I love it when a plan comes together
The plan for the Grand Tour are coming together. The plan so far:
- 10th: Aaalburgh – Lyme Bay
- Visit the most easterly point at Lowestoft en route
- 11th: Lyme Bay – Tintagel
- Visit the most southerly point, The Lizard, en route
- 12th: Tintagel – Torchwood Town
- Saves the cost of one night’s overnight accommodation
- 13th: Torchwood Town – Lancaster
- 14th: Lake District
- In and around the Lake District – if fine, I’ll visit the Ravenglass & Eskdale railway.
- 15th: Lancaster – Skye
- 16th: on Skye
- Visit the most westerly point, near Milovaig
- 17th: Skye – Inverness
- 18th: Inverness and parts North
- Up to Dunnet Head (the most northerly point) before returning to Inverness
- 19th Inverness – Edinburgh
- I’ll hopefully get to meet up with the elusive Croila and Wee D – although something will come up to prevent this if previous attempts at a rendezvous are any guide.
- 20th Edinburgh – York
- I like York
- 21st York – Aaalburgh
- There’ll be a pile of washing to do and a fortnight’s blog posts to catch up on on the 22nd before I go back to work on the 23rd.
“Plan” is overstating things a little, I admit, as this schedule will change based on the weather and/or driving conditions. I won’t be pre-booking any accommodation and the locations mentioned are only approximate.
With so much up in the air, then, I feel it’s a perfect opportunity for A COMPETITION.
Your challenge is to guess my mileage for the whole trip. Here’s the overall map.
I’ve told you my approximate route and I can give you the following pointers (the two mileage figures are the shortest and quickest routes according to http://local.live.com):
- Aaalburgh to Lowestoft is between 37.1 and 45 miles
- Lowestoft to The Lizard is 411.4 – 424.9 miles
- The Lizard to Tintagel is 61.6 – 64.4 miles
- Tintagel to Ravenglass is 401.6 – 405.6 miles
- Ravenglass to Milovaig is 353.3 – 385.3 miles
- Milovaig to Dunnet Head is 229.7 – 235.0 miles
- Dunnet Head to Aaalbugh is 622.1 – 650.5 miles
Excluding my two days’ of pottering around in the Lake District and on Skye, then, my poor Sirion’s going to have its odometer increased by a minimum of 2,100 miles.
There will, of course, be a fabulous prize of some description for the closest estimate. Mileage will start and end outside Aaalburgh Town Hall, as per the map.
Put your guesses in the comments. As I’ll be offline from the 10th to the 21st, entries must be in before I arrive home.
May 6th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Must admit that I would have gone Skye – Ullapool – Durness – Dunnet -Inverness ( if only to include the farthest Northwest you can get on the UK mainland ) not all in one day though! Watch out for big tourist busses on single-track A roads, and foreign tourists first thing in the morming forgetting which side of the road to drive on – they have a tendency to come out of their B&B’s and turn the wrong way. BTW the A82 kills a lot of holiday makers
Lionel: Hmm. That’s an option. So … your guess is?
May 6th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
2222!
May 6th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Ach wheest! It’ll be third time lucky
Aye, you need to do the Inverness -> Ullapool -> Lochinver -> Scourie -> Durness -> Bettyhill -> Thurso route. Assynt and the Summer Isles can NOT be missed! In fact, why not take the ferry over from Ullapool to Stornoway? And visit the most heavenly island in the universe?
Lionel: I think a lot depends on how quickly I get to Scotland – I don’t think I’ll have time for the ultra-scenic route if I follow the original plan. What’s your guess, anyway?
May 6th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
2495 miles…….
May 7th, 2007 at 8:17 am
It suddenly occured to me – why not combine your farthest E-S-W-N trip with visiting the four corners SE-SW-NW-NE at the same time? Since you can easily do 3 of them anyway – the awkward one would be the south east corner – the other three being, to all intents and purposes, included anyway.
Lionel: Actually the awkward one would be NW. There’s no road within a mile or more of the north-westerly point on Skye as far as I can see. The Sirion is no off-road vehicle, I assure you. I think I’ll leave the corners for another trip (during which I could visit places I miss on this one).
May 7th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Ah, I’ll go for 2,600, all told.
May 7th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Actually the NW one (as close as you can get by Road) would be Durness
May 7th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
2300 miles
17 x 2 mb Compact Flash Cards
Lionel: Nah, just the two. I’ll have my PhotoShop lappy with me.
14 Pairs Underpants (excluding M6 section)
New set of Copen Tyres
This could be the next Bill Bryson! Just needs a catchy title.
“Four Corners in a Copen”.
“Length & Breadth with Lionel”
“Em of the M6″
May 7th, 2007 at 6:15 pm
I forgot it was the Sirion.
“A car a Day around the UK the Rarsh Way!”
Lionel: If The Bishop came with me the title could be “Cardinal Points”. Alternatively “Putting the ‘Car’ in ‘Cardinal Points’”.
May 8th, 2007 at 8:21 am
2450 – if it’s a straight lion
Lionel groans
May 8th, 2007 at 10:12 am
sounds cool whatever route you take.
i just read a book about by some historian chappy about some greek explorers travelling through britain circa 500ad. was a fictional account based on fact. if you get what i mean.
was very good. they started in tintagel. you should read it as you travel north. will warn you of the strange customs and habits of the various barbarian tribes.
if you have time email me and i’ll post it.
Lionel: Thanks for the offer, Briggy, but I fear the Norfolk post service wouldn’t manage to deliver it in time. I’ll keep an eye out if I pass any bookshops.
May 8th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
2,375 miles