North Coast 500 | Wild Camping - Cold Water Swimming - And Vegan Haggis ( NC500 )
welcome to the final few days of the nc 500 the final days but the biggest biggest mountains here we go now that is freezing oh my god there's a white one with really really long hair [music] on this video we're going to take you on the last part of the nc 500 on the west coast and we're going to go to some really wild places with big mountains fresh water locks that are completely cut off from civilization so we begin this last chapter in Ullapool where we're looking for breakfast and our morning coffee so we're in tea by the sea and they do oat milk for coffees which is really good it's right on the harbour you can't sit in unfortunately but you can sit outside um we're getting coffee to take away and they're providing a little cashew butter flapjack for us as well which we're gonna try um as we do and then we'll show you what that looks like I've cut it in two for you so no arguments oh look she chopped it in two for us as well that's so handy what more could you want, sitting outside, chocolate flapjack with uh what butter was it? with cashew butter and a coffee having tea by the sea it could have been a bit warmer yeah maybe a little bit warmer it's freezing but i'm gonna ignore that how is that? hmm that's lovely there's only half of it as well so it's like double that size, really good this place is known by two names on google anyway it's gelato Ullapool and cafe margo or margot i don't know how you spell how you pronounce that and here we just found out they've got vegan stuff so um we're gonna check and see what the stuff they've got what sort of vegan options have you got? is that a vegan haggis pie as well vegan cauliflower curry pie. Look at this we've got to get that vegan haggis pie really wow oh my god vegan vegetable tagine pie oh lovely so we're definitely gonna go for a haggis pie and the lovely lady cat is warming it up for us now so looking forward to that i fancy an espresso okay let's go for espresso then yeah all right let's give this a proper go it's creamy it's herby it's a little bit spicy that pastry is insane that is a really good pie but it's a bit windy isn't it janine it's so windy out there it's really cold as well so um i'm just going to shut the door but we've got a nice panoramic kind of window in our van so it's good it's a good viewing spot good the best type of cake in the world is coffee cake oh my god this is so nice we hit the road pretty quickly after eating the cake as time was knocking on and we had quite a distance to cover okay we're turning round because we've just seen some baby highland cows and they're running in a field there's a white one with really really long hair and it looks so gorgeous so we're going down there now aren't they gorgeous hey you're beautiful hello gorgeous look at you the most beautiful cow you've ever seen look at your haircut mate that is brilliant i think you've won haircut of the year look at them together oh you're so snuggly okay now guys i'd like you to pose for a photo for me three two one beautiful that was definitely me and liam both ticking off the highland cows off our bucket list so liam's pulled over because he wants to see how cold the locks actually are so he might be getting in one um i think he's crazy because i can tell him right now that they are freezing but he wants to try and go for it liam go for it yeah so liam is currently inside the van getting changed into his board shorts um and i'm waiting for him outside are you ready liam? he just said yeah if you didn't hear that it's cold even without going in the water i know it's not a wetsuit it's just it's janine's best that she designed says iron vegan so i'm going to live up to the name now i've actually got to get in how exciting cold water dipping not swimming dipping in the north west of scotland here we go now that is freezing that is absolutely freezing oh beautiful that was well worth it i needed a wash as well i fully recommend that beach to anybody so we've just turned the corner and we've seen our first glimpse of all of the massive mountains of scotland and we can just see panoramic views of these huge peaks and i'm gonna pointy peaks and i'm going to capture them now to show you so let's go oh wow they look so amazing today's journey if we went straight without stopping would take just over an hour and it's taken us all day and we're still not there yet They've got spicy bouschd soup wich is beetroot apparently sounds really good sounds really good okay so this is the spicy borscht soup from oh what's the name the gale center in gailock i think it is i think it's called gairlock there's vegan options there's vegan some vegan cakes as well like flapjacks and stuff and a vegan brownie see what it's like whoa that's like pure beetroot and pepper this really really hits a spot that does wow so we were like the last ones in the cafe having like a four o'clock lunch i swear doing this trail here with the last ones to arrive anywhere um it's quite busy along the trails so there are lots of tourists but for some reason we always end up rolling up somewhere quite late i like we must just stop off everywhere so we made a deal not to stop anymore and head straight to our sleeping spot right we're in a place called kinlockewe which is our destination for the evening tell you what our situation is i've got a post going out on instagram tomorrow that i definitely need to get out on instagram tomorrow nine o'clock in the morning let's just try this out a second this could have if this has wi-fi then we can come back tomorrow morning and they've got like a little takeaway coffee place as well so that'd be really cool let's just double check okay so they open at 8 30 and they've got wi-fi that is perfect tick yeah so we just need to find somewhere that's open at 8 30 and they've got wi-fi and this is the only place and that and that means that we can wild camp on ben eighe yes which is going to be brilliant yes so we can go back there and find one of those gorgeous spots that we just went past and so begins the mission to find the perfect wild camping spot for the evening thankfully janine just found we've just found somewhere so random means we don't have to stay in a camp site tonight we can do while camping tonight one of them probably one of the most sort of cut-off places on our route so far and we can't wait so we're going there now so wish us luck that's a campsite isn't it jesus we don't want a campsite we don't want to pay don't think this is overnight parking well i don't know there's campervan's down here but it's not it's quite busy yeah there's probably better places that's option number one uh there's a couple of uh camper vans down there and one car uh and it's a start of some trails some um sort of designated trails now we could go back and sleep there we're gonna bear that in mind that one this is option number two not so sure about this one i think i prefer the other one it's a little bit closer to the lock there's already somebody here so we've got option one option two for wild camping but number three i've got a feeling will be the wild card option number three option number three there's a danger sign it's always good let's go quickly down here just wanna go to all the design first hidden crevasses option number one um because it's a bit flatter and there's walks around there there's trails there's no trails there in fact there's chains saying don't walk because there's hidden crevasses and there's the loch ness monster in the wrong lock as usual Just the lock monsters then so good night everyone we will see you tomorrow morning um bright and early because we're gonna get up early and hopefully go for a walk before we have to be at that internet cafe so we're hoping to get up early no what what did i say? You called it an internet cafe because i'm sure they'd love that he seemed really infused about us going to use his wi-fi didn't he and Janine's already calling it you're already calling it an internet cafe it's a petrol station that serves coffee that also happens to have wi-fi if you need it okay what i meant to say was we'll see you tomorrow morning when we wake up bright and early go for a walk have breakfast go to the cafe not the internet cafe use their wi-fi do the instagram post come back get on the road and yeah see you tomorrow morning everyone so me and liam woke up this morning and it was absolutely chucking it down so we decided not to go for that walk unfortunately because it's so gorgeous around here um we waited for a little bit it's still a bit drizzly we could walk but we have to go to that internet cafe this morning now so um maybe we'll come back we're not quite sure but we're gonna head off to that internet cafe um and do our bits before we decide what we're doing really but before we go i'm just gonna show you the eerie misty lake that we woke up to this morning it looks really kind of misty and spooky and i love a spooky lake so this is ben eighe this lock it's a fresh water lock surrounded by mountains um it's also a protected nature reserve it's one of the most unspoilt locks in the whole of scotland because there's no fish farming or anything going on it or anything like that but i think one of the major reasons they protect it is there's a bird on here that's really rare that comes to nest four different families apparently on this huge lock so probably very difficult to see is the bird's probably about this big but um cameron what it's called a sort of grave of a black beak fluffy little grey babies and apparently the sound of the bird the bird makes is really haunting goodbye bend eighe that was a lovely stop i wish we could have more time there what coffee do you want sweetheart? can i have um a latte please? Two oat lattes please Can we have a vegan breakfast roll that sounds fantastic mate can i have a bit of tomato sauce in that as well as well okay cool i hope that's your one and your not putting brown sauce in mine doesn't it just go to show that you can be the most far out places and you can still get a vegan sausage sandwich with ketchup brown sauce and a coffee with oat milk okay i think i can guess already i think it's linda mccartney do you reckon let me give it a go it's strong though yeah it's a rosemary linda yeah you're right janine well done well done i'll give you that one honestly when you cut off from nowhere and you can find a vegan sausage sandwich and a oatmeal latte it really does make the difference we've decided to finish the nc 500 today we are going to be finishing the nt500 this beautiful valley that we're going through right now even on the very single track road is going to take us to inverness and that's where we started from if you remember we started loch ness which went through inverness and all the rest of it so now it's our mission to get to inverness but we stop at one last lock to say goodbye to the mountains i love that it's raining as well i feel like that's an experience that we've needed to have this kind of drizzly rain here it changes the whole look of the place absolutely gorgeous ginny was just saying that it's sort of i can't believe how well it's gone um for us and that's not because we planned it all out because we didn't plan it all out you've got one route two routes around the nc 500 you go left or right and that's it so we love journeys like that and because of that you follow one road and you do whatever you want and that's what we've done we haven't worked out where we're gonna stay we've got thankfully we've got three to the campervan so we can we can just sort of roll up and pull up anywhere i can't recommend the nc 500 enough to you if you if you're thinking about it you're on the fence about it rent a car rent a van stay in airbnbs whatever you've just got to do it excuse me mate do you know the directions to inverness please we went for the home straight to complete our nc500 challenge however as it turns out the mountains weren't finished with us yet you can't see anything well it's just that they're all coming down the opposite direction jesus christ oh my god it's just a little bit scary there's a sheer drop there and up there my god it's even worse i hate this just watch out i'm watching you know you're waving we've got to be polite and courteous haven't we no can't see a damn thing we're on top of the mountain either side of us is drops and look all i can see in the distance is blinky likes lights of people stopping for other people but no one knows what's going on and look this is the passing place here right and i'll show you how much room there is to pass there's zero room oh my god oh my god remember that passing place yeah this is actually really scary um i just want to get down off this mountain now because we can only see a few meters in front and there's like a sheer drop to the left which obviously i'm looking over it's really dodgy it's probably one of the most dodgiest roads i've ever driven on oh wow we can see the bottom well that was an experience but we couldn't be happier to get down from this mountain we had absolutely no idea before attempting this mountain that this part of the journey was notoriously scary and not for the faint-hearted that's literally where we just were behind those really dark clouds we've just driven over that freaking huge mountain there and that was possibly definitely in the uk the scariest road or the most thrilling road i've ever driven over so thank you for that scotland and the nc500 that is not for the faint-hearted so we're thinking about as a little treat to ourselves again like an airbnb uh one with laundry obviously as well kill two birds with one stone so we've got t-shirts we've got teas we've got cake we've got all sorts come in sandwiches there's no sandwiches no just i've got two slices of cake yeah that's wicked so we're going to other pool so liam tells me we've got a berry cheesecake here and a chocolate orange sponge cake i think it's a sponge cake yeah look that guys looks so good chilled cheesecake not a baked one chilled one very nice coconut tea with raspberry really good this is the midge bite cafe by the way just booking we got wi-fi we need the wi-fi we've got a bathtub we need a bathtub we've got a vegan breakfast and on-site parking as well all for 60 quid so we apparently if we don't get if we don't get there before seven they won't let us in what weird thing it's not like it's a uh homestay i'd understand with the homestay but this is like a hotel weird anyway we've got to drive really fast now you and that woman that woman in there she just said it's straight roads until you get to somewhere called gar or something like that and then when you get to gar it's not straight and it takes ages so okay so we've got a hoof it to gar twisty windy roads and we'll end up would turn up there feeling sick and racing through the doors at like five to seven feeling sick standard okay it's about six o'clock in the evening now we're about 12 miles outside of inverness which is our endpoint it's also the start point of the nc 500 we're starting to see things like civilization more cars on the road straighter roads roundabouts speed cameras all of that crazy stuff and uh yeah but our end destination is in sight and it's slightly emotional but also quite an achievement oh i'll do another one better yeah that's so much better oh she's all right in it ah we're here for the bath the jacuzzi bath we're here for the bath apparently we've got a jacuzzi bath wow
2021-06-14 16:27
