Glen Coe Day Trip

[thebigfelly]

Just thought id do a wee write up and post some pics of the day out me and the misus took out to glen coe .

We are both on a weeks holiday from work and havent done too much on our week off, done some house stuff and had a few meals out and trips to the pics etc , but i just wanted to get out of edinburgh. so i dunno where i had seen or heard of this place but i ended up googling the kings house hotel and saw it was up near glen coe .

I grab the wife and chuck £70 of v-power in the scoob and follow the sat nav . the rout eit takes me is along the bypass M9, out towards stirling ,onto the A84 up past DOUNE,up towards CALLANDER,keep going up towards LOCH EARN, onto A85 followed that along to CRAINLARICH,then joining onto the A82 all teh way up to glen coe. well the kings house hotel just before glen coe , but its in the middle of all the mountains. the total journey time was 2hrs 22mins .

Once you get off the bypass and past DOUNE , the scenery is just amazing , the roads arent too bad and for a saturday morning/afternoon (we left at 11am) couple bits were busy and i only encountered 2 caravans on the whole day. the worst was just coming out of DOUNE and tehre was no chances to overtake but i ended up in a mini convoy with a caravan at the front , then a big gap then a toyota pryuss then another 3 cars behind it then me . after what seemed like 25 mins of driving at 30-40mph on a 60 there was finaly a chance to unleash the power of the scoob. i drop down into 3rd watch the revs rise just above 3000k put the foot to the floor and watch light speed hit as the turbo kicks in. pull out i over take all 3 cars infront of me , drop it back to fourth still seeing the speedo rise and the other cars become a distant memory i see the bend/corner infront about 400 yards away and its just me and the pryus and caravan . the gap was to big between the pryus and caravan for me to safely pass them both before the bend , so i take down the enviro rubbish and pull into that gap between it and the caravan.

now its just me and the caravan , though i think seeing me in the mirror made this guy forget he had the caravan attached to the back of the car because he then speeded up and was driving on both sides of the road and cutting the corners , i wasnt driving up his back side and was keeping plenty of space but even the wife added that the guy was driving unsafe with the caravan . next availible oppertunity he was taken down and passed!! now all that was left was me, 100+ miles of open twisty tarmac with some of the best scenery and 200+bhp at my feet to conquer it all with.

coming out of all the little towns and villages from CRAINLARICH and TYNDRUM. there is no other wee villages left just lots of long straights and nice twistys to test give you a mix of high speed or short nimble turns .

if you can click these linkys and see this fantastic bit of road from the air and the long sweeping left bend before you come to stop above LOCH TULLA where the veiw was just great ,camera doesnt do it justice .first pic is a vid in the parking area if you click the pic to play the video

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=A82&daddr=Glen+Coe,+Ballachulish,+Highland+PH49,+UK&hl=en&ll=56.558158,-4.747467&spn=0.054206,0.169086&sll=56.580477,-4.822311&sspn=0.108348,0.338173&geocode=FZb0XgMdaom3_w%3BFUizYAMdME-z_ym_k-e4WDCJSDEcILTAFhLANA&t=h&mra=dme&mrsp=0&sz=12&z=13

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=A82&daddr=Glen+Coe,+Ballachulish,+Highland+PH49,+UK&hl=en&ll=56.56809,-4.752274&spn=0.000189,0.169086&sll=56.551157,-4.744034&sspn=0.054216,0.169086&geocode=FWrpXgMdmYG3_w%3BFUizYAMdME-z_ym_k-e4WDCJSDEcILTAFhLANA&t=h&mra=dme&mrsp=0&sz=13&z=13&layer=c&cbll=56.568031,-4.752874&panoid=kLOoNkdxmOzJVp9IFgWjWQ&cbp=12,185.6,,0,11.33

eventualy you arrive at the KINGS HOUSE HOTEL, nice fresh crisp clean air and sights are great and your greeted by a group/herd of deer .. heres a wee vid of in the first one if you click it it will play ,

food in the place was good, parking was good too ,lots of space. they take switch which was a bonus because we forgot to take cash out . we had starters , cpl pints of juice and a main meal came to about £22 in total . soup was nice, the misus had vegi haggis which she thought was bland and i had scampi and chips which wasnt too shaby. the hotel and facilitys are mainly for guests but theres also he walk in bar where you get the food, staff were helpful and cheery and made you feel welcome. cost wise you were talking £3 -£4 for starters and main meals were roughly £8 they had a no bad selection and kids menu aswel . service was quick too. think id quite like to enjoy a night or two there and explore round about too which i spoke to the misus about. and the veiw out the window while your eating is great.

[thebigfelly]

all in all it was a good day out , and for the sake of 2 hours driving from edinburgh to get there mostly at a normal pace , i couldnt fault the scoob /roads and just how much a change of scenery it was on the route i took . there probably is better and more scenic ways to get ther ebut i just chucked it in the sat nav for the quickest route . = 2 hours driving to get there, 3/4 a tank of petrol there and back and an enjoyable time had by me and the misus . heres a cpl more snaps i had on the way there and up there .

outside the hotel up there

some randoms

and for those of you down south who like the look of these shots and the scenery and roads, im guesing the roads i took in are only half as good as the highliand fling and the fling is so much better going by what ive saw , so get your names down and come explore some of the best roads and scenery this land has to offer , and youl love it even more covering it in the scoob!!!

[monsterenergy]

Nice write up, min! Looks like ye had a fun trip, glad ye made the most of yer week off!

Nothin like bombin thru the countryside in a scoob! (Says me who takes the occasional drive on the south deeside road to maryculter and thats aboot it lol

Must try harder!

[monsterenergy]

Nice write up, min! Looks like ye had a fun trip, glad ye made the most of yer week off!

Nothin like bombin thru the countryside in a scoob! (Says me who takes the occasional drive on the south deeside road to maryculter and thats aboot it lol Must try harder!

[scottishtaffy]

looks great