Project Scotland v2 | Inverness to Torridon

When I first came over to the UK, my first trip out of London was actually to Scotland with Cynthia and friends. I still remember that 9h overnight train (bad idea) to Aberdeen where we met up with the rest and split into two cars, led by LSC. He planned everything and we were all very grateful for all the research and planning work gone into our trip. We laughed so much those few days, listening to their PwC stories, and at the end of it I felt like I knew his colleagues even though I've not seen them before. We fondly called that trip Project Scotland.

In between I made a trip to Glasgow with my girl friends as it's Sarah's hometown. We visited her family and hung out. We even took the train and went down to Edinburgh for an afternoon to visit her aunt.

Fast forward years later, I found myself back on another similar Project Scotland which I should probably call "Project Scotland v2". Last year Lawrence suggested that the group of us do the NC500 (North Coast 500 mile) route in northern Scotland. This route opened about 2-3 years ago and they liken it to Route 66 in the USA. British Airways was to start their new route from London to Inverness (capital of the Scottish Highlands) and according to Lawrence we should grab this opportunity to fly this route and explore before it becomes too touristy. I can't remember the last time we were so organised for any trip, but we booked the tickets 8 months before, and 5 months before I did the accommodation research and booked our rooms. As it was to be a road trip we had different B&Bs every night. I even had a dedicated spreadsheet of our route and accommodation each night. Later on Rachel added on tourist attractions and even pre booked our meals are various restaurants. In short, we were very prepared for our trip!

Purple heather flowers everywhere, just like Yorkshire

The girls on the trip

Alas, but just one thing we were not too prepared for: midgies.

These are like sand flies, and can be found in the highlands in summer, especially in wet areas. They bite, oh yes they bite as I soon found out on our first day.

We landed on Saturday afternoon and our first stop was Loch Ness, yes, in search of Nessie. Weather held up (i.e. no rain) and so we went straight to Rachel's first recommendation - restaurant overlooking Loch Ness.

We drove in our rented car towards Torridon and made some stops along the way. We soon realised that NC500 highway was more like a single road with many passing places for our car to slow down and stop to allow the car in the opposite direction to pass by. You couldn't go too fast with such an arrangement.

We spotted jumping salmon here

Trying to capture jumping salmon fishes from the waterfall.. lol

Easy hike

Take a break!

The Torridon was one of the most beautiful places in our trip. In the 5 days we were there, we saw vast pieces of uninhabited lands, showcasing the wild beauty of the highlands (midgies included).

Reflections

Calm waters. Beautiful right? Alas because of the stagnant water, there were swarms of midgies which unfortunately I was bitten so badly here

Driving on the NC500 route

We stayed at the Torridon Inn which is within a protected area, almost like a nature reserve. The next morning we took so many pictures here because the sun was shining and colours were bursting!