The damage that the North Coast Route has done to Scotland is very disappointing to see. As far as I can make out, all the tourist board did was advertise the route. It seems that no consideration was given to the lack of facilities available on the route. Some establishments were ahead of the game and catered for the new breed of visitors - but those hotels are few and far between. Most places simply put their prices up. There are very few cafes available on the route. Those that do exist are stretched to the limit and tend to be tired out by the afternoon and running out of stock and out of patience with visitors who have no respect for slower pace of life.
The roads in Scotland were always bad after a harsh winter. The freeze-thaw rips up the road surface, and although the road maintenenace is top notch - the new rate of decay with the extra heavy traffic seems to have caught them out. I will not go near the NC500 now. The scenery is superb all the way from Durness to Ullapool, and if you have the eye for that sort of stuff, the Geology is incredible - and ancient. The notion of Plate Tectonics was mooted from observations in NW Scotland in the early 20th Century - although it wasn't until the 1960s - 1970s that the idea started to become generally accepted.
The one really good thing about the NC500 is that it keeps the riff raff away from the other roads - and it is great to see so many photos and routes that pick up on the scenery on your routes - the lesser traveled routes - and show a desire to get away from the more frequented roads. Did I see a photo of the Brocs over towards Glenelg ? Maybe not, but it reminded me of it.
We usually make a habit that we picked up in Spain - we could never find anywhere to eat. They all closed for 2 hours at lunchtime for the heat of the day. Mad bikers and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun. Yeah, that was us. Anyway - it became apparent that if we needed food at lunchtime, then we needed to take it with us - so our early arrival at the next stop for the night usually involved a walk to the nearest town, village to stock up for the following day. The following morning we'd have a flask of boiling water / bottles of cold water. The top box would have a brolly (sun or rain) - and I usually have some sort of emergency shelter with us. It meant that we could stop almost anywhere. These days we are less self sufficient, but I research and plan potential out of the way stopping places. No longer is it possible for us to arrive anywhere without having booked it first. We need the re-assurance that we have somewhere safe and dry at the end of it. I remember stopping in Mofffat at the end of a camping trip. The last day was at our favourite hotel. We had just got ourselves settled - showered, dried. Not yet properly dressed. A group of three riders rolled up on spec and we watched out of the window. All were drenched, but I could tell that a third was well into the stages of hypothermia. They desperately needed somewhere to stay, but there were no vacancies at the hotel. Not my problem - but this poor guy was at the - "leave me here on the bike, I'm Ok" stage. Tish - or letters to that effect. I needed to do something. By the time I had got fully dresses and downstairs to offer our room - if we could pitch the tent in the back yard, the owner had managed to call in some favours at another hotel and got them sorted.
But the politeness on the roads, the not being aware that passing places are there to allow following traffic to pass, not just the oncoming traffic, (and certainly not places to park up) has gone out of the window. Car park waste bins are full of litter - and worse due to the lack of toilet facilities. Locals are fed up that their nice quiter remote environment is destroyed by the relentless roar of bikes and sport cars going at breakneck speeds on the other side of the loch. Scotland use to be a friendly place for tourists. Not so much now, and I can understand why. People in positions of responsibility deciding to do something without thinking it through carefully, perhaps trying to make a name for themselves.
I'm glad that we have the memories, videos, photos of those early tours into Scotland Pre-NC.
Thank you for the record of your trip - you found some stunning roads that are usually quiet - I recognise most of them - but the service industry - well, it isn't all their fault.
