Well!! This is the start of throwback/history-time!!
Old slides that I've now converted to digital pics. Bear in mind these are taken with old 35mm cameras (not expensive either), and have been languishing in old cupboards and draws for decades. So quality is not the best.....
We start with Geoff Barrow and I going off for a 2 week driving camping holiday in the wilds of Scotland.........
We were just 20 years old - Geoff had been driving for a couple of years already - me not! He had this (if you remember) sit-up and beg Ford Anglia - light green. Not much boot space, but the back seats were available for our rubbish. For some reason we took a canoe strapped on the roof - don't know why - neither of us were canoeists!!
It didn't have a radio so I took along my Pye portable (about the size of a large box of chocolates and purchased at Squires of Ealing Broadway), which didn't pick up much when we were moving, but got "the Light Programme" OK when stationary, and sometimes that "cool" program hosted by Brian Matthew (cannot remember its name) around 16:00 weekdays.
One thing I do remember about the "design" of the Ford Anglia.... the wiper blades worked off available power from the engine. So when the engine was working hard (e.g. going up a steep hill or whatever) - the blades would gradually come to a complete stop.
Anyway, we set off from Greenford, and headed (would you believe??) - North - remember - no Motorways in those days. I've got the route plotted on a map and it appears we went up to Doncaster then detoured via York (I think we camped there) out to Scarborough (why?), then back to Darlington and across west to the Scottish border near Carlisle. We stopped at Gretna Green for a wander round, and pushed on to poor old Lockerbie - I can distinctly remember that darkness was falling, mist/fog was rising and we still hadn't made camp etc for the second night...
Across to Edinburgh (up the castle etc..), then over the Firth of Forth - I can remember standing on the waterside underneath the Railway bridge and steam locos going overhead. Don't know why - but I don't seem to have any piccies of this part of the trip. No road-bridge in those days........
******************** Update!! ***************** Update!! ****************** As of May 2008 - I've found a black and white piccie of the road bridge being built. Dunno if Geoff or I took it....
Anyway - couldn't drive over that..... so the long way round to Perth, Pitlochry across country to Inverness then up the coast road through Tain and Wick to.......
John o' Groats
Couldn't waste time.... onward - a couple of miles to "the Northernmost point of the mainland" - Dunnet Head
A few miles west and we viewed the Dounreay Nuclear Power Station - weird looking thing miles from anywhere. And a few miles further on from there...
That night we camped (just - anywhere) near Tongue, and shared a spot with a lone guy who was using that spot as a base and was walking most of the mountain peaks aroundabout...
All the way round the northern coast......
From Lochinver, down to Ullapool then Braemore, then a right turn onto the A832 West to Gairloch alongside Loch Maree to Kinlochewe and a right turn onto the A896. Just before Ardarroch there's a right turn off this A road - onto a very small track-like road - which apparently had only recently been built - what a road!! Fantastic!!.... The road to Applecross!!
Back onto the A896, round Loch Carron to the Kyle of Lochalsh and the ferry over to Skye - there were very BIG seagulls strutting around the ferry line of cars! To Portree, A855 to Kilmaluag then the A87 south right turn off on the A850 to Dunvegan and the castle, then the A863 and A87 back to Kyle of Lochalsh.
Stayed on the A87 to the end of Loch Cluanie then left onto the A887 to Invermoriston where we went left onto the A82 all the way along the north side of Loch Ness (didn't see Nessie) to Inverness.
Then on the A82 through Glencoe
From there, to Oban, onto the A85 to Crianlarich then south down the West side of Loch Lomond, to Glasgow... where in the middle of rush hour - the poor old car broke down. I think it was something like the pulley over which the fan-belt ran - was not meshing well with whatever drove it, and after all our driving it gave way causing our water temperature to go too high - so we stopped! Searched around for a garage that "did" Fords - got one - but only in the morning - fixed by 12:00 - and we were off again.
To Carlisle and into The Lake District - the next 3 photies have chemical stains...
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