Category Archives: Fort William

Sunday, May 19 A Day Of Rest

Posted on by
2

We woke up lazily, and had our 9:00 breakfast at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It sufficed, and came with the Mickledore arranged walk, so why not?

Dan tweaked his back (again), so he opted to rest in our hotel room while I did some investigating for our walk tomorrow. I first walked, following a Great Glen Way sign I thought pointed a particular way. Nope. Then I walked the other direction and found the official start of the walk, where probably everyone takes the obligatory photo.


But it isn’t where you start the walk! How confusing is that?

I walked just a small bit and saw a sign across the street that looked promising. I took a quick photo and zoomed in. Yep. The start of the walk! Right by our hotel. The path, in fact, runs directly behind our hotel window, and the people I heard talking last night were clearly walking on it!

The building you see behind the fence is our hotel.


Since I located it I decided to walk a bit to see where it took me. The first Great Glen Way marker was pretty clear and easy to follow …


Hmm. Into a residential area. Strange. But, once again, I misread a sign and wound up at a dead end in said residential area. What IS my problem?!


Well, I figured it out: the Great Glen Way signs have what I thought were arrows pointing in the direction I should go, when I guess they just are the logo or some such thing. Other posts do have an arrow pointing us in the correct direction (like the one I posted above), but those aren’t like the signs I mistakenly followed. Go figure. (I’ll try to remember to post a photo of the sign that confused me when we head out tomorrow … but with this old brain who knows if I’ll get to it!)

So backtracking was next and it was “Well, DUH, Patty, can’t you see what that sign is telling you to do?!”

Continuing the walk I ended up off sidewalk and street and on to trail. It’s so pretty … flowers are blooming and the birds are enthusiastically singing. Weather was fabulous, too: enough cloud cover to keep me from getting too warm, and very little breeze.

I wasn’t sure how far I walked when I opted to turn around (right after crossing Soldier’s Bridge), so I set my watch to record a walk and back I went.

Except again I missed a turn. Argh! When I hit homes I thought, “Well I don’t remember this at all.” So I turned around and headed back and it was so darn clear where I missed my turn. There were the sheep. There were the sweet lambs. (There was all that sheep poop.) Ah well. I very well may have added 1/2 mile or more to my walk and that’s just fine. I may as well get ready for the longer walks we have coming. (Tomorrow’s is said to be 10 miles.)

I came back to the room to find Dan doing some computer stuff, and after I showered, and did a small amount of laundry in the sink, we hung out for a while before going back out.

First off I showed Dan the sign I totally missed this morning, and then we went to the big Great Glen Way sign, agreeing that our photo would wait until we are actually heading out. As we were there four cyclists showed up: they had just finished the GGW coming from Inverness (our final destination), taking two days to do the ride. Dan took some photos for them, and we chatted a bit. One woman did say they hit good weather but we should be prepared for anything. I’m hoping we are, although I’d prefer no rain. (I can dream, right?)

We then again walked to the little downtown area, in search of coffee and a light snack. Hm. Apparently coffee isn’t available in the afternoon. Instead we wound up ordering beers and a pizza. A bit more than we had planned on eating. Ah well. Guess we’ll burn it off on the walk. Maybe.

Our “light” snack. Heh.

Next up was a walk back to the hotel, a bit of a rest, some computer time (including writing more of this blog entry), and just a lot of doing nothing, which I really do excel at. Dinner was right next door — the same place we get our free breakfast — and was just fine. Nothing to write home about, but I’m not writing home so whatever!

Seeing a young man stick his menu in his pants, though … that was a fun thing to view and a great photo with which to END. 🤣

Hello Fort William! (Saturday, May 18)

Posted on by
Reply

We began the morning with the in-room breakfast. I can’t say it was an Epicurean’s delight, but it sufficed and it didn’t cost us anything more than what we paid for the room, so that was nice.

Next up was packing. Why oh why does everything expand once on a trip? It fit before we left, but suddenly my suitcase was a pain to pack. I did decide that I really could have packed more minimally. I think I just felt as if I had a ton more room since I wasn’t using my pack. Truth is I think the pack holds just as much, and is easier to load up. But, finally, I managed. We sat for a short time, just enjoying the view, and then headed out.

We were far too early for the train, so we stopped nearby for cappuccinos. Whew, a vast improvement from Nescafé which is what was provided in our room. We also picked up sandwiches for the train: the first Scotrail train we were on had no offering of food at all (and we had bought sandwiches for that as well), so we figured it would be a good idea to have them again.

We did want to get to the train early, but still we were TOO early and had to wait around quite a while. Once they let us in we quickly grabbed two seats that weren’t reserved, and headed to Crianlarich, where we would be switching trains.

After a non-eventful first leg, we waited for about 3/4 of an hour before our next train arrived.

Again, we hopped in quickly and found non-reserved seats.

From there we were able to enjoy some lovely sights. It’s such fun to be in a train, not having to worry about how to get to the next destination (or how to drive in the UK!), and I did manage to get a few photos, although using the iPhone on a moving train isn’t exactly a great way to get good photos.


From the Fort William train station we walked to our hotel. It’s a basic, no-frills kind of place, but that’s fine. We will be here two nights, and tomorrow we can explore the area and relax before the walk begins on Monday.

Today, though, we spent a brief time in the room and then headed to the downtown area of Fort William in search of a place to find dinner.

We found a place that had only a short wait, got our beers (mine was almost “near beer” at 3.2%, and ordered our curry dinners. I was determined NOT to have fried food and certainly couldn’t deal with an order of chips tonight!

Then back to our hotel, where I spent time writing to each place we are staying while on the walk to see if we can order lunches for the trail.

But now? Well, I think it’s time to stop typing!