Our first official stop on the NC500 was at a village called Torridon in Western Ross. Traveling throughout the outskirts of the Highlands meant it was less likely we would get lost.

The majority of our trip throughout the Scottish Highlands was planned following a course called The North Coast 500. This is a fairly new campaign enticing visitors to explore the vast coastline surrounding northern Scotland. It consists of 500 miles of winding, often single lane, roads. It was advertised that some parts were dangerous and that travelers on this route should be aware of sheep and cyclists. This itinerary provided us much needed direction in planning. It sounded perfect.

We made arrangements with a car rental agency to be picked up from our B&B in Glasgow. By noon we were off in a nice Mazda 6 attempting to navigate the UK roads from the opposite side. Thankfully this car had GPS. Michael was the primary driver and it took us a while to figure out all of the roundabouts and one way streets. Eventually we sorted it all out and we managed to get out of the city and onto the highway.