Assisted ferry and camping bookings are no longer available - though if you have compulsion to come along you'll be very welcome, you'll just have to book up yourselves. There's plenty of space on the ferry as of 29/07/14 (1520 sailing from Mallaig to Armadale on 30/08), and Martin at the Uig campsite will fit you in
It would appear that it has fallen to me to arrange this - a Scot who's lived in England for almost 19 years, is currently located in Kent, and who last experienced the West Coast of Scotland at the age of about 6 in my grandparents' caravan. Somewhere there exists a rather fetching picture of me in some brown terry towelling trunks in Mallaig, but I don't seem to be able to find it right now...
I can't go a year without a run to God's Country, and having traded PMs & spoken with JaxZ4 at length I'm now convinced that a trip to Skye is do-able in two days without excessive wearying driving - whilst still taking in awesome roads, jaw-dropping scenery, and stopping here and there for a p*ss. Or a photo. Or both if you feel adventurous
The route needs tweaked with some final changes, and I'll publish it by PM when we have a reasonable number of people interested. However, a quick overview looks like this :
Saturday 30th - start at Stirling M9 Services @ about 0800, west through the Trossachs, up by some of Loch Lomond, to Inverary & turn right for awesome roads, then Glencoe, The Road To The Isles, Mallaig for lunch, Skye by ferry, on to Dunvegan, then Uig Bay Campsite by about 1800 & overnight, where there is also a small B&B.
Sunday 31st - north Skye loop (tbc at the time), down and over the Bridge, across past Lochs Cluanie, Loyne, Garry & Lochy, Spean Bridge, Glencoe the other direction, The Green Welly for lunch (might be a late lunch...), through Callander, ending where we started at 1700/1730 or so.
The detailed plan has the stops listed, as well as timings. However it's all on PMs, bits of A4 and sticky notes right now so you'll need to wait until I get a mo to pull it all together.
Costs -
Fuel - obviously...
Ferry - Adult £4.65, Child £2.35, Car £23.90
Campsite - £6 pp/per night or £30 pp per night for the B&B
Food & provisions - whilst travelling, and if we have a BBQ rather than a pub dinner in the evening
Also, any hotels you need the night before leaving - I *think* there's a Premier Inn or similar at the services, but still need to check.
Logistics (read 'help required'
)
- The ferry and the campsite (whichever it is) will need booked, as will lunch at The Green Welly on the way back I suspect, so there will need to be a time limit on accepting attendees - at least there will be a drop dead date by which I can arrange things as I am off on holiday for almost three weeks at the beginning of August. You can of course book your own ferry & campsite place after this time, and I will provide ferry times. the deadline for me booking anything is likely to be 1st / 2nd August.
- I'll need some help when the route is finalised as I have no clue how to convert a google maps route to TOMTOM or any other nav type - in fact I don't have one of these new fangled rolling screens, so...
- I will also need some help with leading / sweeping on the route(s)... Though the roads are not that complicated, which makes it simpler than down here.
- Suggestions for how we organise food on the Saturday night would be welcome... Also, we could stop in Dunvegan instead of Uig as it's less driving and there's more there, but it'll add to Sunday's drive as we should see some of Skye rather than just camp there and leave...
I've arranged a run before but not a road trip, so this is new territory for me - please be patient and I'll update this first post as things firm up. For now though, please indicate your interest (which will need to be commitment in a couple of weeks :wink: ) by the usual means - copy the list into a post and add your name, along with an indication if you will be +1. To kick it off...
Updated 28/08/14
1. Bing & Wee Bing - camping
2. Paul and Steph - B&B
3. Nick and Lorraine - B&B
4. metal licker + SWMBO - B&B
5. AndrewP - camping
6. PerryGunn & Cindy - 5* hotel
7. Tony & Ruth Guisely - camping
8. Oli T & Vicky - camping
9. Craig3.2 - camping (tbc, but likely)
10. sk93 - camping
We have 9 cars and 16 people confirmed and booked on the ferry, expecting Pimpernel Craig to pop up too - game very much on :trampoline:
Couple of updates -
ferry and campsite now booked for the above, and assisted booking is no longer available...
If you want to add yourself to the list and come along then of course you're more than welcome - the booked ferry is the 1520 sailing from Mallaig - and the details of where we're staying are above / in the thread.
Route has been PM'd
It would appear that it has fallen to me to arrange this - a Scot who's lived in England for almost 19 years, is currently located in Kent, and who last experienced the West Coast of Scotland at the age of about 6 in my grandparents' caravan. Somewhere there exists a rather fetching picture of me in some brown terry towelling trunks in Mallaig, but I don't seem to be able to find it right now...
I can't go a year without a run to God's Country, and having traded PMs & spoken with JaxZ4 at length I'm now convinced that a trip to Skye is do-able in two days without excessive wearying driving - whilst still taking in awesome roads, jaw-dropping scenery, and stopping here and there for a p*ss. Or a photo. Or both if you feel adventurous
The route needs tweaked with some final changes, and I'll publish it by PM when we have a reasonable number of people interested. However, a quick overview looks like this :
Saturday 30th - start at Stirling M9 Services @ about 0800, west through the Trossachs, up by some of Loch Lomond, to Inverary & turn right for awesome roads, then Glencoe, The Road To The Isles, Mallaig for lunch, Skye by ferry, on to Dunvegan, then Uig Bay Campsite by about 1800 & overnight, where there is also a small B&B.
Sunday 31st - north Skye loop (tbc at the time), down and over the Bridge, across past Lochs Cluanie, Loyne, Garry & Lochy, Spean Bridge, Glencoe the other direction, The Green Welly for lunch (might be a late lunch...), through Callander, ending where we started at 1700/1730 or so.
The detailed plan has the stops listed, as well as timings. However it's all on PMs, bits of A4 and sticky notes right now so you'll need to wait until I get a mo to pull it all together.
Costs -
Fuel - obviously...
Ferry - Adult £4.65, Child £2.35, Car £23.90
Campsite - £6 pp/per night or £30 pp per night for the B&B
Food & provisions - whilst travelling, and if we have a BBQ rather than a pub dinner in the evening
Also, any hotels you need the night before leaving - I *think* there's a Premier Inn or similar at the services, but still need to check.
Logistics (read 'help required'
)- The ferry and the campsite (whichever it is) will need booked, as will lunch at The Green Welly on the way back I suspect, so there will need to be a time limit on accepting attendees - at least there will be a drop dead date by which I can arrange things as I am off on holiday for almost three weeks at the beginning of August. You can of course book your own ferry & campsite place after this time, and I will provide ferry times. the deadline for me booking anything is likely to be 1st / 2nd August.
- I'll need some help when the route is finalised as I have no clue how to convert a google maps route to TOMTOM or any other nav type - in fact I don't have one of these new fangled rolling screens, so...
- I will also need some help with leading / sweeping on the route(s)... Though the roads are not that complicated, which makes it simpler than down here.
- Suggestions for how we organise food on the Saturday night would be welcome... Also, we could stop in Dunvegan instead of Uig as it's less driving and there's more there, but it'll add to Sunday's drive as we should see some of Skye rather than just camp there and leave...
I've arranged a run before but not a road trip, so this is new territory for me - please be patient and I'll update this first post as things firm up. For now though, please indicate your interest (which will need to be commitment in a couple of weeks :wink: ) by the usual means - copy the list into a post and add your name, along with an indication if you will be +1. To kick it off...
Updated 28/08/14
1. Bing & Wee Bing - camping
2. Paul and Steph - B&B
3. Nick and Lorraine - B&B
4. metal licker + SWMBO - B&B
5. AndrewP - camping
6. PerryGunn & Cindy - 5* hotel
7. Tony & Ruth Guisely - camping
8. Oli T & Vicky - camping
9. Craig3.2 - camping (tbc, but likely)
10. sk93 - camping
We have 9 cars and 16 people confirmed and booked on the ferry, expecting Pimpernel Craig to pop up too - game very much on :trampoline:
Couple of updates -
ferry and campsite now booked for the above, and assisted booking is no longer available...
If you want to add yourself to the list and come along then of course you're more than welcome - the booked ferry is the 1520 sailing from Mallaig - and the details of where we're staying are above / in the thread.
Route has been PM'd
till the breakdown truck arrives that is 
...Then leaving to come back down at a more respectable hour on the Monday - probably about 8am.
