are you taking ferry to western isles

Sounds like you're having a good roadtrip. Give us a wave when you get to John O'Groats ;)

Rain was that bad we couldn't see anywhere near mate, sorry.

are you taking ferry to western isles

No we didn't have time to fit this in I'm afraid.

End of day four in Pitlochry. Day started with a near 100 miles drive from Wick down the coast to Dingwall just outside Inverness. Then across country ending up at Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness. I have to say I'm really disapointed with this place. £8.50 entrance fee and you can't hardly see the castle without paying, I managed to snap this through the trees.

Loch Ness is huge seems to go on for miles but views of it are pretty limited compared to what we had on the Western side of the country. Up the other side of Loch Ness to see this road in front of us

Then onto the Cairngorms and over Lecht Pass and Cairnwell Pass. Stunning roads and great drive but in all honesty Applecross beats them hands down probably because it's sea level to 2000'+ whereas these start at 1000' so not quite as impressive. Still interesting to see the ski lifts sat all redundant

We also clicked over 1000 miles.

Last day tomorrow unfortunately.

Sorry I didn't update this last night was wracked when I got home.

Got to keep the cars clean before setting off

A long day saw the Falkirk wheel and the forth bridges

And finally home. This is my trip mileage

Going away for a few days in the Dales now to recover. I will upload more photos and some videos next week.

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Sorry I didn't update this last night was wracked when I got home.

Got to keep the cars clean before setting off

A long day saw the Falkirk wheel and the forth bridges

And finally home. This is my trip mileage

Going away for a few days in the Dales now to recover. I will upload more photos and some videos next week.

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC mobile app

Sorry I didn't update this last night was wracked when I got home.

Got to keep the cars clean before setting off

A long day saw the Falkirk wheel and the forth bridges

And finally home. This is my trip mileage

Going away for a few days in the Dales now to recover. I will upload more photos and some videos next week.

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC mobile app

Phil,

Don't suppose you can recommend anywhere to eat in/near to Applecross?

I really would like to go there & drive the pass later next month while we're up in the Highlands.

Its a bit of a hike from place where staying so would be good if there was something at the end of the drive for wife/son to look forward to.

Thanks

Martin

Martin there is a pub in Applecross that looked ok didn't try it myself.

If you drive the pass road make sure you drive it towards Applecross. Then drive the coast road to the north.

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Here's the video I shot of the drive over Applecross

http://youtu.be/dGdvPl16qTw

Also Fort William to Invergarry.

http://youtu.be/5RiTvYTy1k4

More to follow guys

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Martin there is a pub in Applecross that looked ok didn't try it myself.

If you drive the pass road make sure you drive it towards Applecross. Then drive the coast road to the north.

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Cheers Phil,

I'll give the pub a try, those videos are great & the views just how I imagined.

What camera did you use to shoot those videos?

I've got a gopro hero 3+ silver. Really pleased with the quality as its first time I'd used it in anger. Got hours to trawl through and edit but will post more soon

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They look like some amazing roads, but it's a shame that YouTube ruins the quality a bit compared to the original video. I think for the best quality you want to upload the raw video straight to YouTube, then you can put on captions and cut some parts of the video, so it doesn't have to be encoded multiple times. Or you can cut the video first with a program that doesn't re-encode it such as Avidemux, then upload it straight to YouTube.

That's how I did it with my Mobius videos anyway (example about half way down this page: http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/52271-my-new-mobius-dashcam/page-29). I'd expect with a Gopro it should look even better than that.

I'm using GoPro studio to snip and stitch them together and it coverts them to mp4 ready for upload to youtube. All takes a lot of time as files are pretty large as filmed in full 1080p HD. Still feeling my way around it all as well. Have a look at this from a guy who pretty much sums up some of the "issues"I've already encountered. Warning some of the language is colourful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY91KPpqvrU

That sounds about right, and I think YouTube recommends using mp4. At some point YouTube had a help page that said it's best to upload the original video without converting first, but I couldn't find it.

The problem could be that GoPro Studio is converting the video to a lower bit rate so you're losing quality, although the video will upload faster. If it lets you change the bit rate I'd set it as high as possible and then just put up with slower uploads (but it should look better on YouTube).

Next installment from day three, Lochinver to Ardvrek castle, not much left of the castle but well worth the slight detour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPbd9-VPEAg

Sorry guys this should have been the first video really as we cross the border, take a note of the music that was playing at the time quite appropriate in a way, and then the A83 from Arrochar to Inveraray.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cJncQhPZnI

Few more video's added.

road to Glencoe, stunning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdyKCkHERtc&index=1&list=PLGeg8Vgb_AxpiqISe5X5jmiEFC7NIIAhZ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwDA5my70uY&index=2&list=PLGeg8Vgb_AxpiqISe5X5jmiEFC7NIIAhZ

Then a couple from day 2 after finishing Applecross pass this is coast road with views of Skye, narrow one track road with passing places. At the start of this one you can see group of deer just by the side of the road on the right.

Here's a couple of pictures I took as I drove past, could almost reach out and touch them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tQ4coFUAGo&list=PLGeg8Vgb_AxpiqISe5X5jmiEFC7NIIAhZ&index=7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y9_MLVKkhA&list=PLGeg8Vgb_AxpiqISe5X5jmiEFC7NIIAhZ&index=8

.

I've attached the route details from our trip so you guys can drive some of the roads yourselves if you get the chance. Mileages are the actual ones I recorded from home back to home so you have an idea each day pans out.

We left around 9am each morning after a hearty full Scottish breakfast and with stops for food and drink and lots of photo taking stopped at around 7pm. So long days but to be fair they passed pretty quickly as each day was just wow can the views and roads get any better?

I would probably change one or two of the routes taken as some of the roads were just a little too tight, the single track roads slowed us down as you really couldn't see more than a a few yards at times because of tight bends and blind summits.

I've included names of the hotels we stayed in, only one I'd change would be the one in Ullapool as it was a bit tired. All can be booked online and cost around £35 per night each.

Finally to save me time inserting links I've created a playlist on YouTube, here's the link to my channel. I've still got a lot of footage to edit and upload yet, (how slow is YouTube!!! and it kills the quality from what I have on my laptop) Keep checking back to see new videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2W9fj4OPql98fYCYPGgIYg

some good driving roads up north when they are empty and could see you put the foot down places judging by the camera footage :P

paul

Not me officer

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Sounds like a great trip! I've never been to Scotland...or Wales...or Ireland....

Don't waste your time and money coming to Ireland for a road trip the best part of Ireland if you want to come is the airport hah only cause it holds a way out of Ireland I suppose the fairy dock would come second then haha only messing plenty too see here specially the Claire and Kerry and even galway ok the whole west coast areas ;P meaths all right has a few things and you might bump into me Wexford and your gonna bump into Lenny haha

Sounds fun Phil would like to do that myself only problem is id need about 2 weeks to do it drive from Wales to Scotland and then around Scotland and then back to Wales hell I'd prob go to Manchester before going back to catch a united match if I'd plan it perfectly ah I can dream looking forward to seeing the pics and vids

going down to Limerick on 27 for couple of days hope to do the ring of Kerry and visit the cliffs of moher if we have a summer here :P

paul

going down to Limerick on 27 for couple of days hope to do the ring of Kerry and visit the cliffs of moher if we have a summer here :P

paul

Looks like de summer is over haha you should have done that a week ago ;)

Few more videos have been uploaded have a look on my YouTube channel linked above.

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