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Ewan
15-09-2011, 11:38 AM
My wife Kirsten & I decided to visit some friends and relatives in Scotland, and booked a week off work to make it worthwhile. Rather than bumbling up the M6 in the comfy car as we’d normally do, I figure it would be worth making a trip of it and take in some interesting roads along the way.

Day 1
Headed off from Reading mid-morning, with the Sat Nav (a Tom Tom Via 120 (http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/car-navigation/via-live-120-europe/), the new gen Tom Toms that don’t let you plan a route and upload to the device, so you need to faff about setting waypoints on the device itself if you want to go anywhere other than the fastest/shortest etc route. In short: don’t buy one) set to take us for an overnight stop in Didsbury, just on the edges of Manchester.

The first route I wanted to drive was the road that runs parallel to the M40 – the B4100 from Banbury to Warwick. As it happens, we got a bit distracted and stopped off for lunch at a little pub near Edgehill, which we’d visited years before – but re-joined the B4100 at Gaydon and carried on.

I had wanted to take a particular route through Coventry (to scope out a cycle route I’m planning from Manchester to Reading), so there was little of excitement for a while – then a slog through Nuneaton and Burton upon Trent reinforced the belief that there are some pretty grim bits of the Midlands.

We carried on along the A515 to Ashbourne and headed for Buxton, and things got a lot better – though there were far too many stretches of A-road with 50mph limits. After heading to Buxton, the last leg of the journey was a real disappointment – the Cat & Fiddle (http://www.drivingroads.co.uk/cat-n-fiddle-peak-district-2) (A537) was wet, it had 50mph average speed cameras and we got stuck behind a lorry that proved impossible to pass until very near the end of the road – he was clipping along at 50-odd some of the time, but took an age getting through the bends, of which there are many. We had stopped for a coffee at the iconic Cat & Fiddle pub: the wind was blowing quite fiercely and I can’t imagine what the place is like on a wild night…
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more like the Slaughtered Lamb...

Day 2
Left Didsbury after a modest breakfast, and let the satnav take us towards Giggleswick on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. A thoroughly soaking and otherwise forgettable motorway journey to the end of the M65 gave way to some pleasant roads, then we turned to the B6479 from Giggleswick to the Ribblehead viaduct. We then had to persuade the satnav we wanted to go via Hawes, which is the launchpad to Thwaite via the Buttertubs Pass (http://www.drivingroads.co.uk/buttertubs-pass-yorkshire-dales).

The Buttertubs is said to be Jeremy Clarkson’s favourite road, and I can see why – it was open, twisty in parts and pretty much devoid of other traffic, except a few wandering sheep. Sadly, it was still raining reasonably hard so caution was the name of the day, and it wasn’t as much fun as I’d been expecting. Oh well, maybe on a bright summer’s morning…
Anyway, after crossing the dales, we headed for Penrith and a bit more motorway action to take us to Carlisle, at which point we deviated onto the A7 “Tourist Route” (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/scots-turn-to-rebranded-a7-in-search-for-the-missing-tourists-619801.html) to Edinburgh.
The A7 is a fairly quick road at the best of times, though there are often Land Rovers & the odd small truck to keep things in check, but its main users are either tourists or locals in a hurry.

When we got to Langholm, a new battle with the stupid satnav ensued as we wanted to take the B709 route (http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=File:B709_-_Geograph_-_1543401.jpg) to Edinburgh – it starts by veering north-west but soon starts swinging back in check. Both routes from Langholm to Middleton, not far from the Edinburgh boundary, are just shy of 60 miles in length, making the B709 (apparently) the 2nd longest B-road in the country.
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B709 "The Scottish Nurburgring"

The road surface was a bit patchy in places but for much of the way, it was in good shape – and what a road! By this time, the sun was out, the rain had long since vanished and it provided a combination of well sighted stretches, sweeping turns and cracking scenery all around. If you ever find yourself driving north to Edinburgh, try this road out!

Days 3-5
Spent some time mooching about in Edinburgh, catching up with old friends and doing a couple of touristy things (the Royal Yacht Britannia at Leith is well worth a visit, to my surprise). We went through to Glasgow for a night out with some other pals, and got the usual mix of bewildered looks and neck-snapping double takes as we burbled up and down the city streets on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
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Superman... at the museum of Scotland

I was supposed to be following my sister from Newton Mearns (outside Glasgow) to Irvine, and I said “should we just follow you?”, to which she replied “yes, but you know where you’re going…” Turns out, I didn’t – so figured I’d set the destination into the Tom Tom just in case we got separated. By the time I’d done this, she’d vanished – I presumed we’d just follow the TT’s directions and would catch her up as she headed out on the main A-roads that I recognise but couldn’t be sure of how to get to.

By the time we were belting across a moorland B-road by a reservoir, I realised we were on a different route – the B769 Stewarton road (http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=B769), which proved to be just what the car needed after a few days of city-dwelling. At last, the blasted satnav took us on a road we didn’t want, but which was a lot better than the one we were aiming for..! To cap it off, we arrived about 5 minutes earlier than my sister, who later said that the road we took was great going north-south, but the combination of bends, dips and cambers made it a much hairier prospect going the other way.

We later headed over to Ardrossan, the original plan being to sail round to Largs on a friend’s Beneteau 47 (http://www.almiyachts.com/charter_boats/first_477/first_477_photo_gallery.htm) and stay the night on the boat. The remnants of Hurricane Katia put paid to that plan – the storm gates in the Clyde Marina were already closed by 4pm, so nobody was going anywhere that night.

Ewan
15-09-2011, 11:38 AM
Day 6
Time to head back south – and another horrible journey on the motorways, with lashing rain (at times) and gale force crosswinds making for a far from relaxing drive. I still can’t believe the number of people in silver, grey or dark coloured cars, who don’t think to put their lights on in conditions like this – I reckon traffic cops should be pulling them over and making them stand in the rain to get a dressing down. An advanced driving instructor gave me some great advice, years ago: if you need your windscreen wipers on, you need to have your headlights on too.


We stopped at Penrith for lunch with a friend who advised us to take the A6 via Shap (http://www.rural-roads.co.uk/shap/shap1.shtml) and Kendall as an alternative to getting back on the M6 – if the weather had been kinder and we didn’t still have a reasonable way to go, I might have gone via the Kirkstone Pass (Penrith to Kendall via the A592 (http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/index.php?title=A592)). We carried on south and skirted round the southern edges of Liverpool then round Chester and onto the A5104 (http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcyclegps.php?n=A5104-A494-Penyffordd-Dolgellau&code=be5a9) and heading for the A5, as I specifically wanted to head for the B4407 Ysbyty-Ifan to Ffestiniog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbIc7w0tgy0) road. I’ve driven that one before and it has to be one of the best roads in the country…


The road surface was still a bit damp so we took it relatively easy, and got buzzed by a couple of large military helicopters on exercise, hovering and turning tight manoeuvres over the road… like something from a James Bond movie! Kirsten was fishing about trying to find the Flip camera but by the time it was located, it was too late – the ‘copters had buzzed off, after scaring plenty of sheep into “run across the road” action.


Day 7
After staying the night in a somewhat Fawlty Towers-esque country house hotel, we headed to Ludlow for the last night of our trip, and we got the first opportunity this week to take the roof off the car! A pleasant if uneventful drive along the A458/A489 through some nice Welsh scenery led us to the centre of Ludlow where we had planned to stay in a lovely B&B which had also promised secure car parking behind the shop. Bumbling into the narrow lanes and alleys of Ludlow, it started tipping down – perfect timing for the wandering pedestrians to gawp!


After a drive-by and figuring out that there was no obvious car park, Kirsten hopped out to go and ask in the tea shop (De Greys, who also have rooms) where the parking was, whilst I made the car water-tight just in time for the rain to stop.

The lady from the tea shop waved us down a narrow alley that wasn’t even on the map, and tucked behind an unsigned and locked wooden gate was the parking lot – she looked admiringly at the NSX, saying it was the sportiest and best sounding car they’d ever had in the car park J It made for a fun scene the following morning when we had to unlock the gate, get the car out, then return the keys – I’d reversed up the narrow alley and sat in the car (with just enough room for pedestrians to pass either side) while Kirsten ran the key back to the shop.

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1-2 King St, Ludlow - erstwhile home of Crash! and ZZAP!64 magazines of the 1980s...

Then it was homeward bound – leaving it up to sat nav to guide us, but deciding I didn’t want to go M5/M4, we set the waypoint for Stow on the Wold, then were directed down the Fosse Way, then skirting Swindon (and waving a hello to the Honda factory), it was M4 and cruise control all the way home.

So, all in, we covered 1125 miles, using 172L of fuel so working out a shade under 30mpg. Shame the weather wasn’t a bit nicer – it turned out that (for the most part) the roads I was most looking forward to driving were a bit of a disappointment, but we came across some others by chance that were great fun. The car behaved faultlessly, we didn’t see another NSX and we had a few conversations with people on the way, who were full of admiration.


A good week J

NZNick
15-09-2011, 10:01 PM
Nice write-up. Thanks for sharing.

NoelWatson
16-09-2011, 08:45 AM
I've always fancied doing a run up to Scotland in the middle of summer but never got round to it.

"the new gen Tom Toms that don’t let you plan a route and upload to the device, so you need to faff about setting waypoints on the device itself if you want to go anywhere other than the fastest/shortest etc route. In short: don’t buy one"

You can upload, but you need to buy one of the more expensive ones - guess they did this deliberately.

Marky
16-09-2011, 09:40 AM
thanks for taking the time to write up Noel, looks like a fun trip. I also want to do the drive up to Scotland, maybe next year. Can you add some photos of the NSX? :no:

Hagasan
16-09-2011, 07:08 PM
I've always fancied doing a run up to Scotland in the middle of summer but never got round to it.

"the new gen Tom Toms that don’t let you plan a route and upload to the device, so you need to faff about setting waypoints on the device itself if you want to go anywhere other than the fastest/shortest etc route. In short: don’t buy one"

You can upload, but you need to buy one of the more expensive ones - guess they did this deliberately.


thanks for taking the time to write up Noel, looks like a fun trip. I also want to do the drive up to Scotland, maybe next year. Can you add some photos of the NSX? :no:

yeah nice write up about the Tom-Tom Noel ;-p


Sounds like a good run out Ewan.....yet to take my NSX up tae the homeland!! What's the Manchester/Reading cycle route all about? Is it a charity run? Might be interested in a run if it was.....Bought a Chris Boardman bike recently of the bay of E for riding to work (still a carbon jobbie but cheaper than the Scott), it's really responsive and great on the hills......

Ewan
18-09-2011, 09:26 AM
Sounds like a good run out Ewan.....yet to take my NSX up tae the homeland!! What's the Manchester/Reading cycle route all about? Is it a charity run? Might be interested in a run if it was.....Bought a Chris Boardman bike recently of the bay of E for riding to work (still a carbon jobbie but cheaper than the Scott), it's really responsive and great on the hills......

Thanks Gary :) I'm cycling with a few pals from Manchester to Reading next weekend - http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/cloudracers if you're interested in more info :) Maybe we should arrange a meet up and bike ride sometime before the winter sets in...

Oh Marky - we didn't take any pics of the NSX this time as the weather was pretty filthy most of the time, so we didn't stop and snap.
Previous venture further up north, also in September, had a different weather experience...
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(Eilean Donan castle)

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(Glencoe)

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(Visiting the "Jim Clark Room" in Duns)

cheers!
Ewan

Ewan
18-09-2011, 09:46 AM
You can upload, but you need to buy one of the more expensive ones - guess they did this deliberately.

Not sure about that, Noel - the new platform they use (with MyTomTom on the PC rather than the old Tom Tom Home software) doesn't offer any way of planning a route on the PC and uploading to the device. There are loads of other features they've been promising will be added (they only just gave the ability to have multiple waypoints FFS) but aren't yet available.

Basically, the new TomToms with built-in GPRS are fine for figuring out what the best point-point route is, taking into account traffic conditions, roadworks etc. But as a way of saying "I want to go exactly this way" and being able to share that route with anyone else, they're totally useless.

Silver Surfer
18-09-2011, 10:53 AM
But as a way of saying "I want to go exactly this way" and being able to share that route with anyone else, they're totally useless.

Is there a Sat NAV that can do this which you can buy as a stand-alone and not come with the car?

SS

NoelWatson
18-09-2011, 12:04 PM
Not sure about that, Noel - the new platform they use (with MyTomTom on the PC rather than the old Tom Tom Home software) doesn't offer any way of planning a route on the PC and uploading to the device. There are loads of other features they've been promising will be added (they only just gave the ability to have multiple waypoints FFS) but aren't yet available.

Basically, the new TomToms with built-in GPRS are fine for figuring out what the best point-point route is, taking into account traffic conditions, roadworks etc. But as a way of saying "I want to go exactly this way" and being able to share that route with anyone else, they're totally useless.

I guess they have moved the game on again. I bought the 750 becuase it allowed planning (at the time the cheaper ones didn't)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TomTom-GO-LIVE-750-Sat/dp/B002LZUD68/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1316347382&sr=1-1

Currently on TomTom Home 2.8 - so I guess I need to make this model last as long as possible!