Oct 3 The Highlands

The Highlands are, in a word, amazing. They're definitely worth their own multi-week vacation. I see now why some people spend days or weeks hiking through them.

On Monday, I left Glasgow for Fort William. The train takes a little under four hours to make the trip, with a number of stops along the way. These trains run both directions, so some seats face forward and some face back, and there are several tables around which four seats are arranged (two on each side). I decided to sit backwards, which wasn't terrible, but I did get a little nauseous after a couple of hours of it. Something I didn't know, which the nice couple from Canada told me (he's from Canada, she's from England, they were over in the UK visiting various relatives) was that this particular train was going to split. That's right, this four car train was going to split in half, with one half going towards Maillaig (pronounced either MAL-egg or mal-EGG, depending on where you are from; I was wrong in my last post, the g is never pronounced like a k) and the other half to Fort William. So I had to move myself and my stuff to another car...while the train was moving. And while waiting for the trolley to finish going down the aisle. It was a good test of balance.

Fun with place names (I didn't get pictures of all of them to refer to, so I've missed a few)!
Dumbarton
Helensburgh Upper - Baile Eilidh Ard
Ardlui - Àird Laoigh
Crianlarich - A' Chrìon Làraich
Upper Tyndrum (pronounced with a long "i") - Taigh an Droma Uarach
Bridge of Orchy - Drochaid Urchaidh
Rannoch - Raineach
Corrour - Coire Odhar
Tulloch - An Tulach
Roy Bridge - Drochaid Ruaidh
Spean Bridge - Drochaid an Aonachain
Fort William - An Gearasdan

There is some large loch around Helensburgh, I don't know what it is, but there were a lot of boats of various sizes on it. Farther on, there were hilly pastures and rolled hay, and more and more mountains as we went on. It was difficult to take pictures from inside, because I don't know how to manually focus, so the camera had a tendency to auto-focus on the raindrops on the window. It rained off and on the whole way, never a hard rain, but sometimes a drizzle and sometimes steady. At Rannoch, we were allowed to get off and stretch our legs for a few minutes. Some of those stations, there was nothing around, making us wonder why the stations were there at all. At Rannoch, I went out to one end and could hardly hear the train, and I heard nothing else. I wanted to mention this to someone, so an older man nearby, I got his attention and said, "Do you hear that?" I didn't see until after I asked...he had a hearing aid. Oops. So after he said, "What?" I said, "I don't hear anything but the train," and he agreed that it was quiet and peaceful.

At Corrour there is Corrour Summit, which I didn't see the sign for until the way back. My hotel was at Spean Bridge, but I didn't know I could get off there instead of Fort William, and had no idea how far of a walk it would be anyway. So I got to the Fort William train station about 4 pm, and it was raining hard. Fortunately the bus station is there too, and someone told me the next bus to Spean Bridge was due at about 5:40 pm, so I settled in and waited. I got on the bus with no problem, I think the fare was about £2.40. That driver was NOT afraid of those two lane roads. I was glad to get off, fortunately (and supposedly) right across the street from my hotel. I got off...and didn't see it.

As luck would have it, there was another bus stop just across the road, so I crossed and asked a woman there. It turns out she is the receptionist at the Spean Bridge Hotel, and pointed me to just a couple of buildings down, and to go in to the bar and ask for Callum. He got me set up in my room, a nice room with a double bed and a huge shower with a tub. FINALLY I could take a shower without my elbows bumping the soap dish or door or curtain. After cleaning up, I went down to the bar and had a haddock and chips for dinner, and mentioned I wanted to go to Achnacarry. Callum recommended a man named Al who drives his own taxi, and lives locally so he would give me a good deal.

The carpet of the hotel is, I'm convinced, the Cameron tartan, which looks very similar to the traditional Stewart tartan, but with a thin yellow line and slightly different pattern. The hotel itself has the Commando Bar, and it has a Commando Exhibition. Apparently, Achnacarry's modern claim to fame is that during World War II, special commando units (think "the Green Berets", for example) were put together, and that was their training ground. It's a rough area with harsh conditions. The men would be sent to Spean Bridge, and the first thing they had to do was to run 7 miles to Achnacarry in full gear. They went through six weeks of grueling training in all kinds of terrain and weather conditions. To make it more realistic, live ammunition and explosives were used in the training! In fact, about 36 men died during the training, and Cameron Castle, which was used as part of the training, including "roping down" from the top, has a number of bullet holes in it. But being part of a commando unit was such a high honor that many men were willing to risk the lethal training and even accept demotions in rank just  to be a part of it. Up the road is the Commando Memorial, which has a statue of three soldiers standing together, facing out towards Ben Nevis (the tallest mountain in Britain). The soldiers are about 8 feet high and the base they're on is about 6 feet high. Only a couple hundred feet away is an ashes scattering ground and a separate memorial area, with photos and plaques commemmorating soldiers who died even as recently as a couple of years ago in various wars.

On Tuesday morning, I had breakfast in the hotel (£4-5 for hot food) and then had the receptionist call Al. The Cameron Clan Museum is only open about 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm, so I arranged to be picked up at 1 pm. I went for a walk around this little village, Spean Bridge, which is pronounced either "speen" or "spee-in", depending on who you're talking to, but never "spane" as I thought. Silly Gaelic. It's a small village. From what I could see, there was a little post office and convenience store with a cash machine, some houses/bed and breakfasts, and not much else. There is a cashmere shop that houses a big loom and a live weaving exhibition every other day or so (Tuesday was not that day). They had an impressive array of scarves in clan tartans. Some nice-looking clothes too, but a bit pricier than I wanted or had room for in my luggage. But for pure Highlands wool, they were probably good prices, especially considering a lot was on sale. There is also the Spean Bridge bridge, right next to it, with a river flowing underneath.

I took some pictures and went back, and had a chicken burger with salad and chips. True to form, the "salad" consisted of cole slaw put on one side of the burger, and lettuce, tomatoes, and diced bell peppers on the other side. It's an interesting taste to eat a burger with salad on it. And good heavens, there were about 2 potatoes full of fries!

The trip to the museum, in the next post...