You can travel on the same line from Fort William to Malaig on the ordinary everyday train and it doesn't cost as much - but it's as much the ride on the steam train as the scenery we go for and anyway, they don't hold a raffle for a bottle of whisky on the ordinary train, or sell you a lovely scenic map showing you where you're going! Many people on the train were travelling specifically because of this:
The Glenfinnan viaduct actually exists - it wasn't painted or CGId on the films - they didn't need to because it is entirely magical in its own right. You can just see the front of the engine on the far right of the picture as it starts to go round the bend of the track. The little boy opposite us on the train really believed we were going to go past Hogwarts - although as he said we wouldn't be able to see it because we were all just Muggles! We nevertheless spent the tunnels worrying about Dementors...
At Glenfinnan station we had a fifteen minute stop - autumn colours just starting here but I'd love to go back late September some time and see the real blaze of colour the deciduous woodlands would make. Then on to Malaig where there was time to raid their second hand bookshop and sample the delights of the delicious scones in the Tea Garden tea rooms (we'd had too much breakfast to manage the fish and chips we'd promised ourselves!) As I'd expected, the sight of Eig, Rhum and Skye almost within touching distance did make me want to leap on a 'bonnie boat':
(I resisted. There are plans afoot for next year already...!)
On our return to Fort William we went in search of Neptune's Staircase, a ladder of locks which comes towards the end of the Caledonian canal, designed to enable cargo to travel from the North Sea to the Atlantic ocean without having to 'go round the top bit'! It was a cool, breezy but fine afternoon and the walk up and down the lock side gave us more of an appetite. I was particularly impressed with the views of Ben Nevis and the hydroelectric system - the cloud makes it look as if the top of the mountain is missing here:
Day 2 ended in the same fabulous restaurant we'd eaten in the night before - we figured that it had been so good it was pointless looking anywhere else for food! It was a fabulous experience and something we'd all really enjoyed doing - we've been talking about it for years and it was worth the wait - it has to be one of the most beautiful routes in the country! However, the excitement caught up with all of us: I retreated to my room at 10pm and had the earliest night I think I've had for thirty years. Day 3 held the promise of finally seeing Hamish's wee glen 'in the flesh' as it were...
(By the way, we didn't win the raffle! Maybe next time...)
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