[MileCruncher]

Who: Anirudha Basu aka MileCruncher (Alone)
What: Road trip
When: July 2007
Where: Scotland, UK
How: Ford Fiesta 3dr Zetec 1.6 S

Why: I woke one fine overcast morning with absolutely no mood to work and feeling like breaking out of the daily rigmarole. Solution, drive to the John O'Groats, the upper most tip of British Mainland. Distance : 480 Miles +
Some pictures clicked on route when I could stop.

[MileCruncher]

A few more pictures.

[kphilip]

Beautiful country side dude... Nice photography too..

[vishnu7185]

Great pics man.

I guess the fourth picture in the second set is the urquhart castle. The castle is so beautiful at night. i have been to scotland and apparently i too rented out the same ford fiesta 3dr.

Its a really good place to trek. We have done a trek on highlands on our way to Stranraer.

Hope you had a great time with the city of scotch. Ah, i can see you have visited Glenfiddich cottage as well.

Hope you have seen the entire Glen series, Glenfiddich, Glenmorange, GlenKlein etc

[akroy]

MC, Nice photography and the coutry side looks awesome.

Abhi

[Rajesh Rawal]

is that the urquhart castle in one of the pics? did you happen to spot"nessie" by any chance

good stuff anirudha ,more pics please

[pulsar56]

I am in love with the country side of UK!

Keep the pics flowing.

[hillram]

Awesome pics mate..reminds of the my days in Uk.
Is that the Castle of Urquhart?
did you spot the Loch Ness Monstrr anywhere? I certainly went looking for it..:-)

[vnabhi]

Superb pics, MC. Looks like you had a 'spirited' drive. My BIL also made a trip, but in the opp direction---from Cumbernauld (Glasgow) to Leeds.

[MileCruncher]

Post #1
From the Top

1. Loch Lomond taken 5.20 PM
2. -do-
3. -do-
4. Somewhere further up from Loch Lomond on the A82 taken at about 6.15 PM
5. Stopped at a Chippie on the A82 as hadn't had lunch.
6. Lochness from the A82 at 9.55 PM.
7. -do-
8. Lochness from the Youth Hostel on A82 at 6.10 AM
9. The Famed A82 at 6.14 AM just before breakfast (Connecting Glasgow to Inverness, infamous for treacherous passes and narrow roads; more on that in the later post.)

Post#2
From the top

1. Loch Lomond
2. My long term rental Ford Fiesta 1.6 Zetec S (It was the time to give her up and get a replacement).
3. -do-
4. Urquhart Castle at 8.30 AM
5. Moray County at 10.00 AM
6. Entering Glenlivet Distillery for the Distillery Tour at 10.50 AM
7. Spirit of Life (While waiting in the foyer for the tour to start). Please note that no single bottle on the double DNA Helix is same and it contains all the variants of Glenlivet. Over here I would like to state that Whisky is derived from the word uisce beatha in gaelicwhich means "Water of Life" or "Spirit of Life".
8. Glenfiddich Distillery @ 1.00 PM (Couldn't take any pictures as camera's were not allowed inside.)
9. A quaint little Scottish town known as "Dufftown" which house both Glenfiddich and Glenlivet within the 10 Mile radius. In a way you can call it the "Scotch Whisky Capital" of the World.
10. Long winding road to Edinburgh @ 2.30PM to catch up on the Edinburgh festival
11. -do-

[Nitin]

Love the Scottish countryside! Come summer,it springs to life with so much charm!
(And I have to admit, the pics of the Glenlevit bottles did wake me up. Scotch works much better than coffee,I find!)

[s0uljah]

Less people, more cars, even more bottles of scotch, rolling meadows.... Heaven??

[abhijitaparadh]

Slightly OT:

Is there any website stating the documents required while renting a car in Scotland? Is any US state issued license valid there? or any special permit is required?

[MileCruncher]

Having woken up a little late on an overcast July morning and not wanting to go to work, decided that needed to go out on a drive and see UK, especially Scotland ( I was in the Leeds Bradford Area), which I felt had been calling me for quite sometime. After much raking of head, I decided to head up to John O'Groats (the top most point of UK) and try to make it back by 2nd day night. I did have an idea about the distance (480+ Miles one way) but had no clue about how long it will take. By the time I packed my stuff, put it into the car and was out, it was 9 AM. Decided to take the Glasgow route as there was a friend who I thought I would have a quick meet up with and move on. Anyways half way through the trip realised that my camera battery's were not charged and I couldn't take pics. With some quick and spirited driving through the Yorkshire A roads and motorway (read continuously over the legal speed limit) and with one extended breakfast and one quick break was able to hit to Glasgow City Center by about 12.45 PM.

And thats when my travails started. I needed to go meet my friend, then go to Tesco and travel forward. But Glasgow city center is a maze and with quite a few underpasses, my GPS started playing up, due to non-connectivity with Satellite. I would have gone around the City Center in circles atleast 3-4 times. As I hadn't achieved anything and was loosing time, I decided to skip meeting with my friend and carry on after getting the essentials done. Reached Tesco but couldn't find what I wanted, so went in search for Halford's. Tried to get their address through the call center but that also didn't work so started asking local passerbys and was directed to the nearest. Again my usual going around in a wild chase, reached Halford and was able to make my purchase. Anyways all this confusion and going in circles costed me quite a bit of time and I was only able to get out of Glasgow at around 4.45PM.

I started to feel that I had wasted quite a lot of time and wouldn't be to make it to my destination. So quick readjustment to the plan and I decided to call it a day at Lochness. Place to stay? Youth Hostel hai na!!!
One thing that travelling through the UK alone I have come to admire is there is no better place to stay on budget than the Youth Hostels. Meet people, cook yourselves and enjoy the scenery.

Anyways calling done to the Youth Hostel, bed booked and GPS configured, I was off and decided to go slow to absorb the scenery on the A82 connecting Glasgow to Inverness.

I still remember that my GPS had given me the duration of journey as a bit more than 4 hours (Non-Stop). This is where the Zetec S came onto its own. I was pushing the car at 100 MPH on straights and at about 90 into sweeping corners on a two-lane roads. Awesome scenery enroute (words cannot do justice to them, one has to be there to enjoy). Again spirited driving with quite a few breaks to enjoy the scenery, I was able to beat the GPS timings by about an Hour ( I remember this very vividly) to the Youth Hostel. When I got off the car, had this ear to ear grin and feeling of contendedness that one gets after a real good drive.

One should know that Scotland being the place of Colin McRae, has many boy racers and I think the highest density of Impreza WRX STi anywhere in the world. Seeing them taking the twisties is something that you never forget easily.

After checking-in to the Hostel, decided to go to Inverness which was 25 miles away (for the nearest supermarket) and get something to eat.


Final 50-55 Miles done and while tucking myself into the bed, I felt that it was day well spent.

To be continued...

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by abhijitaparadh

Slightly OT:

Is there any website stating the documents required while renting a car in Scotland? Is any US state issued license valid there? or any special permit is required?

If you are renting at an airport, all they need is your DL(any country will do as long as its in English) and your Credit Card.