Ok so I cheated a little today, when I got off the ferry
in Mallaig I found out that the Harry Potter express runs through there, so I
decided that it would be a really great idea to travel on it’s iconic route
across the aquaduct to fort William.
It’s a little out of my way but given the miserable weather I have been
enduring I decided I would treat myself!
I had a coffee in Mallaig in the mission café, I then had
a wander around the town for a little while, there is a small stone cliff
alongside one of the roads and even in this poor weather it was strewn with
wildflowers and colour so I had to take a photograph.
I found a secondhand bookshop, however they weren’t
organised and just couldn’t find something I wanted to read. It came near the time for the train to
arrive so I made my way across to the station and awaited the train. Whilst there I met a german lady who was on a
bike more laden than I was, she was touring around solo enjoying herself and
she too lamented the weather, the wind and the prices they were charging, it
was like meeting a female version of myself… very unsettling. Her English was functional but limited, she
was hoping to go to Ireland but couldn’t figure out a good way to get there so
I showed her the route down to Campbeltown and wrote the details for the
Kintyre express, she asked me twice if I was sure that there was a ferry from
there so I got out a map and showed her the ferry symbol and got the number for
her to book, she loved the look of the route.
Pretty soon the train arrived and a deluge of passengers
spilled out of the carriages, people with cameras literally elbowing each other
to get a photograph of the engine the Jacobean as if it was going to dissolve
before they got a chance. Soon everyone
left the station and I got some photos of my own and a small video as it backed
up ready to turn around and hook back up to the carriages the other way.
I got a ticket and managed to negotiate a seat with the
conductor as it was standing room only but he found me something and a place to
put my bike. I decided to wait on the
train rather than head back into Mallaig which would be awash with people by
now. Strictly speaking this was taking
me off my route but I figured riding back out from fort William would make up
for it and I would soon be back on track, this was just one of those happy
coincidences I wasn’t prepared to miss.
,
I sat in my carriage and could smell the engine and hear
the steam venting for all the world like a kettle left on the boil, as
passengers began to board I could see all the excited children and every second
word was harry potter related. There
was the usual mix of German/French/American and Canadian tourists who were
having a great time, the atmosphere was wonderful with almost a childlike
innocence.
I was sat in Standard class which didn’t have the
elegance of first class, but the carriage took me back to my own childhood
where I remember these carriages still being in service! I was joined by some
Belgians a father with his two teenage children. They played cards and we swapped some stories
of our travels, they showed me a great photo of some Dolphins they had seen
near inverness.
The train journey definitely had a Harry Potter theme, as
we passed through various places the guard would announce “dumbledores final
resting place” the XXX aquaduct where
harry potters car flew..
The scenery from the train was beautiful but as always
the weather was atrocious. There was a
charity rafle for some whisky, I didn’t win but there was a family next to me
who were scotish I believe. They had
bought a lot of tickets and when the winners were called the son had won one of
the minatures, his brother reminded him that the miniature had cost less than
his tickets.
Travelling through this country and through Skye you can
see why they are used as film locations even those hills with scars where
mining had taken place were beautiful providing a contrast to their
surroundings. The landscape is
criss-crossed with rivers and everywhere there is wildlife. As the train passed through and the whistle
would blow, birds would take to flight en-masse and sheep would scatter in
panic.
The names of places I had passed through came to me, and
I realised that I was forming a mental map of the country, the abstract places
that I could not recall for so many years were now firmly anchored
geographically so that for the first time in my life I started to have a good
felling for the geography of my own country.
Pretty soon I had arrived in Fort William and said
goodbye to the Hogwarts Express (aka the Jacobite), I would remember this as
one of the highlights of my trip. I had
visited Fort William in 2013 on my JOGLE so knew the layout roughly only this time
I didn’t need a visit to the A&E (I was knocked off my bike on the previous
visit).
I went to the tourist office and enquired about any late
rooms free, the lady located one and then she said it would cost me £4.00 to
tell me and book it lol, nothing free today.
I decided to pay up and got a booking and an address just up the road
from the city centre. My landlady for
the night was a lovely lady we stowed my bike and my kit. I headed out for food and Weatherspoon’s had
a two for one meal deal on so I had a miniature steak pie with veg and a baked potato
for the other with cheese.
I wandered up and down the high street for a short while
and then made my way back to the B&B, whilst there I met my landladys
husband, who turned out to be the train driver on the Hogwarts express, he had
been my driver today and had driven the train in the films!
My room was small but very comfortable, again it was one
of those B&B’s where you are made to feel like one of the family, it had
all those little extra touches that a mother would think of, extra chocolate
biscuits by the coffee!
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