Fort William
Trip Start
Mar 22, 2008
1
16
33
Trip End
Ongoing
Fort William, United Kingdom
Monday, September 29, 2008
Went out for something to eat, and then went back to the hostel - there wasn't much else to do! Plus, it was raining, and according to the statistics I was reading, this is the wettest place in Scotland. I believe that.
Found a girl in the hostel to drink some wine with and chat, and did we not have the same name?! Random. Unfortunately she was heading off in the morning to go straight to Orkney, or she could have joined me in my Nessie hunting mission. I was getting excited at this stage, as Loch Ness was so close...
...however, looking at my map, I realised how close I was to the Isle of Skye, and having never been there either, decided it would be rude not to go! So, in the morning, I had a last look around Fort William, and then headed off. I decided to go and see Ben Nevis, as it was so close. They have a visitor centre in Glen Nevis, and when I was safely out of the earshot of the American tourists, I whispered to the woman on the counter in my Scottish accent "Which one's Ben Nevis"...well...I didn't know!! Turns out it's not an embarrassing question, and most people ask that, so she told me. It turned out that you can't see Ben Nevis from the visitor centre area, as that is in the Glen, so too low lying. It was a really awful day weatherwise, so there was no point in doing a cablecar ride, but she did tell me that if you stop at the golf course on the way out of Fort William (towards Inverness), that you can sometimes see Ben Nevis from there. The way you can tell which one it is, is because it has a flat top, which none of the other mountains do. Ah well, I never saw it - too cloudy.
I then stopped at "Neptunes Staircase" which is on the Caledonian Canal, and is a canal system of 7 or 8 levels. I got there too late, as a big monster boat was already at the top of the canal, having just gone through all the stages.
After that, I headed off to the Isle of Skye, and passed loads of beautiful scenery on the way. I kinda wish I had someone else on this road trip to share the driving, as I just kept saying "cute, cute, cute" to myself at loads of different things, and wanting to take photos all the time, but I'd never have gotten anywhere if I'd stopped at every photo opportunity!!
Oh, I forgot to mention, I borrowed my dads SatNav system for this road trip, and at this stage I was loving it! I was even contemplating getting it just for walking, as I was so impressed! More on that later!
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Comments
Ooh...!
Isle of Skye looks beautiful, will definitely be going there... do you think I can pre-order some sunshine? :)