By now I am becoming quite the expert on the A9. This is the motorway (sorry, I have since been advised by locals that it’s not a motorway, it’s a road) that runs from the very north shore of Scotland, all the way south to Stirling. I have driven it 13 times in the last nine months. That’s more than many of my Orkney acquaintances have driven it in the last decade.
There are things I like about it: they have ‘Average Speed Cameras’ that monitor your speed over a 2 or 3 mile stretch, thereby ensuring speeders can’t just brake right before the camera; the views are always spectacular regardless of weather (except that one foggy day in April – I saw nothing but pavement and the tail lights of the truck in front of me); and there are lots of places to pull over, for stretch breaks with the dog.
There are also challenges: from Thurso (or Gill’s Bay, depending on the ferry du jour) to Central Scotland is a 6+ hours drive (that’s long); I can’t stand night driving on a highway that is that busy & narrow, so in winter I have to break my journey halfway (that’s expensive); and Transport Scotland does not believe in straight lines, so I am constantly anticipating coaches and transport trucks coming at me around every curve (that’s exhausting).
We now have quite a little routine. Once off the ferry, Scout gets a romp either behind an Aldi parking lot or beside an old cemetery (depending on the ferry du jour); then we stop in Golspie for good coffee, clean bathroom, and lovely beach; and then a stop at the House of Bruar for a hike along the burn and lovely washrooms. I can now tell you my favourite petrol station (in Brora), the scariest round-about (Bannockburn Roundabout), the nicest washrooms (Bruar), and which are my favourite hotels (more on that later).