Scottish Highlands Tour - The Official Route Planning Thread

[WR 1mposter]

HI Guys

Not doing things by half

Only one concern, is the front lip on my P1 going to make it onto the Ferry's i aint to sure?, and have any of you got the Sti Front Lip on the Wr1?

Dougie

Good point well made, I'm sure a few will have splitter and low front ends, presumably we can shove something in the boot to assist with getting on and off ferries if needs be...

Ours had a front lip and it went on the dover/calais ferry fine although I reckon the "tide" factor nmay have been a helping issue !
Did'nt matter on the way back .....it was no longer attached

What happened this time, mate?

It was the first time grasscutter reporting for duti

[pav]

my hat's off to you Houdini, you don't realise how much goes into organising this sort of thing, Depending on dates I'm well up for the tour, good to see something this close to home for a change. Keep up the good work

[Houdini]

Thanks for the continued support, guys. I now have a brand-new glossy copy of the the new CalMac ferry timetable for summer 2008 delivered this morning. There will also be some amendments to the route - all for the better and all on the west coast. I have my slide rule and calculator at the ready and will be giving you something to look forward to VERY much

Put JUNE 2008 in your diaries as the planned date.

[Designerman]

June sounds good to me.

Just a thought but will the CalMac island hopper ticket be better value than individual bookings.

[Houdini]

June sounds good to me.

Just a thought but will the CalMac island hopper ticket be better value than individual bookings.

Good point well made. I am indeed looking at the island hopper ticket. This is one reason for potentially changing the route ever so slightly as we can benefit from lower prices (will be approx. £150 for four ferry crossings (Gourock to Dunoon, Mallaig to Armadale, Uig to Tarbert, and Stornoway to Ullapool). Once we have a more precise idea of numbers I'll be back in touch with CalMac to enquire about further discount for group bookings

I've got a bit of head-scratching to do as some sailing times and high tide times muck up the travel plans so my spreadsheet looks rather messy right now Once the route is finalised I'm hopeful that we will get a route map created as a pdf for members to view as it's much easier to visualise the route to see what we will do. Bear with me guys - I'm on the case

[The Swede]

You know which car you're gonna drive yet ?

[Houdini]

You know which car you're gonna drive yet ?

Can't decide between the Lambo, Aston or Hertz Ford Focus

It all very much depends on Litchfield, really.

[The Swede]

If you book early, Hertz has a Focus ST they rent for a good price

Or go to Avis Prestige collection. They got some nice cars their too.

[Houdini]

If you book early, Hertz has a Focus ST they rent for a good price

Or go to Avis Prestige collection. They got some nice cars their too.

Thanks for that!

[Houdini]

Just a quick update, guys.... I've been struggling to tie up info on routes, sailing times and high tide info. The difficulty is that high tide predictions don't seem to go beyond one week, making this task rather awkward. So, I've decided to bypass Google and go straight to the top. I've now phoned the Admiralty Office and tried to explain our dilemna. They then passed me to the UK Hydrographics Office who have been very helpful. There's a good chance I can get some advance info on tidal flows for the dates we're planning for. If I can get those quickly then we can nail down the dates and the final route.

I'm having a ball doing this! Why can't I get a job doing this professionally and make a pile of money?

[Designerman]

I was wondering whether high tide times are a real issue; as you could possibly end up with the reverse problem to low tide.
Maybe mid tide would be better. (shoot me if you like - think I'm turning into JD)

[Houdini]

Tides now look like they won't be a factor. Sailing times and route co-ordination seems to be a broader issue. Over the last weekend I've attempted to finalise the route, and this does mean having to use certain ferry sailing times in order to keep to the itinerary (e.g. one ferry per day at a fixed time!)

Doug has kindly agreed to help in producing the map in pdf format which we hope to get done later this week. If you're going to Cadwell this weekend you'll have a chance to pour over a hardcopy and criticise me to the hilt I'll get the map up on the site as soon as I can, but I'd like to do a bit more work on the plans first.

[hightower]

one of the best roads is to go via fort william right up the west coast road, then across the top via tongue (where i am from) (Southern fairy now as live in stirling) then either down the middle via lairg or carry on across the top to thurso (last time i was there there was optimax but was a good few months ago) and down the east coast road.
i love the roads up there is that most are single track so have to judge things alot better and the best bit is that there is only 1 police officer who covers from durness all the way to lairg and thurso so there is no speed limit i have only seen him doing a speed check in tongue once (my mum got caught even though the day before the officer told my mum there was going to be a speed trap) could not let her off as someone from inverness had come up to verify everything. problem is, time of year, gets dark early in winter and roads are easily blocked with snow. petrol is also alot more expensive, unless you drive a diesel then you can run your car on "cherryade". and petrol stations are few and ar between, to be honet i cant think of an optimax station between inverness and thurso. not the best in a wr1, the ctr, at least, would run on normal fuel.
dont know if any of this helps let me know if you need any info and i will see if i can find out as alot of my mates are still up and around there.

[hightower]

oh, i am in if i am in the uk

[Houdini]

Great posts, Hightower I love Tongue, and have some very happy memories there, though dodging the logging trucks at speed proved a little too exciting at times

Sadly we can't get up to the North Coast as time on this particular tour will be against us, but I totally agree on the roads - they're outstanding!

We had a chance to pour over the plans at Cadwell Park last weekend during a rare moment of sobriety and the thumbs are definitely up. I now have a very large amount of work to put this all in place, which will keep me awake for a while! Numbers on this trip will have to be limited due to staying in small, gorgeous hotels, and trying to keep multiple cars together on a large route but I'm sure we can cater for everyone.

So what will happen is that a holiday will be created out of this. The details will be posted separately to known registered site members but will not be publicly accessible on the site (to protect our Intellectual Capital). There's a likelihood that once details are finalised you will probably find out about it via an e-mail to your registered account and this thread will disappear.

Please do bear with me whilst I work out which way is up, and put some time aside in June 2008

[hightower]

cheers,
looking forward to it.
try to be home for june.

[RobinSherwood]

Good point well made, I'm sure a few will have splitter and low front ends, presumably we can shove something in the boot to assist with getting on and off ferries if needs be...

I've got a front splitter on my car. The car has AST suspension which I have lowered a further 25mm all round from the baseline setting. (I think I will put it up 5mm again at some point)

I do have a problem with the ramps in some car parks but generally so long as I go slowly enough the biggest problem is the nasty scraping noise which with the benefit of experience sounds far worse than it is.

When I took the car to Le Mans this year I got on and off the ferry without a major problem (I told them on check in I had limited ground clearance which often changes which deck they allocate you to on larger ferries). Again the underside of the splitter did scrape the ramp but nothing more and also taking these things at an angle can help.

Fraser - depending on dates I would be up for this trip, always wanted to go driving in Scotland but they won't accept either of my oldies on the Scottish Malts

[Gee Wr1]

one of the best roads is to go via fort william right up the west coast road, then across the top via tongue (where i am from) (Southern fairy now as live in stirling) then either down the middle via lairg or carry on across the top to thurso (last time i was there there was optimax but was a good few months ago) and down the east coast road.
i love the roads up there is that most are single track so have to judge things alot better and the best bit is that there is only 1 police officer who covers from durness all the way to lairg and thurso so there is no speed limit i have only seen him doing a speed check in tongue once (my mum got caught even though the day before the officer told my mum there was going to be a speed trap) could not let her off as someone from inverness had come up to verify everything. problem is, time of year, gets dark early in winter and roads are easily blocked with snow. petrol is also alot more expensive, unless you drive a diesel then you can run your car on "cherryade". and petrol stations are few and ar between, to be honet i cant think of an optimax station between inverness and thurso. not the best in a wr1, the ctr, at least, would run on normal fuel.
dont know if any of this helps let me know if you need any info and i will see if i can find out as alot of my mates are still up and around there.

Yeah & they have just changed the single police man in the area, i know the new one as he used to be my next door neighbour until about a year & half ago when i moved up the road a bit. He's a really nice bloke

[Houdini]

Getting close, guys There's been so much done on this now that I'm actually dreaming about it in my sleep

There are still some pretty hefty logistical hurdles to jump yet - nothing too difficult except to explain to my elderly mum why she can't come

So here's the remaining plan....

The next two weeks will be tools down for me as I will need to focus on other matters but then you'll see a pile of action here hopefully before Xmas. I've never known such an event to generate so much interest and I'm concerned about the numbers already.

It's a big trip, guys! 715 miles will face you across a week's driving.

I know of nobody who has done this like we will. You'll be the first to do this - expect the best, and budget for it.

I am deliberately keeping things back, for now, but watch this space closely....

[presa900]

Sounds like its all coming along nicely Fraser, really looking forward to this. Top man for all the work you've put into it, let me know when you want to update the route with the final plan and if you need any other help.

[Designerman]

Great stuff Fraser.

Looking forward to seeing the final route and itinerary..

[Houdini]

The Highland tour is now finalised. There will now be a thread going up under the Events Registration section. This will be a premier event for us all and I'm keen that we keep things in the right place. I'm going to lock this thread now so please use alternative fora if we need to cover any further details.

Thanks guys!