Adventure

The Torridon Hotel is set on Upper Loch Torridon with spectacular views in the northwest of Scotland opposite the Isle of Skye. Driving to the Torridon is a visual feast of soft rolling orange fern-covered hills peppered with scintillating streams and lakes. It is an area of outstanding beauty and the hotel is the ideal place from which to explore. This is one for the romantics, the perfect venue for a spring, summer or winter weekend.

We started our journey in Surrey at 9 am and headed north, basking in the explosive snorts of the 710 bhp McLaren 720S engine. My colleague David and I were pretty stoked about a week in the Scottish Highlands. As Lex Luthor so aptly condescended in Superman II "A good time? Is that all you care about? North, Miss Teschmacher. North!".

Full review of the McLaren 720S.

To get to know a car well you should take it on an adventure. So we drove the Maserati Levante Trofeo up to visit the Great North Air Ambulance Service helicopter rescue for a two-day extravaganza of training, tactical emergency simulation and marauding terrorist attack.

Great North Air Ambulance Service save lives.

In two words, Critical Care. When minutes count and a life is on the line. A paramedic needs to get to the scene fast and be trained to an exceptional level to preserve life until the patient gets to a hospital.

We rendezvoused at Northumbria Police Operational and Tactical Training Centre. This is a state of the art firing range used by many police forces and the military. We were being trained in ballistics. Or to put it another way, the damage different types of bullets do to a human body.

The day exercise was stressful enough and finished as the evening light faded. The next phase was far more challenging. The trainees took a break while a new set-up was arranged.

As darkness fell a car club consisting of twenty souped-up bangers arrived. They were there to provide a little extra distraction. The cars were parked in a row next to the scene. Boots were opened and large speaker systems cranked into life. The car club had volunteered to be a rowdy group of party-goers that heckles the paramedics and videos them on their smartphones.

That afternoon, we drove the Maserati Levante Trofeo over to the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service Training Centre where the next exercises were taking place. A full simulation of a multi-car pileup, first during the day, then at night. This involved the Fire Brigade, Police, Ambulance Service, the GNAAS and the paramedics on the training course.

The Maserati Levante Trofeo gleamed in the rare sunlight outside whilst I prepared for an extremely exciting tour.

I was driving up to Durham to spend four days with The Great North Air Ambulance Service for training, reenactment and emergency exercises. The GNAAS head office is located between The North Pennines and North York Moors National Park. The Director of Operations, Andy Mawson, had invited International Excellence Magazine to experience a taste of life as a paramedic in the helicopter rescue services.