In this solo travel vlog, Kathryn Bird documents her nervous yet exhilarating drive up and down the infamous Ballach na Ba (Applecross) road in the Scottish Highlands while traveling in a motorhome with her cocker spaniel. She begins by acknowledging the risky nature of the plan—driving a large vehicle on a steep, narrow, rain‑slicked mountain road—yet proceeds after a brief rain break. Throughout the journey she narrates the road’s characteristics: blind bends, steep gradients, narrow sections, frequent passing places, and the need for careful gear selection and hill‑starts. She comments on visibility challenges, the importance of staying in lower gears, and the limits on vehicle length (around 7.5 m) for safe navigation. The vlog captures vivid scenery—lochs, clouds, and mountain vistas—while expressing a deep affection for Scotland. An encounter with another motorhome driver provides a brief social moment and reinforces safety advice, such as avoiding caravans on this road. The video concludes with a reflection on the fun of driving versus walking the route, a promise of future adventures, and a call to subscribe.
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Oh, Kathryn, how do you get yourself into these situations? Every now and then I get an idea that's perhaps a little more crazy than most of my other ones, you know, like living in a boat, quitting my job to travel in a motorhome, getting a cocker spaniel. I'm at the foot of Ballach na Ba, the, um, the scariest road in Scotland, as many have called it, And one that's kind of ambiguous whether you should or shouldn't drive it in a motorhome in a rainstorm. So I'm gonna go drive it in a motorhome by myself. Well, with a cocker spaniel. Look at his face. He's, um, he's picking up on the fact that I'm not convinced this is a brilliant plan. I've kind of run out of excuses to not go apart from the fact that it's raining and I still think this is a really, really bad idea. And the rain's just stopped. Okay, I'm taking that as a sign. I'm going. All right then, here we go. I'm really, really, really nervous. If this goes horribly wrong and you guys find my GoPro as I've slid To a grisly death off the mountain. Um, I'm aware that this is a really bad plan. If anybody watches a lot of Instagram, the I know this is a bad idea but I'm gonna do it anyway, it's just going round and round in my head. It's funny, the confidence I've got driving this motorhome in the last, well, however long I've been traveling now, what, week and a half? I don't know, but, um, that's really, really— yeah, I'm fine driving this thing. I'll drive it pretty much anywhere, as I'm about to show. Welcome to Loch Carron. How pretty is that? We've not even got on the road yet and this is 14%. Holy moly! And this is just the normal road. This is not the Applecross Road. This is the actual road that you would ride, like drive, if you weren't doing the Applecross bit and you just wanted to bypass it. You still have to do this bit. I love Scotland. I love Scotland so much. It's just cracking. I can't even explain to you how incredible this place is. Just, oh, I want to live here. I've said that about 17 times so far. I've only been in Scotland 2 days. Here we go! No fair, no fair. Biggest problem is a bend like that where you can't actually see. I can see one car coming down miles away. We've got several blind bends. Oh, actually they're not that blind. If you had a big bus or something, you could see that. Road goes— I'm trying to see if there's anything between me and that blue car. So far I can't see a thing. However, I also can't see the car that passed me going up, and I know he's on here somewhere unless he went to the docks or something. Well, I'm a mile in. Oh, I need a way of doing an outside camera angle. I need to get that 360 on and just just so I can show you how cool this is. And blue on. Okay, I mean there's ample room at the second gear because I've done all that in third. Sorry if your view is a bit smeared; it has just started to rain. Gonna have to put up with a full-on rain. It's torrential. Oh, Kathryn, how do you get yourself into these situations? Let's go drive the scariest road in Scotland. Oh, I know, let's do it in the rain. Okay, so this was getting quite steep. I'm still in second. I am still in second, and I've been very lucky so far to not have to stop. That's enormous. I mean, they've got parking— passing places, not parking places, um, every 100 meters or so. Like, some of them, like this one, is a bit pathetic. Um, and some of them are really massive. Apparently this is the, uh, the more difficult side. I guess we'll find out, but it's easier coming up this side and then down towards Applecross than the other way, apparently. Trying to do this when you are going down. Slightly more complicated. I believe we're getting to the switchback section. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's narrow. It's plenty, plenty wide enough for a motorbike. I mean, I'm not even like breathing in. If a bus came around the corner now— but you've got great visibility that you can see if something's coming down. You just stop. You do need to be able to reverse. Hill start, doing a hill start, put some welly into it. There we go, good little van. Definitely wouldn't have wanted to, um, leave the motorhome. Oh, second might have been a bad plan. Going back into first. Stay in first for a bit on this bit, I think. Oh, we are properly climbing into the clouds. All right, that is the first one, and there is— it is wide enough. That's the first time I've gone off the road. Oh shit, see, everything's coming, so I'm just gonna kind of do it. Okay, and again, takes up a decent amount of space. I've almost reached the top, not that you can tell, but I've almost reached the top. Wow, this one's tight. Just in first, nice and slowly, nice and slowly. I know you can't see anything, but I am at the top, honest. And apparently there's a car park around here somewhere. There, that there is a motorhome who has also driven up. Hello! That was a fun drive, wasn't it? Yeah. Made it! That was awesome. There were like 3 corners that, um, that were dodgy, that were tight. I think— I mean, I'm 6.8 meters, I'd easily do it in a 7.5 meter. Much bigger than that, yeah, you might have to like take 2 bites at a corner, which of course could be an issue, um, but Yeah, 7.5 meters or less, you're fine, absolutely fine. I would not try it with a caravan, wouldn't try it at all with a caravan, but otherwise that was awesome. Let's hope this view clears now. I gotta be honest, this road is much more fun to drive than it is to walk up. It's, um, it's very pretty, but look at the size of the hill. It's just enormous. Nearly there, I hope. Right then, we've had a break, we've had a little nap, we had some breakfast, we've waited for the clouds to clear, and we are now going to drive down the other side, which is apparently much simpler. But you know, I'm going downhill, so I then have to give way to everyone coming up. It'll be fine. I haven't got a choice, to be fair. I've got to go down one way or the other. I'm stuck here now. It's so cool. I'm so glad I came up here. Got a friend! Next time we find an amazing beach, an incredible waterfall, and one of the best campsites I think I've ever seen. Be sure to subscribe to follow our adventures, and I'll see you on the next video. Thanks for watching! Bye!
