and then Glasgow and then back down motorway to Manchester.
Covered just over 1500 miles and the car performed fantastic. Much of the scenery was absolutely fantastic and many of the roads were a drivers dream ,in particular through the Cairngorms. The over taking ability of the SLK 55 was a pure delight. Listening to it roar as it dropped down a gear or two and shunted us forward with ease. Much of the driving was done with the roof down as well ,as the weather was actually great for most of the trip. I think we hit a low cloud over the mountains at one point but powered through it without getting wet really..!
Some scary roads as well that required a bit of common sense especially the return from Uig to home as this was done in the dark due to not getting the early ferry and we came round many a corner to find a deer staring at us in the middle of the road.
All in all it was fantastic and we really enjoyed the car , it was a whistle stop tour but we both thoroughly enjoyed the car and the roads .
Hope its not been too long winded for you guys but thought it may be worth sharing.
Cant wait for the next trip.

 

[Adrian5405]

Fabulous trip, we done something similar many years ago in my old Pug 205 GTI, covered 2k miles in 8 days.
Scotland is a superb place for a road trip.

 

[JohnnyAMG]

I am planning something similar in the spring. Make sure you do a write up.

 

[sparkynw]

I drove my cla 45 AMG up from the NW to Scone north of Perth last week for some Salmon fishing with my 75 year old dad, we caught plenty Guiness and single malts but no Salmon, it mattered not, the 4 hour drive there was a joy, the car performed superbly and went way past its run in miles on the trip which allowed me start to push it a bit. As you say the scenery and roads once off the motorways was stunning, the people were lovely and the trip was a great success! Took me 2 hours to clean the bugs and mud off when we got back but the car didn't seem to mind... We almost aquaplained on the way home in some treacherous motorway rain, the car twitched violently in the outside lane but sorted itself out very quickly I was glad I was in my car! Shortly after we passed a large van on its roof! Thank goodness for all wheel drive and modern engineering! Glad you had a great trip sounds epic. Love the 55, could never quite afford one and now I can I've got too many kids! Lol...

 

[njkmr]

I know what you mean about the cleaning afterwards.
I did find a jet wash in Ullapool to wash off some of the grime but when I got back it took a fair bit of scrubbing to clean the sills off ,as they were full of sheep droppings and road kill bits that had stuck solid....

 

[njkmr]

Also forgot to mention the fuel economy although this is not that important .
On drive to Aberdeen ,just cruising showed 34.9 mpg when I got there which I thought was truly amazing although I did not have much "fun" so to speak, just stuck to the speed limits. It was showing 475 miles covered by this stage on the first tank of fuel which I could have stretched to over 500 miles before filling up again, but not knowing where the fuel stations where I decided to fill it up ready for the Cairngorms.
At the end of the trip it was averaging 30.2 mpg which again I thought was fantastic.
Bear in mind I had my wife with me who although likes a good growl from the exhaust does tend to reign me in a bit...!
I did not rag it not stop but I certainly had plenty of spirited over takes and blasts down the long winding straights ,so all in all Im more than happy with the fuel economy.
This compares to a previous CL600 which never returned more than about 16-18 mpg.
Think Ive found a happy medium.

 

[Wheelsnuts]

We did a similar trip in an MG A many years ago and will never forget it. Roof off all the way. Fabulous.
The only hiccup was front brake pads sticking during the descent of Carter Bar. An AA patrol man who we happened to stop said that we should turn around and go home as it was a major job releasing them. We struggled on to Jedburgh, bought a can of Plus Gas. A bit of leverage and job done. No problems for rest of the delightful journey.