June 12
Ardvassar to Fort William

A comfortable night and I woke before the alarm. I waited downstairs and was then found by the owner, who escorted me to the breakfast room, fed me coffee and haddock and then relieved me of lots of money.

It had rained steadily over night but seemed to have stopped this morning, so I declined his kind offer of a lift and set out to walk the mile or a bit less to the ferry. The lane, you could hardly call it a road,  was very quiet and I stopped to take lots photos en route. Everything was dull and damp.

Almost early morning on the harbour	Down a damp lane
Round the corner towards the ferry	Safely arrived at the ferry terminal

I arrived in less than 20 minutes, had my Freedom Card accepted at the ticket desk and waited for the ferry to arrive. Needless to say, when it did arrive, it was a much newer boat than the one I caught 21 years ago. I joined about 30 others, we departed on time and we sailed into the gloom.

The ferry arrived ...	... and set off into the mist

Just like an Air New Zealand flight, we took off on time, landed on time and there were no major bumps - in fact no turbulence at all. The clouds gradually lifted over Mallaig as we approached and I took a few photos through the window overlooking the pointed end.

A meaningful statue	Mallaig Harbour

I was interested in the statue of the dubious looking old man with a child at the entrance to the harbour. Recent research reveals it to be a very recent addition and is an 8 foot fisherman with a little girl. Not sure any of that makes it look any less dubious! Perhaps this is a Scottish custom of which I would rather not know too much.

The wharf was strewn with pretty coloured nets and floats, just begging to be photographed. I duly obliged. The picture was further improved by the queue of people in bright red anoraks by the side of the ferry. I stopped in the village long enough to buy a paper and crossed the road to the station. There were a few people waiting, everything was damp and it was a touch chilly.
Colours on the wharf

The inbound train arrived ten minutes early and, at four carriages, was bigger than anything that I was expecting. There was no problem finding a whole block of seats.

We left on time, followed the sea for a while, then plunged inland into tunnels, cuttings and forests, all of which combined with the rain on the windows to make photography too difficult to be worth the effort.

At Glenfinnan, The Jacobite, the special steam train, was waiting for us to clear the line. As it was sitting about three feet away, a photo wasn't possible. Even on a lousy day like this, however, it seemed to be very full.

The railway followed the road and the sea	Glenfinnan Viaduct

The train did stop on the famous viaduct (famous to train spotters and Harry Potter buffs) for the benefit of photographers but the visibility was too poor for anything but token efforts. A helicopter on a clear day is the answer.

We arrived into Fort William a few minutes early and I was able to se the hotel as we slowed to a halt. This didn't actually make it any easier to find as I went the wrong way round Morrisons' car park before finding the huge grey building. They took care of my back pack and promised to let me into my room at 2 pm.
	Safely into Fort William
Twice round Morrisons' Car Park	The Premier Inn - at last!

I acquired a map and a brochure about everything at the Tourist Office, had a look at the loch - rapidly vanishing beneath the clouds - and dived into the local CAMRA branch pub for lunch and a beer. It was dark and empty when I arrived but soon filled up. The soup and a cheese & ham roll seemed like a good idea. The beer was OK but not brilliant. When I emerged, it was raining quite hard. I walked along the water front towards the pier, where I booked a table for tonight's dinner.
Fort William High Street	The Grog and Gruel

I would also have booked a place on a boat trip for tomorrow morning but the kiosk was empty.

Whilst in the area, I spotted The Station Bar, a real dive and about a mile from the railway station. I must ask someone if there used to be a station in the centre of the town. (Research failed to give me an answer to this one.)

	With the rain easing but the murk growing, I walked back to the main square and visited the West Highlands Museum. It was very small but contained interesting displays on the WWII Commando Training Centre at nearby Achnacarry, on the short lived weather station at the top of Ben Nevis at the end of the 19th century and on the Jacobites. This was a period of history about which I was pitifully uninformed, so I learned quite a lot. They even had one of the secret pictures - a silver cylinder which reflects a portrait of Bonnie Prince Charlie when placed on a seemingly randomly painted pattern. I had seen one on Lovejoy but it was good to know that they really did exist.
Fort William pier	Not just people there

With my literary utterances seemingly growing with age, it was looking likely that I would fill my second notebook before reaching home. A trip to WH Smith's failed to solve the problem. I haven't seen a proper range of exercise books in the UK for years. Must be because children are no longer taught to read and write!

Gloom on the High Street	The Jacobite
Wot a long corridor	The weary tramper

It was damp outside and the crowds had thinned. I walked through town in search of a coffee and settled on the Grog and Gruel.  They produced a reasonable double espresso which served to wake me up a little. I continued my perambulation up the main street and found a bronze tramper sitting on a bench. I hadn't noticed him before - he's just like the old man on Maidenhead Station.

I arrived early at the restaurant as it was too nasty to hang around in town any longer. The views would be stunning if the windows weren't covered with rain.

The Crannog Restaurant	Lovely views on a sunny day
Beautiful mussels	Perfect baked cod

The pretty waitress admired my camera and said that she was into photography and had a Canon. As the meal progressed, she showed a fair amount of knowledge of and interest in food. Clever as well as pretty.  The mussels and the cod were perfectly cooked. The food here isn't cheap but it's worth it.

I walked home by the loch ...	... along the ugly bypass

I walked home along the lochside, which is separated from the town by a by-pass. Typical 60's or 70's planning, when they didn't care about such things.

I watched TV, did my photos etc and had a restful evening.