Roughly speaking, before the school summer holidays and after the school summer holidays. I think Scottish schools break earlier and English schools resume later.
Following the excellent advice on here and a lot of other research for places to visit, and booking of hotels etc. I think I have a route. Have spent what seems like many hours/days trying to get Garmin Basecamp and Zumo XT to use the same maps and be able to get it to export, I now have the route loaded onto the Zumo. It will get fine tuned I'm sure, but just wanted to make sure I could get it all to work well in advance, the weather is dreadful, and not back to work until tomorrow so seemed a good opportunity. As I'm sure many of you are aware, Garmin is based on Android, so getting it to work and exchange information with a MacBook is far from plug and play. It's ended up a bit further than I thought, door to door is 1787 miles currently.
I'm a Mac user and if you export the gpx file and email it to yourself you can then use the Garmin Drive app on your phone to transfer it to the Zumo XT. Personally I've given up with Basecamp (despite knowing it well) and use MRA instead, but I use the same process to export, email and transfer the routes
I like Scotland, its true that you can get 3 seasons on one day mind I used to do Europe and take two panniers and a top box full of stuff. I figured eventually I did not need or wear most of it. The last twice I have been up there, I got everything in the top box and left the panniers behind. I still did not run short of kit One thing I suggest, is if you are passing a fuel station and have less than half a tank - stop and fill up. Nothing like as bad as in France, but they can be hard to find, even in the more civilised parts. If you are using a sat-nav, use one with an actual map loaded cos Apple/Google maps and the like struggle if you have no phone signal ... and that happens a lot
Re: Apple/Google maps and the like struggle if you have no phone signal - you can avoid this by downloading the maps before you set off. Then when you lose a phone signal, the GPS continues on the downloaded map (the phone and GPS signals are separate).
Does seem a bit of a faff. I did download MRA, when I was struggling to get Basecamp to work. Didn't really try it, is it easier/ better than Basecamp?
I'll have to have panniers and top box, not my wife will be able to travel quite as light as me! Was going to have a rough plan of where to stop for fuel, being a V4 I think I'll have to stop a minimum of 12 times, but that will be being very brave, can see it being about 20. Wouldn't rely on anything phone based, it struggles at times in Lincolnshire.
Feels like a faff but it’s really simple. MRA is excellent but you premed the paid version to get the best of it.
I have a TomTom Rider mounted on mine, but I prefer to use (now) Waze on my phone where possible. I have the phone mounted on a Quadlock too. Clearly I can only use one at a time, but if the iPhone does fail through lack of signal , I have the Rider to use as a back up. The Rider is also better for pre-planned routes. Unless I am missing something, there doesn't seem to be a way to add those in Waze? (I was a big Apple maps advocate until recently, when they lost all their speed cameras, as a result I switched to Waze and find that setup far better. In addition to camera's and delays, it even notifies of potholes, breakdowns, hidden police , flooding and more) The cameras are back on AM now following an update, but I have stayed with Waze in the car.
I don’t think you are missing anything, my understanding is that Waze is a point-to-point route that is interactive with live traffic data/user supplied information which can re-route to get you to your destination in the shortest time. Waze is owned by a subsidiary of Google. Andy
Well, my NC500 adventure has had a bit of a false start, should be nicely on our way to our first stay at Lindisfarne. My mother in law fell yesterday at about 3pm, went to hospital back out and at home but obviously we couldn't go today, she seems much better so may be able to leave tomorrow and go straight to Inverness, 470 ish miles. If we can't leave tomorrow, probably won't go. Too late for cancelling the hotels so quite an expensive non holiday. Obviously there are things more important than a biking holiday and money, but still gutted.
You asked for a diary, so this is on you, sorry everybody it might be a bit long, I did it on my phone very night, so not typing it all out again. As I wrote above my wife wasn't able to start the trip and hoped to join me by train at some point, that never happened, partly due to their deteriorating weather forecast, she was right! So I didn't a lot of the stop offs as she still wants to do the trip so I said I'd leave them out, Smoo Caves, Handa Island boat trip etc, did extra little ride rounds instead. I post a day at time. Saturday 1st June A1 boring A68, nice road, not many fuel stops for 15-20 miles after A1 don’t be too low Nice tea and scone at Jedburgh woollen mill If forth bridge queuing take slip to services, go round round about and back on gets to front of queue A9 boring, nice scenery to start with but it’s the same all the way, snow still around aviemore Conon hotel, in room 1, excellent room really good shower, good parking behind hotel. Really good food, bar. Nothing else of note in the village/ town
Sunday Shin falls a bit disappointing unless very small waterfalls are your thing, I did a loop along the A949 and A836 around Durnoch Firth which was a nice ride, I went over the bridge twice so not to miss any NC miles Dunrobin castle very impressive, didn’t pay to go in but walked round the outer of the garden to the sea. A9 and then A99 were excellent in places. Stopped at the River Bothy cafe at Berriedale for a cup of tea, was very nice, very steep getting back into main road, hill start assist was very welcome Duncansby Head near John O Groats is incredible Dunnet Head is the furthest north point on the British mainland, at least you can say you’ve been there. John o groats is ok, few tat shops, cafes, distillery with tours, pub and a sign that you have to take a pic of. Stayed at Seaview Hotel, quite basic room, but fine, good shower, sea view (room 1, again!) Evening meal really good, had a steak, massive onion rings.
Monday Once you get a few miles past Thurso the road and scenery is quite spectacular. The wind has been awful today, made riding quite hard 30+ mph all day. Too many highlights to list all, around Loch Eriboll and the road south from Durness. Also did the part that goes to Drumbeg, again excellent, but very tight and narrow roads. Then went back to where I’m staying, the Kylesku Bridge Hotel, there aren’t many hotels on this part of the trip, so they are quite expensive, but this is very good, bar and food are top notch and priced accordingly. £6.95 a pint, £10 for 250ml glass of wine, steak £32, I had sea bass, it was very good, sea trout gravadlax to start. A bit pricey but at least I’m not camping, who can put a price on that. Was surprised at the amount of the NC that is single track with passing places, and a bit rough in places. Don’t expect to average 60mph if you’re trip planning. Apart from the bloody wind today has been amazing. Petrol stations a few and far between I filled up in Durine, single self serve pump, I had to queue, a couple of shops there and a decent toasted sandwich van in a car park.
Tuesday Fantastic breakfast at hotel. Vast views of lochs and hills/ mountains on Road to Ullapool, nice harbour, several cafes, shops if stocks need replenishing. Filled up with petrol, only 1 pump had petrol so were queuing, delivery lorry came in behind me so they would have closed it while he was there. Very heavy hail storm along with heavy rain and showers most of the day. A832, again stunning views. A896 is mostly single track and very tight in places, quite a lot of potholes so don’t spend all the time looking at the landscape. Road to Applecross is again narrow and variable surface quality. A self service fuel pump as you enter Applecross, filled up to save doing it in the morning. Staying at the Applecross Inn, really nice, lovely staff and the food is excellent, I had catfish, never had it before, bit less meaty taste than Monkfish. Room 1 again, it doesn’t have a TV, which doesn’t bother me, but some may struggle. It is closed on Tuesdays to non residents, so don’t turn up expecting to be able to get food if you’re not staying there, it’s a good day to stay as not busy and no waiting for food
