Thursday 28 July 2011

Day 4: steam train to Mallaig

This morning saw us getting up to a very different day to what we were used to in Scotland.  Until now we've had nothing but sunshine decent temperatures, but this morning was very misty, wet and pretty chilly to start. We were a bit disappointed that the weather has decided to change the day before were are due to summit Ben Nevis and it been so clear for such a long time.

So we had to get to Fort William train station early enough to get some tickets to go on a train.  This isn't any train though, it is the Jacobite - a steam train running between Fort William and Mallaig, which goes over the Glenfinnan viaduct which is featured in the Harry Potter movies on their way to Hogwarts.

The trip to Mallaig took about 2 hours, stopping for about 20 minutes in Glenfinnan, then about 5 minutes in Arisaig, the most westerly train station in mainland the UK.

When we arrived in Mallaig, we decided to go straight to the Fishmarket restaurant.  We had a starter called Cullen Skink, which is basically smoked Haddock soup, but it was the best smoked haddock soup I've tasted!  We both also had fish and chips because we just thought it wouldn't be right if we didn't seeing that we were visiting a seaside/harbour village...

We had about and hour and a half in Mallaig, and after we had a little wonder around, quickly stopped off at the ice cream shop at the station for dessert, on the way back to the train.

Once we got back to Fort William we stopped at the local supermarket to get some supplies, got a bus back to the hostel and decided to go for a short walk (even though it was meant to be our day off) along the Glen that runs past the bottom of the garden where we're staying.

By this evening though, the cloud had risen well above the Ben Nevis summit so that we could see exactly what was in store for us tomorrow...

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