West coast trip - FALC

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ClarkyBoy
Posts: 1913
Joined: Tue May 12, 2009 10:01 am
Location: Inverurie, Aberdeenshire

West coast trip - FALC

Post by ClarkyBoy » Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:41 pm

claire and myself went away to the west coast at the weekend, both our birthdays were in january so instead of presents with christmas just being passed we treated each other to a weekend away!

It also gave me a good excuse to give the m3 a nice run for the 1st time!

We left Aberdeen around 12 on Friday and headed for pitlochry, via Genshee of course - bloody love that road and it was pretty quiet too... which is always nice :-) not a lot of snow around a few small patches but nothing major, managed to push on a bit and got some real confidence in the Wintrac extremes and BMW's M dynamic mode - traction control that allows a fair level of sideways before intervening.. which was fun!

had to stop and do the standard picture of that sheep sign :-)

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

we stayed at the Cragatin hotel and courtyard, lovely place, i would go back in a heartbeat - cracking breakfast too! we had a great super at mckay's 2 x steaks and a bottle of red for 20 quid :thumbsup

also.. glad i washed the car before i left.... :roll:

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

We left Pitlochry and headed for dunkeld and a lovely walk up to the hermitage, i have not been there since i was a little kid so it was great, the waterfalls were just as amazing as i had remembered!! after the hermitage we went quad biking with Scottish quads, it was great banter, Claire had never been on one before, totally owned it, drifting, donuts, rolling - she managed it all, the lad took us miles up a snowy hill, pretty challenging, we were out for near on 3 hours, shattered after tho!

After pitlochry we headed for lochcarron, via spean bridge,

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

I had booked the Lochcarron hotel for a couple of nights - really wanted to get the Applecross inn after scotty's suggestion but it was fully booked, lochcarron was spot on tho, decent pub grub, good bar, open fire, 2 x pub black labs so it was a nice cosy night in, up early on sunday to this stunning view

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

And of course... full cooked breakfast, then fired over to sky with the hope of getting the ferry from Uig to Stornaway then ferry from there back to the mainland further north, but seeing as i had not actually checked it out there is only 1 ferry a day at this time of year, but it didn't matter, we drove all the way round sky, took heaps of pictures - below,

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr


we headed to the Applecross inn for supper, absolutely fantastic, i honestly think is could be the best food in scotland!! i had fresh caught prawns (caught by the guy who served them!) then the steak - i asked for a whisky sauce and they made one up for me... it had a fair kick!!, bloody brilliant, totally stuffed after, would eat there every night if i could!

it was fairly snowing on the way home, made for some fun (video on Facebook) and good pictures!

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

We pretty much drank the bar dry when we got back to the hotel, which made for a wee bit of a sore head on monday morning - full cooked sorted that right out tho :lol:

from lochcarron we did eilan donna castle, fort bill, glencoe, kenmore, pitlochry, glenshee, home (which was bloody freezing!!!)

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

All in all, great weekend, just thought i would share :-)

its the 1st time i have done that kinda trip in the winter, loved it.. and the winter tyres did the job :thumbsup

think the car might need a wash now tho......

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Untitled by clarkyboySE, on Flickr

:mrgreen: :thumbsup
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Stewart
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Re: West coast trip - FALC

Post by Stewart » Thu Feb 14, 2013 9:16 pm

Sounds like a great time. Great pictures too.

I always find it a struggle to stop to take pictures when I am enjoying the drive but always end up wishing I had stopped more often.
Stewart

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Scotty C
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Re: West coast trip - FALC

Post by Scotty C » Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:04 pm

Nice trip, roll on summer for some west coast action :thumbsup
"Here for a good time not a long time"

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ClarkyBoy
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Location: Inverurie, Aberdeenshire

Re: West coast trip - FALC

Post by ClarkyBoy » Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:14 pm

:thumbsup also worth saying that after some pretty dull miserable weather of late - getting a weekend away of decent weather makes you appreciate how stunning scotland actually is, particularly coming out of glen coe heading for tyndrum (i think)

bloody love this country,

ill second that scotty, roll on summer west coast trips :thumbsup
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Vanlife Sprinter
E30 318is / axle stand spec
987.2 Cayman S
[#]=///=[#] ‘88 Panda 4x4
BSA B31
MF35
Stiga Tornado
Many Bicycles

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smee
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Re: West coast trip - FALC

Post by smee » Thu Feb 14, 2013 10:59 pm

Trip looked great, what did you take the photos with?
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Sanjøy
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West coast trip - FALC

Post by Sanjøy » Fri Feb 15, 2013 12:34 am

Good effort.
W213 All Terrain

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