Beardie

The Bealach nam Ba (Pass of the Cows), is one of hairiest roads to drive on in Scotland.
It goes from sea level to 2000 feet and back to sea level in the space of 10 miles.
All of it single track with steep drops!

This video was taken during the last Wooly Bollard Tour and (in my opinion) really does the route justice.
It's unedited and the original Honda soundtrack has been left intact.

Note that Jaeger managed to do a 180 on one of the 90 degree bends and lived to tell the tale.

Enjoy.

Click for The Bealach




Credit to Euan for filming and Shiskine for starring.

C7BLE's also posted his near miss on Jaeger Bend.
http://www.zen81684.zen.co.uk/nearly.wmv

Shiskine

NOTE: Above vid is 16 mins and 99Mb

Euan's brakes were actually smoking at the bottom . Mine weren't, but I was tending to keep it in a lower gear than Euan for both VTEC and engine braking purposes.

Watching it again now, I realise how selfish I was not slowing down sooner to find out what had happened to Allan and Penny

Absolutely awesome road with great views and frightening drops. Shame you can't hear my engine note above Euan's, although you do hear Euan referring to me caning it at one point. Not much of a concertina effect into and out of corners as I was pressing the him pretty hard on the way down ...

Shiskine

For the record, the running order was something like ...

Euan (with Jimbo riding shotgun), Shiskine, Jaeger (until he spun), C7BLE (who only just missed him), Oss, Beardie, JMP, Budgie. Don't think S2KScot did that section and I'm sure I'm missing someone else ...

Beardie

Actually S2kScot did do the pass.... in both directions.


And it's Colin you're missing.

Shiskine

Shouldn't that be a 360 on one of the 180 degree bends ...

oss

Na Shisky

It was more like this:-

Euan, Shiskine, Colin, Budgie, Jaeger, Oss (who only just stopped inches in front of Jaeger's front bumper), Beardie, C7BLE, S2kScot and JMP.

Cable squeezed into the space that had the launch ramp on one side and managed to stop just inches before going over the edge as Beardie and me had used all the remaining space that was round that corner.

The reason C7BLE got down the hill before us was simply all of us trying to unpick the traffic jam at that point.

Shiskine

But that's Jaeger behind me on the way up ...

And of course, I forgot about Colin

GSi

spankley

That looks awesome. I wish you'd posted this last week though...

I was up in Glencoe doing some walking over the weekend. I decided to go for a blast up to Skye on saturday instead of walking 'cos the weather was brilliant (first time in 5 years that I've ever seen Scotland in the sun!).

The road signposted "scenic route" at Shiel Bridge on the way to Kyle of Lochalsh was great fun, and with stunning views, as was the similar road on Skye once I'd gone over on the little car ferry across Kyle Rhea.

Finally ended up at the Talisker Distillery, but I would've definately detoured and done your route if I'd known about it. One for next time I'm up there.

The S feels so at home on the twisties of Scotland, and it's one of the best driving days I've ever had.

oss

Must have been Budgie behind you Shisky and Colin behind him then.

I was the one that saw the immediate aftermath, honest

We need to see Andy's footage, now that was scary

We watched it that night in the hotel, he comes round the corner to see Beardie and me stationary he had nowhere to go (almost) the only place was to the left of Beardie but that was heading for the edge and there was ice on the road there..!

He was bloody lucky not to hit anything or go over the edge.