If you have ever considered travelling the North Coast 500, just do it!

The scenery and views are spectacular.

We regularly commented on the landscape being similar in places to Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, New Zealand, but its all on your doorstep (relatively) in Scotland.

My personal highlights were the North Coast (and connecting glens) between Thurso and Durness, and the road south from Durness to Ullapool.

We had a variety of weather, sun, rain, sleet, wind, but we were well wrapped up and prepared for everything apart from snow!

The only prerequisite for travelling this route is patience, for some of your encounters with other road users.

We all know that BMW drivers have a statutory exemption from using indicators, but on the NC500 there are some more things to watch out for. Drivers of Mercedes cars have an exemption from using passing places, as they are entitled to force other vehicles onto the verge because they do not have to wait in passing places. This rule also applies to Fiat 500/600 cars, coloured red/grey/blue on days of the week ending in 'Y'.

Be alert for rental motorhome/campervans, because its quite clear that most of the drivers of those vehicles have rarely driven anything larger than a Mondeo, and never on single track roads. These vehicles are normally easy to identify by the worried look on the face of the driver, along with their dangerous road positioning. They are also recognisable by the amount of vegetation hanging to their undersides, collected when they have taken to the soft verges, along with other damage to the periphery of the vehicle. I have to say it was easy to recognise the owner/driver motorhomes with their courteous driving, steady driving pace and undamaged vehicles. 

Would we travel this route again in the future, most definitely!

We had 12 days riding, 10 of which were on or around the NC500 route. If we rode it again I would like more time/days to allow for exploring some more of the sights off the established route.

I had previously mentioned that we had returned home relatively uninjured. I had not provided an update to this journey's injury status during our travels in case other injuries were accrued along the way, I can happily report only one injury of significance on this occassion.

No its not a traditional greeting, but a splinted finger after rupturing a finger ligament when putting on a jacket !!?? 6-8 weeks in a splint to see how it heals. 

Until our next adventure.....