Discussion
Shaw Tarse said:
Lotobear said:
....waiting for the turntable ferry across to Skye last week, we watched a white tailed sea eagle wheeling overhead as we had our coffee.
The single track on the other side was brutal though and the general condition of the roads in the NW was worse than I ever remember them. The scenery and good bits of road made up for it though
Do you do FB? https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=9931540920...The single track on the other side was brutal though and the general condition of the roads in the NW was worse than I ever remember them. The scenery and good bits of road made up for it though
The cafe owner asked is she could take some pics of the cars so that explains it - she was a bit of a petrolhead I think, nice lady and the homemade pasties were excellent
An interesting one on the A890 as I was heading north towards Achnasheen this morning. Met a motorhome coming the other way, the occupants of which were adamant I was driving the wrong direction on a one-way road. Yep, they genuinely thought the NC500 was a one-way route! Absolutely no concept of single track roads with passing places. And they were from the UK too! Wallopers.
sjabrown said:
An interesting one on the A890 as I was heading north towards Achnasheen this morning. Met a motorhome coming the other way, the occupants of which were adamant I was driving the wrong direction on a one-way road. Yep, they genuinely thought the NC500 was a one-way route! Absolutely no concept of single track roads with passing places. And they were from the UK too! Wallopers.
sjabrown said:
An interesting one on the A890 as I was heading north towards Achnasheen this morning. Met a motorhome coming the other way, the occupants of which were adamant I was driving the wrong direction on a one-way road. Yep, they genuinely thought the NC500 was a one-way route! Absolutely no concept of single track roads with passing places. And they were from the UK too! Wallopers.
So they thought that the S2 (widened two-way traffic) section of the A890 between the Achnasheen roundabout and Lair was two one-way lanes southbound...?Presumably they also think the NC500 exists purely as a tourist attraction and nobody could possibly ever need to use the roads for domestic/business purposes?
sjabrown said:
An interesting one on the A890 as I was heading north towards Achnasheen this morning. Met a motorhome coming the other way, the occupants of which were adamant I was driving the wrong direction on a one-way road. Yep, they genuinely thought the NC500 was a one-way route! Absolutely no concept of single track roads with passing places. And they were from the UK too! Wallopers.
Quite.Roll on the much needed tax on the freeloading motorhomers needlessly cluttering up our roads with their moronic driving standards illegally overnighting in beauty spots and laybys depositing their waste and contributing zilch to the local economy!
If ever a tax on the clueless was needed this is it.
av185 said:
Quite.
Roll on the much needed tax on the freeloading motorhomers needlessly cluttering up our roads with their moronic driving standards illegally overnighting in beauty spots and laybys depositing their waste and contributing zilch to the local economy!
If ever a tax on the clueless was needed this is it.
Bingo, do you want to enter the next prize draw… Roll on the much needed tax on the freeloading motorhomers needlessly cluttering up our roads with their moronic driving standards illegally overnighting in beauty spots and laybys depositing their waste and contributing zilch to the local economy!
If ever a tax on the clueless was needed this is it.
lobster940 said:
So they thought that the S2 (widened two-way traffic) section of the A890 between the Achnasheen roundabout and Lair was two one-way lanes southbound...?
Presumably they also think the NC500 exists purely as a tourist attraction and nobody could possibly ever need to use the roads for domestic/business purposes?
Yes, they seemed entirely oblivious to anything around them! I'd to get out when they refused to reverse and they were showing me their satnav which was programmed for the loop going clockwise. "one car wide - we go this way, you're going wrong way" I reckon this was the first stretch of single track they'd ever encountered. I wonder how they got on past Lochcarron?Presumably they also think the NC500 exists purely as a tourist attraction and nobody could possibly ever need to use the roads for domestic/business purposes?
Sjabrown
This does seem quite an incredible bit of muppetry. How did it end with them? Were you able to explain the single track concept or were they utterly convinced of their Sat Nav's omnipotence to the exclusion of all else?
(I'm really keen on the details as I lecture on Human Factors in accidents and this sounds like a good example of reliance on technology and automation removing human common sense. Most humans are not really, really stupid but unawareness of new environments and defaulting to tech can lead to an interesting bit of confirmation bias....)
If you had pictures you could send then into various tabloids for a click bait NC500 shocker headline....
This does seem quite an incredible bit of muppetry. How did it end with them? Were you able to explain the single track concept or were they utterly convinced of their Sat Nav's omnipotence to the exclusion of all else?
(I'm really keen on the details as I lecture on Human Factors in accidents and this sounds like a good example of reliance on technology and automation removing human common sense. Most humans are not really, really stupid but unawareness of new environments and defaulting to tech can lead to an interesting bit of confirmation bias....)
If you had pictures you could send then into various tabloids for a click bait NC500 shocker headline....
TVRBRZ said:
Most humans are not really, really stupid
You need to move up here to see how stupid people really are. They stop in the middle of a single track road to go off and take photos, picnic in passing places, and say they have no reverse gear, so can only go forward.Tech might help enhance their stupidity, but fundamentally, they are just mind bogglingly stupid.
Funnily enough we are trying to move up to the North from the central belt but we've already agreed that we will avoid going anywhere west or north of Inverness between May and September ( campervans and midges - evil combination)....
Keep posting the lovely photos on Twitter!
Meanwhile, any campervan idiocy dits than I can use please keep them up...
Keep posting the lovely photos on Twitter!
Meanwhile, any campervan idiocy dits than I can use please keep them up...
GetCarter said:
You need to move up here to see how stupid people really are. They stop in the middle of a single track road to go off and take photos, picnic in passing places, and say they have no reverse gear, so can only go forward.
Tech might help enhance their stupidity, but fundamentally, they are just mind bogglingly stupid.
I don’t know how you put up with it to be honest. At least we have options, albeit a 60 mile detour to miss most of the brain donors between Melvich and Bettyhill… a 10 mile stretch of the marketing fiasco that is the NC500. Tech might help enhance their stupidity, but fundamentally, they are just mind bogglingly stupid.
GetCarter said:
You need to move up here to see how stupid people really are. They stop in the middle of a single track road to go off and take photos, picnic in passing places, and say they have no reverse gear, so can only go forward.
Tech might help enhance their stupidity, but fundamentally, they are just mind bogglingly stupid.
On a recent trip up north we had a car parked up in the middle of the road, not even a passing place, right on a sharp blind crest while they were off taking pictures. Not a scooby as to what the issue was or why people were getting upset at them. Morons.Tech might help enhance their stupidity, but fundamentally, they are just mind bogglingly stupid.
irc said:
towser said:
As you say junctions where you have to cut across traffic e.g. Aviemore, Dunkeld is a nightmare, people just get fed up waiting and risk it.
We used to stop at Dunkeld going from Glasgow to Nairn. Walk the dogs. Coffee, snack. It became so bad turning right to get back onto the A9 we stopped. Dunkeld loss, Pitlochry gain.Survived that, had a delicious lunch, a longer walk above Craig O Barns then onto Crieff which meant another right onto the A9 then a sharp left, a manoeuvre which is best done in a Caterham R600. Most other vehicles (including my humble 1.6 Focus) feel really vulnerable making those turns! Thing is, I can't see how they can solve this. Looking down the valley from the hills above, dualling & free flowing junctions would decimate this gorgeous landscape, the mess at the new junction north of Perth highlights this. I did read the consultation papers online so plans are/were in place but I do wonder how much will there is to finish the behemoth that is the A9 upgrade?
If you can stop in Dunkeld, please do so, it's as stunning as I remember.
Driveline Shunt said:
I lived in Perth until 2001 & used to drive up to Dunkeld several times a week. Hadn't driven on the A9 since then & when I mentioned I was revisiting old haunts, several people sucked air through teeth & said "brave". How bad could it be? Well, on a trip up in early July, the 1st thing I noticed was the increase in traffic which I fully expected after so long away but really not much had changed other than the new works north of Inveralmond. Now, to the point. My 1st call was to the Hermitage, all good so far. Next was lunch in Dunkeld which means turning right onto the A9. Sod that, even going left took a while then there was an unexpected scary bit: I needed to turn right onto the old A9 north of the village & found there was no filter lane..
Survived that, had a delicious lunch, a longer walk above Craig O Barns then onto Crieff which meant another right onto the A9 then a sharp left, a manoeuvre which is best done in a Caterham R600. Most other vehicles (including my humble 1.6 Focus) feel really vulnerable making those turns! Thing is, I can't see how they can solve this. Looking down the valley from the hills above, dualling & free flowing junctions would decimate this gorgeous landscape, the mess at the new junction north of Perth highlights this. I did read the consultation papers online so plans are/were in place but I do wonder how much will there is to finish the behemoth that is the A9 upgrade?
It's not will, it's politics and money.Survived that, had a delicious lunch, a longer walk above Craig O Barns then onto Crieff which meant another right onto the A9 then a sharp left, a manoeuvre which is best done in a Caterham R600. Most other vehicles (including my humble 1.6 Focus) feel really vulnerable making those turns! Thing is, I can't see how they can solve this. Looking down the valley from the hills above, dualling & free flowing junctions would decimate this gorgeous landscape, the mess at the new junction north of Perth highlights this. I did read the consultation papers online so plans are/were in place but I do wonder how much will there is to finish the behemoth that is the A9 upgrade?
The whole A9 from Perth to Inverness should have been dualled 20 years ago, and was more recently rashly promised by politicians to be completed by 2025. There is no now money. It won't now happen in full for another 20 years.
The Dunkeld junction hopefully will be as it is an accident blackspot, but very expensive due the various complexities (constrained space due to geography/rail line and need for second Tay crossing north of Dunkeld).
The current "mess" at Inveralmond is actually relatively easy, and being carried out by the local council rather than the Scottish Government - it seems to be running according to schedule AFAIK. Funny that.
GetCarter said:
You need to move up here to see how stupid people really are. They stop in the middle of a single track road to go off and take photos, picnic in passing places, and say they have no reverse gear, so can only go forward.
Tech might help enhance their stupidity, but fundamentally, they are just mind bogglingly stupid.
Yet I spent a few days around Tongue last week (but travelled between Durness and Gills Bay) and met nothing but considerate drivers (except one single speeding and unsafe overtake driver) and generally a lot fewer campers than I was expecting. I was dreading the actual NC500 route, but it was not *that* bad. Similar to when we stayed in Sheildaig a few years ago - the majority of drivers and majority of the time were great, just a few numpties. Tech might help enhance their stupidity, but fundamentally, they are just mind bogglingly stupid.
I saw more campers *off* the NC500 route, but even they were parked carefully or in sensible places. The aire at Falls of Shin was hoaching with them, an most camp sites looked pretty much full.
Our biggest delay, and delight, was so many cycle tourists in the area.
Our self catering host in Toungue area was bemoaning a drop in tourism and blaming a minority of grumpy locals who they felt were too vocal online and were putting folk off the area....
(I am very used to the vagaries of visitors, and can also regale some funny/fascinating/anecdotal stories of folk who cannot reverse, who swerve into ditches instead of slowing, who lock cars up for a walk on single-track roads, who told me off for running a business that relied on Transit vans getting up said single track lanes and more).
GetCarter said:
Glad you had a nice few days. Live here for 25 years, then let us know how how many inconsiderate drivers on single track roads you meet. 
As a fellow Highland resident I have lived here for the same amount of time. And lived up an 8 mile singletrack road in a tourist area. And travel all of Scotland for work most months.Shall we continue willy waving over who has the most right to have an opinion, visit or reside in the area?
Edited by POIDH on Wednesday 2nd August 16:14
POIDH said:
GetCarter said:
Glad you had a nice few days. Live here for 25 years, then let us know how how many inconsiderate drivers on single track roads you meet.
As a fellow Highland resident I have lived here for the same amount of time. And lived up an 8 mile singletrack road in a tourist area. And travel all of Scotland for work most months.Shall we continue willy waving over who has the most right to have an opinion, visit or reside in the area?
Edited by POIDH on Wednesday 2nd August 16:14
GetCarter said:
Bought the motorhome yet? I know you were looking for a big one.
Does that mean you can slag me off too? I have rented Minch View (found via your own website, thank you) instead of having a camper so perhaps that can offset your view of me. I am struggling with how negative about the visitors some folk are (yourself included on here, on twitter...) - and can see why this last weeks host was concerned that a continually vocal and negative few are actually starting to turn visitors away.
I agree that visitors bring stress. A minority bring real problems. But the majority put money into the local economy, keeping jobs, shops and services open etc. I believe that is a positive.
I am going to leave this thread now - I don't need to be slagging off strangers online over what is really just a silly different viewpoint.
POIDH said:
GetCarter said:
Bought the motorhome yet? I know you were looking for a big one.
Does that mean you can slag me off too? I have rented Minch View (found via your own website, thank you) instead of having a camper so perhaps that can offset your view of me. I am struggling with how negative about the visitors some folk are (yourself included on here, on twitter...) - and can see why this last weeks host was concerned that a continually vocal and negative few are actually starting to turn visitors away.
I agree that visitors bring stress. A minority bring real problems. But the majority put money into the local economy, keeping jobs, shops and services open etc. I believe that is a positive.
I am going to leave this thread now - I don't need to be slagging off strangers online over what is really just a silly different viewpoint.
As (I assume) you have read this thread, all you have seen is that I am down on bad drivers, not what they drive. (Look at all my posts).
As you mention, I run a website that encourages visitors and lists B&Bs and Hotels in the area. (Which I do for free, not for financial gain), so I think you might be way off the mark when you suggest I discourage them!
Sorry once again that you are upset.
Be happy ... and enjoy your motorhome.
Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 3rd August 04:32
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