Nobby's Scottish Road Trip - 996 miles in 4 days

[Graham]

lovely pictures, what stunning scenery.

[The Q]

Great pictures of my old stomping ground, knew the A82,83,84,85 quite well travelling to / from the Hebridies and Inverness for school.
You'll be passing us soon on the way back, as we too are in Scotland, we're on the way south Thursday.

[Newportnobby]

lovely pictures, what stunning scenery.

My ole pics do not do the scenery justice in any way. I think the movies do better as you get the ever changing light

[Graham]

will have a watch of the films once I get back to Aus and have a bit more time.

[Newportnobby]

They're only 3 minutes each, Graham

[Newportnobby]

OK, I wanted to film the vast majority of the trip scenic bits so hit on the ide of using my dashcam (front and rear) to do so. The max length of clip the dashcam will allow is 3 minutes, so you get a 3 minute clip from forward view then 3 minutes of rear looking clip. Repeat ad infinitum. (I did try only the forward looking camera by just disconnecting the rear one. You end up with a smooth(ish) long film with what looks like a blink every 3 minutes).
Having done a test run I found each 3 minute clip to be approx 225Kb so I'd get roughly 4 clips per Mb. If your SD card is not big enough the dashcam starts overwriting what has already been recorded!! I purchased a Nextbase 128Gb card (other makes are available and cheaper, but Nextbase do state not all work properly and I didn't want to take the risk) which would give me plenty of space for a full day of filming. Rather than download each day's clips to my laptop I purchased a 512Gb USB stick, downloaded the day's clips onto that, formatted the SD card and was ready to start the next day.
In my first day from home to Fort William and return to hotel at Crianlarich I did 354 miles and created 310 x 3 minute film clips. I experienced a lot of bad weather en route but even with windscreen wipers going, the resulting films were/are great to watch again. It was a huge PITA to decide what to keep or delete on my return, although obviously much of the trip up/down the M6 ended up 'on the cutting room floor'
So - for the sake of £90 or so for an SD card and USB stick, I have much film of my trip including date and time throughout. The results can be seen in the 2 clips posted in the OP.
The only downside is I forgot to remove my car reg number from the dashcam before starting out

It's maybe something to consider if (a) you own a dashcam and (b) want to retain memories of your trip. Try an experiment.

P.S. It's worth just jotting down time/place at odd times along the route e.g. Having noted what time the 'lumpy bits' started in my trip I knew pretty much everything before could be deleted

[Bealman]

Yeah, the changing light on the mountains is spectacular. Wot speed were you doing?

[dannyboy]

Just caught up with your trip Mick. Some lovely pictures and videos. It is years since I was last in Scotland, (before we came to Ireland and we have been here 25 years  ), but there is some stunning scenery in those parts. 

[Newportnobby]

Yeah, the changing light on the mountains is spectacular. Wot speed were you doing?

I tried to go as slow as possible without getting in the way, so anything between 30 - 60mph
Anything more would have been illegal    but, more to the point, dangerous and make the trip over too soon

[Curious David]

Great place, great photos;
Recommend youth hostels (Oban & Inverness) for decent cheap accommodation (double bed with en-suite for <£50), Oban one has lovely views over the bay.
I did  a train trip with bike which enabled the Inverness to Kyle of Lochlash (wet and low cloud so poor views) and then Mallaig to Glasgow routes (awesome)

I also have a long story of a 25hour hitch hike from Durness to Durham and back after loss of keys...

[RBTKraisee]

Those are brilliant Mick, thanks for sharing!

The weather may not have been great, but the views of the scenery certainly make up for it. I did a couple of similar journeys by car back in my yoof, which remain very memorable, so I'm more than a bit envious

I look forward to seeing where you get up to next year

Ross.

[MinZaPint]

Hi Mick, That looks a lovely trip and as someone said it would be good on a motorbike (my motorcycling days are over unfortunately) I always felt on the bike you were travelling in the countryside rather than through it! Thanks for all the pics that bring your tale to life. Best wishes David

[Graham]

They're only 3 minutes each, Graham

Now back in sunny Melbourne as opposed to rainy and flooded Bedford and yes the videos are a good watch.
thanks for sharing.