If you are looking for an adventure, I can highly recommend the North Coast 500 in Scotland. We have travelled around Scotland on 2 occasions now, taking on different routes and seeing some of the most spectacular views, not just in the UK but in the World. I can’t believe this has taken me 2 years to write, but in a way I am glad it has. Looking back, this could have been a first and a last, but I am so happy to say that 2 years on, we are loving holidays in a motorhome.
Out first adventure was in 2020 when travelling had become impacted by the pandemic. We had spoken many a time about holidaying in a motorhome, but I will be honest, I had put it off, as I didn’t think it would be ‘my thing’. Oh how wrong I was. We packed up the car (to the brim, I am not a light packer!) and headed up to Edinburgh where we picked up the motorhome we had hired from Swift Go. It was a Swift Escape 664 and was perfectly sized for the 2 of us, and the 2 dogs. We loaded up the motorhome and headed on our way. We met up with our friends on the way who also have 2 dogs.
On our first trip around the NC500, we only had 6 days (the motorhome needed to be returned on the 7th morning) so we had to be especially strict on our timings, and the route we took. We found a remote spot for the first night, just south of Inverness before starting the planned route on the following morning. We headed north up to Fortrose Bay where we stayed one night at the campsite there. Our pitch was facing the ocean, which was absolutely perfect and walking the dogs as the sun rose, was the best start to our holiday. Fortrose is a great spot for seeing dolphins, whales and seals. Unfortunately, we hadn’t checked the tide times so had just missed the dolphins when we got there, but we did see a cheeky seal hunting for fish on the following morning. From Fortrose Bay, we headed to Fairy Glen Falls, and Dunrobin Castle. Fairy Glen is dog friendly and a great woodland walk before a dip in the waterfalls, however Dunrobin Castle isn’t dog friendly (the gardens are spectacular so I understand why) but there is a walk nearby for them. Due to the time restraints, we powered on up to Wick and John O’Groats. We got there just before sunset, and I highly recommend this time. Now, nothing was open, but it was quiet and the sunset was stunning. We found a local spot to camp and got our heads down for the night. In that day alone, we had covered quite some ground so an early night was needed.
Don’t plan to sunbathe on Durness Beach, but rather you can enjoy a beautiful, quiet and serene walk down the coast on a quiet, drizzly day. A truly relaxing experience”
Stuart, Carte Blanche Media Ltd – Worlds50beaches.com Durness Beach no. 44 of the worlds best 50 beaches
The next day was cold, but clear and dry so we took full advantage and headed for the beach at Dunnet Bay. Of course, we had to go via a gin and whisky distillery! I am an avid gin fan, and The Dunnet Bay Distillery do a selection of gins and vodkas called Rock Rose. After this, we headed to Wolfburn Distillery which is the first (and last) whisky distillery on the main land. We are not whisky drinkers, but my Dad is so I had to get him a bottle or two to enjoy. By the time we made it to the most northerly part of the country, it had clouded over and become rather cloudy but not one to miss out on the fun, we loaded the dog strollers and headed down to the shore. The beach was absolutely gorgeous, even on the grimmest of days. The water was so clear, it rivalled that of the Caribbean (shame the temperate didn’t!). Once we were utterly battered by the wind, we headed back to the vans to get warm, and just in time as the heavens well and truly opened!
One of the most popular campsites on route is the infamous Sango Sands. We were only able to grab the one night there (book prior to travelling!) and when we arrived all rain and wind beaten, our pitches seemed rather daunting as they were on the edge of a hill overlooking the beach. The morning however brought new weather, and it was another gorgeous sunrise. The bay in Durness that it sits above is yet another idyllic spot with crystal clear waters and golden sands. We had a lovely breakfast from the facilities there, packed up and then made our merry way round on to the West Coast of Scotland. This is where we fell even more in love. Everyone will ask you when you have travelled the NC500, “what was your favourite, the east or west coast?” This is incredibly hard as hands down, it is all beautiful, however having done it twice now (and will go again in the future), our favourite is most definitely the west.
Continuing our journey on, we found ourselves at Kylesku Bridge. This is breathtaking. We couldn’t help but just sit there and take it all in. There is the architecture of the bridge to your left (as you face out from the car park) but then the spectacular views of the landscape, the rivers below and the rolling hills in the distance. As the skies cleared, we headed for another beach, this time in the hope that we wouldn’t be sandblasted! Achmelvich Beach was even more perfect than the other two we had visited so far. There was no one on the beach other than us, and it most definitely looked like a postcard beach. It was warmer today so the coats came off and we all went for a paddle. Looking back at the pictures, its so hard to grasp that those beaches are in this country and on the most northerly part of our island. There is a village just by Achmelvich Beach called Lochinver. This is the first village we had come to with multiple shops in such as a post office, small supermarket, butchers etc so we took full advantage and did as much shopping as we could here. I will add at this point that throughout our journey, we always aimed to shop locally and support local businesses. For local communities to continue welcoming those in caravans and motorhomes, it is vital that we do this and continue to clean up after ourselves. We grabbed some pies and steaks from the butchers (the best we have EVER had!) and headed on with our journey. We found a remote spot overlooking vast fields with a Loch in the distance and enjoyed a beverage whilst we planned our next few days ahead.
We had all read about the Applecross Path when researching the North Coast 500 (if you haven’t done this, then I would suggest you do), and both us and our friends wanted to travel along this to complete the holiday. We made sure that both our motorhomes were suitable to travel along Applecross, and I will add that make sure you are a competent driver if you want to also travel Applecross.
To pick up the journey we needed to do this, we went through the delightful Torridon National Trust Estate. This is where you will find the famous Stag, Callum. He waits around the car park to great visitors, or perhaps try and steal their food. He seems friendly, although I am not sure I would want to get too close with the dogs so we made sure to keep them onboard so as not to distress him (or them!).
From here, we headed down Applecross (whilst holding my breath) and completed the North Coast 500 official route. We had left ourselves extra time to head over to Isle of Skye as we wanted to see the wonders of the Fairy Pools. Sone of the photos on instagram almost made this area feel unbelieveable, but it is even more stunning without the ‘gram’ filters on. Parking is a challenge here so you have to get their early or be patient. We had to drive around for quite a while in order to get in here, and it is costly, but you can make sure you take full advantage of being there as the walks are vast, and you can continue to climb as long as your legs will let you. As we had Candy in her stroller, I only headed part way up (she was having a particular good day so was out of her stroller more than she was in) and my husband and Ozzy headed quite high up to take in the views.
Unfortunately, from here, it was the route back down south to pick up the road back over to Edinburgh to take the motorhome back. We went via Ben Nevis which was mind-blowing. I had always fancied climbing Ben Nevis, however sat at the bottom of it in the comfort of the motorhome, I think I may just enjoy the views. Maybe one day.
It was an incredibly busy 6 days, and a complete eye-opener in to the world of self catering motorhome holidays, but we had only been home a matter of days before planning our next trip. There were absolutely no downsides to the trip around the NC500. Even the couple of days ‘bad weather’ didn’t dampen our holiday and to my amazement, 2 wet humans, and 2 soggy doggies weren’t too bad on there at all. The perk of hiring the motorhome was that we could start to learn what suited us best, what worked and what didn’t. So here I will list some of the pros and cons.
Lets start with the negatives as there are very few:
- Restrictions on time. This is completely unavoidable. When you have a budget to stick to, annual leave from work limits, and the fact that you don’t know how you will get on, 7 days is the only option. The only other option was 14 days, and there was the risk we would hate it…seems pathetic now as from day 2, I was in love. I say day 2…I was not loving life on the first night trying to unpack, and prepare food all whilst being attacked by midges as it was damp.
- The bed was to the right hand side of the van with ‘my side’ of the bed under the window. Whilst it was spacious, it was annoying that I had to clamber over my husband and Ozzy to get up for a wee in the night…it also meant that when the 2 boys stole the duvet, I was against the cold side of the motorhome haha!
- The shower was over the toilet which was great for space saving but did mean that we wasted a few loo rolls as awe kept forgetting to pop them away before having a shower.
- Hiring a van meant that you didn’t have much in there in terms of ‘cleaning’. For those of you with dogs will know that you can’t go hours without being covered in dog hair, let alone days so it was a challenge to keep the van clean (and I am a bit of a clean freak). They also asked that you returned the motorhome clean, and as you had collected it. Impossible. So there were a few occasions where I found myself cleaning the van with kitchen roll to sweep the hair out of the door.
- Kitchen equipment…they provided all of them which is great…however they were all crockery! If you have travelled in a motorhome before you will know what this means. Yes, if you didn’t pack correctly it was going to be VERY noisy on the road, and you also run the risk of a heavy mug falling on your head when you park up for a cuppa. Melanine or plastic plates and mugs are an absolute necessity on these vehicles.
I told you there were only a few didn’t I. So what about the perks…
- Everything is up to you. You choose when and where to go. The 7 days were complete free for us to do what we wanted. Yes you have to book sites in advance (especially in 2020 when lockdowns lifted and we all wanted a holiday) but other than that, you choose what you want to do. I loved the freedom of eating out, eating in, having bbs outside and just being in the great outdoors.
- A week with my husband and the dogs with very little interference from social media, tv, mobile phones, work…the list goes on. This life is very much about enjoying the ‘now’ and not through a lens or phone. We did have a TV onboard, and we did have it on from time to time (if there was signal) but we did not spend our evenings glued to it like we do at home.
- Seeing things you would NEVER see on a traditional holiday. You are able to park overnight in places that are allowed in Scotland (most for a donation which of course we did) and some of these spots are just unbelievable. Some call it wild camping…I am not sure there is anything ‘wild’ about it as we were in a motorhome, but we were in an unofficial camping spot with no facilities. Please, please, please if you do ‘wild camp’ make sure you are responsible, do not have wild fires, and take away every bit of litter with you. It is very disheartening to see where people do not do this, and I completely understand why locals become irate with people visiting.
- Being self-sufficient. I won’t lie, the thought of being ‘off-grid’ scared the hell out of me. What if we didn’t have power? What would we do for food, water and heating? Well in most motorhomes you will have a toilet and many have fully functioning bathrooms. We had a toilet, sink and shower in this motorhome and we could easily last 2-3 days without needing to visit a campsite. The main reason we needed to visit a campsite was to refill water (for cooking and drinking) and to empty the toilet. Again a tip here is to buy suitable containers for water refilling. We had a few bottles that we reused, but have since brought 2 x 10L hard containers that are far better.
- It teaches you to be more sustainable. When you have limited space, and water and energy that you can see running out, you learn how to protect what you have.
- Effortless! Everything about this holiday was effortless (other than the driving and planning which was at times a little stressful I won’t lie) but there was no make up, no hair styling, no planning what to wear. It was chuck on anything, make sure you have your boots handy and always have your waterproofs in easy reach.
That’s why I love road trips. It’s like doing something without actually doing anything
John Green
This was the start of my love for the motorhome life and I will be documenting more on our adventures since starting in 2020 and as time goes on, it will become more about the motorhome than the journey but as always, it will be about the dogs.
Labradoreable 