Scotland Road Trip

[ChrisHGTV]

Just arrived back safely today from our Guildford, Surrey to Scotland Road trip. The S212 again proved the perfect touring load lugger. Comfortable, fast enough and able to swallow all our luggage with ease. The handling isn’t the best but it was actually good fun hustling through the bends on some of the more remote twisty roads up in Scotland.

On the way up we stopped in Alnwick for a night and visited the Jim Clark museum in Duns on the way to Edinburgh. A small but wonderful museum. Jim Clark was before my time but my Dad always talks about him. I promised to take my Dad next time! Definitely worth a visit if in the area.

After touring round Scotland (Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, Skye, Oban and various points in between) we stopped on the way back near Kielder and had a night visit at the Observatory. Very lucky to have an almost completely clear sky! We were so fortunate with the weather for the whole trip actually, quite incredible really!

Anyway, the old girl 212 did very well!

 

[geoffus]

We are off on the NC500 on Wednesday, hoping for good weather. Unfortunately not in my car or motorbike but a brand new hired motorhome with fixed bed, luxury.
Applecross here we come.

 

[KennyN]

We are off on the NC500 on Wednesday, hoping for good weather. Unfortunately not in my car or motorbike but a brand new hired motorhome with fixed bed, luxury.
Applecross here we come.

Dont forget the Jungle Formula midge repellent.

K

 

[ChrisHGTV]

Dont forget the Jungle Formula midge repellent.

K

Thankfully we didn’t see any!

 

[geoffus]

Hopefully a bit early for the dreaded midge, hopefully......

 

[ChrisHGTV]

We are off on the NC500 on Wednesday, hoping for good weather. Unfortunately not in my car or motorbike but a brand new hired motorhome with fixed bed, luxury.
Applecross here we come.

We did some of the route, it’s spectacular. The only part of the driving that made me slightly nervous was on these single track roads with just the odd passing place. Quite often the passing places are marked with poles but not always. My technique was essentially to drive from passing place to place, just keeping an eye out for the closest passing space should a car suddenly appear. Only once were we caught out when a VW Transporter decided to fly past a space on their side and couldn’t/wouldn’t reverse back to it. So I had to reverse quite a way. And a lot of the time you can’t just pull off the road as there’s a significant drop. The roads are beautifully smooth for the most part though. Hope you get good weather like we did!

 

[KennyN]

Thankfully we didn’t see any!

Still a wee bit too cold for the we feckers although there were a few biting tonight when i had the dog out.

They recon above 3-4 mph they struggle to go where they want , so as long as you keep moving it should be fine , unfortunately trying to sustain a constant 4 mpg when sleeping it a tad difficult and you resemble an all you can eat banquet to them , as the wife found out when we did the NC.

K

 

[geoffus]

We did some of the route, it’s spectacular. The only part of the driving that made me slightly nervous was on these single track roads with just the odd passing place. Quite often the passing places are marked with poles but not always. My technique was essentially to drive from passing place to place, just keeping an eye out for the closest passing space should a car suddenly appear. Only once were we caught out when a VW Transporter decided to fly past a space on their side and couldn’t/wouldn’t reverse back to it. So I had to reverse quite a way. And a lot of the time you can’t just pull off the road as there’s a significant drop. The roads are beautifully smooth for the most part though. Hope you get good weather like we did!

We did it 4 years ago as well, weather was perfect as high as 33 degrees some days.
Last time we rushed it a bit, so leisurely pace this time.

 

[JHS]

Still a wee bit too cold for the we feckers although there were a few biting tonight when i had the dog out.

They recon above 3-4 mph they struggle to go where they want , so as long as you keep moving it should be fine , unfortunately trying to sustain a constant 4 mpg when sleeping it a tad difficult and you resemble an all you can eat banquet to them , as the wife found out when we did the NC.

K

I understand that well hard military types use an Avon product to repel midges.

 

[KennyN]

I understand that well hard military types use an Avon product to repel midges.

Avon - Skin So Soft , easy to apply with decent coverage and quickly absorbed in to the epidermis - or so i am told

Chuck Lee Ali would have trouble with this challenge :

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K

 

[Neiltodd]

Dont forget the Jungle Formula midge repellent.

K

Too early in the season for midges

 

[Fastcar155]

We are off on the NC500 on Wednesday, hoping for good weather. Unfortunately not in my car or motorbike but a brand new hired motorhome with fixed bed, luxury.
Applecross here we come.

I have photos of my C207.Will sort out when I return to the UK

 

[WrightyLee]

Just arrived back safely today from our Guildford, Surrey to Scotland Road trip. The S212 again proved the perfect touring load lugger. Comfortable, fast enough and able to swallow all our luggage with ease. The handling isn’t the best but it was actually good fun hustling through the bends on some of the more remote twisty roads up in Scotland.

On the way up we stopped in Alnwick for a night and visited the Jim Clark museum in Duns on the way to Edinburgh. A small but wonderful museum. Jim Clark was before my time but my Dad always talks about him. I promised to take my Dad next time! Definitely worth a visit if in the area.

After touring round Scotland (Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, Skye, Oban and various points in between) we stopped on the way back near Kielder and had a night visit at the Observatory. Very lucky to have an almost completely clear sky! We were so fortunate with the weather for the whole trip actually, quite incredible really!

Anyway, the old girl 212 did very well!

View attachment 156107

Have you got a link for the observatory? We're moving to Edinburgh in June and it's something I've always wanted to do.

 

[ToeKnee]

Have you got a link for the observatory? We're moving to Edinburgh in June and it's something I've always wanted to do.

Here you go

Kielder Observatory - A magical & unique visitor attraction

Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society

kielderobservatory.org

I spent an evening there a few years ago as a birthday treat. Really enjoyed the night.

 

[WrightyLee]

Here you go

Kielder Observatory - A magical & unique visitor attraction

Kielder Observatory Astronomical Society

kielderobservatory.org

I spent an evening there a few years ago as a birthday treat. Really enjoyed the night.

Thanks, I have a look.

 

[Oleks1992]

Looks like a great road trip I've already done europe twice this year in my s212 and it was also flawless. Nice to see you're from Guildford as I'm only down the road from you

 

[Spider10]

Too early in the season for midges

Seems to early for any bugs I drove 500 miles round trip to Swansea and can count the no of bugs splattered to the front bumper on 1 hand

 

[ChrisHGTV]

Have you got a link for the observatory? We're moving to Edinburgh in June and it's something I've always wanted to do.

Here you go

Kielder

Of course it’s always going to be hit and miss whether you get good conditions, but worst case scenario they apparently show virtual images etc.

One point to note, it can be very cold! I wore about 5 layers including a jumper, insulated gilet and my Paramo (plus hat and gloves) and I was still cold. Wear/take the warmest clothes you have! If I’d realised how cold it was going to be I’d have taken my bigger belay jacket! Hopefully by June though it should be warmer.

 

[ChrisHGTV]

Looks like a great road trip I've already done europe twice this year in my s212 and it was also flawless. Nice to see you're from Guildford as I'm only down the road from you

We’re off to France in it again later in the summer for a cycling trip. I’ve got a tow bar Westfalia rack I tend to use now. I just need to replace the windscreen washer jets before we go as I had to do a last minute repair before our Scotland trip!

 

[ChrisHGTV]

Just arrived back safely today from our Guildford, Surrey to Scotland Road trip. The S212 again proved the perfect touring load lugger. Comfortable, fast enough and able to swallow all our luggage with ease. The handling isn’t the best but it was actually good fun hustling through the bends on some of the more remote twisty roads up in Scotland.

On the way up we stopped in Alnwick for a night and visited the Jim Clark museum in Duns on the way to Edinburgh. A small but wonderful museum. Jim Clark was before my time but my Dad always talks about him. I promised to take my Dad next time! Definitely worth a visit if in the area.

After touring round Scotland (Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Inverness, Skye, Oban and various points in between) we stopped on the way back near Kielder and had a night visit at the Observatory. Very lucky to have an almost completely clear sky! We were so fortunate with the weather for the whole trip actually, quite incredible really!

Anyway, the old girl 212 did very well!

View attachment 156107

I forgot to mention - that brown splodge at 5 o’clock just under the dial is actually a small dead spider behind the plastic. In certain light you can also see a few strands of his/her web. I guess it must have got in there during manufacture as assume the unit is sealed?