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Published: July 23rd 2022
The front of engine
Jacobite Train is shining in the sunFriday, 15 July 2022, and Saturday 16 July 2022.
Our morning was off to a great start with the good breakfast at Myrtle Banks Guest House. Karen had an agenda for the first part of the morning. We had to be back by 1100 as we had train tickets to go to Glenfinnian. Lee and Jo knew all about the Jacobite Train that was used in the Harry Potter movies and the Glenfinnian Viaduct with its 21 spans that are shown in the movie.
So at 1045 I send a note that we will met the others. I then remember our tickets are still in the room. Karen waits at the square for them and I dash back to get the tickets, meeting the four of them on the way. We reunite outside the bakery with its hoard of folks lined up to get goodies. Then a window shopping walk to the train station gets us there in time to learn our train is more than 40 minutes late. But the Jacobite train is shining on the platform so we all walk around and take some photos before the passengers load.
Our Scotrail train arrives and although it
Jacobite Train of Harry Potter fame
The steam engine, coal car and a First Class Coach car is late, we still leave before the Jacobite train. We are hoping to arrive in time for some photos as it comes around the viaduct and up the hill. It is not an easy or short walk and we meet people coming and going on the narrow muddy trail. I get to a spot where I hear someone say, "here it comes!" I find a good place with a partial view and take photos of the train and a video with the smoke coming up as it rounds the bend and then passes below me through an opening in the vegetation. A success! Lee and Jo had dashed ahead and get the really good photos that one sees on the internet and in the movie.
Silvertoes Notes: Friday, July 15, the first of our two days in Fort William.
Harlan and I are off early to check on new boots. One is always to ‘break in’ new boots but all in the group believe it is now time to ‘retire’ my beloved Asolos. (Harlan's note: while the glue had been somewhat successful in mending the flapping front sole, the confidence that it would last was gone.) A lady
we had met on the trail had suggested I try to find an independent shoe/boot store and, if we cannot locate one, go to Ellis Bingham sporting goods in Ft. Williams. I cannot locate an independent footwear shop-nor a cobbler/shoe repair shop in Ft. Williams on the Internet. The Internet would appear to suggest there are two in Inverness, But that is many walking miles away.
Ellis Bingham is an upscale store, a Scottish version of REI. One whole wall is boots and anything that can conceivably be related to footwear. After the style of boot I desire is determined (ankle height) we start narrowing the selection. Somewhere along this whole process I ask the patient salesman how long the general customer takes for a boot selection, he replies “anywhere between 15 minutes and 3 hours.” I sense he has already pegged me for the end of the time spectrum. Most people have a foot slightly longer than the other. So we concentrate on fitting that foot. If one is going down a steep incline you need room in that toe box for scrambling and carrying the body weight. Also have to theoretically take into account the healing blisters!
After many a boot and carefully comparing aging orthotics with boot insoles we finally hit upon the Italian brand, Scarpa (had never heard of it)! So, off we go with expensive boots with no REI ‘return in a year’ policy!!!
Boots still on the mind, next stop is at Boots pharmacy. Boots is affiliated with Walgreens. They have a great store with various merchandise, well-organized and cheerful help. The three gals had stopped in the afternoon yesterday but it was packed. There is such a shortage of workers everywhere we have been in Scotland. Boots will close at 2:00 p.m. There is another pharmacy, Lloyds, that will open at 2:00 p.m.—for only a few hours. Tomorrow's hours will ‘be announced!’ tomorrow. And we thought having a shortage of toilet paper was dire. Imagine when your pharmacy hours have been slashed? This morning we get in before the daily rush. We talk with a pharmacy assistant about a gastro problem I am having—the kind of issue one does not want to have while traveling—or any time for that matter. We also found a benadryl salve for itches and a great wrist brace needed because you thought you could move the
world and find out you are not Atlas! A successful stop!
We meet the rest of the group after they have just had the most wonderful pastries and coffee at ‘Rain’ across from the square where I took the video of the bagpiper blowing away yesterday. Lee is on a mission. He would have liked a ticket on the Harry Potter Jacobite train. Sold out online, the four of us had gone to the train station yesterday and bought tickets for the ‘regular line (Scotrail)’ that covers the same track as the Harry Potter train—for much less money. Today the Harry Potter train is in the station before our ‘cheapie’ train arrives. Jo, Harlan, and Lee ask the Jacobite train attendant if they can see inside the train so they can drool over first class. Some tables have wine or champagne. Next they ask to see the fire chamber and the coal chute from where the coal is shoveled into the boiler. This is pretty impressive! Our ‘commoner’ train arrives and we get into our assigned carriage to find chaos. Over the speaker comes the news they have taken all but two carriages off the track,”ScotRail apologizes for any
inconvenience and please go online to apply for a refund if you have bought an additional ticket to have a seat reserved.” If the train is more than 30 minutes late you can also get a partial refund. We immediately grab any seat we see. Our ticket is to Glenfinnian where the train spews out its contents of people and all, except for a precious few, rush pell mell down a steep path, and then up the hill again, to get a good view of the famous aqueduct in the Harry Potter movies. Right before pulling into the station we have seen many people, in place, ready to view the passage of the iconic train. It is not known, for certain, how many minutes later the Jacobite train is running behind ours. Sandy and I start down the hill and then think we can enjoy the others' videos and return to the station cafe, in an old railroad car, and have a delicious lunch of stuffed baked potatoes. (Harlan’s comment here - Smart Choice) They are most flavorful. The camera enthusiasts return and eat, however there are no more baked potatoes. There is an interesting and informational little museum in
the train station, run by volunteers.
We have decided to take the bus back to Ft. Williams as the returning train will be four hours later. We wait-and wait-and wait for the bus and when it comes 30 minutes behind schedule, it can only take twelve people as there are no more seats. We are six and many others have a ticket. The bus driver calls ahead and the drivers are changing shifts and it will be some time before any bus can come our way. I think back to the days in Santa Cruz, Bolivia when the driver would just keep stuffing people into the ‘micro’ —I do not know if they even had a ‘legal maximum limit.’ So, we trudge (my, it seems as if I have used that word many times this trip) back up the hill to the station to await the train. The volunteer station master says the Harry Potter train will probably come first and we can get on for ten pounds each. The wonderful lady in the closed cafe car reopens so we can use the toilet facilities. Actually the six of us can entertain each other quite well and the time
goes rather quickly. The Potter train announces its arrival with much huffing and puffing and finally steams into view. I am sure the young conductor wishes they had not stopped as it is rather a small mob scene he has on his hands. We have our money in hand and jump aboard. There are no seats but we find an ideal spot near the back of a car where each of us can brace our body in a little space, with a window, quite comfortably——we are off! We are all feeling a little smug—we have clattered over the rails on the Harry Potter train, viewed its first class seating, seen the innards of its steam belly and had a ride in its coach for a small fraction of the cost of the regular Potter Tcoach ticket. Oh how I like it when a plan comes together?
It is after 6 pm when we arrive back in Fort Williams and return to the pizza place near the WHW end foot statue for dinner. It is now very crowded and we finally find a table. Here one orders at the bar after they have secured a table with a number where
the food is delivered. They have a wall with at least 25 different selections of local beers plus all the usual US and other country imported beers. The beers come from kegs in the basement. Norma orders scotch!
16 July 2022 our second rest day in Fort William.
After our breakfast, Norma and I go for a walk around the village. She wants to see the Ellis Bingham sporting goods store. I need to mail cards and pickup an, , extension cord for CPAPs. These items accomplished, we walk to Old Fort William site, the start of the Great Glen Way. The tide is out and so it is high and dry. The marker indicates the soldiers in the fort would escape by boat through a hole in the fort wall when under siege. No boat could get in today with the mud so they could only escape at high tide. It was also our laundry day which the lovely Dora helped us resolve after four unsuccessful attempts to get a taxi. Entrepreneurs reading this blog could make a killing with a laundromat in Fort William!
Sandy, Jo and Lee are having lunch so I get a
takeout soup for Karen. We also find some things for dinner.
The group minus Karen and I are ready to send Lee off with Gregg, our luggage transfer man, for his ride back to the airport in Glasgow. It was supposed to be between 3 and 5. But he got a call and he will pick him up at Myrtle Bank now if he will be on the street. By 2:15 they on the way and we did not get back in time for his send off.
We had a quiet afternoon working on the blog entries and eat a dinner of potato salad and salad greens. Tomorrow we start the Great Glen Way.
Silvertoes notes: Saturday, July 16, Rest day at Myrtle Bank
A day of total relaxation! I eat the wonderful breakfast in the dining room, change in comfy clothes, doze on and off , read and enjoy the view of flowers from the windows.
Harlan and I have discussed the laundry situation. The info card in our room states you can call about laundry, located in a neighboring village, Saturday and Monday. We call and the lady gives us the information on
using the self-service laundry but then we cannot get a taxi. We tell our dirty clothes woes to Dora who comes up with an alternate plan—thank you Dora!
Harlan and Norma have trod around the ruins of Fort William and then met the others for lunch at Cafe Wetherspoon. They return to find me snapping pictures, right and left, of the flowers. A great day to regroup.
MIDGES—MIDGES—MIDGES—MIDGES—MIDGES—MIDGES—MIDGES
“The Highland midge is a species of small flying insect, found across the Palearctic upland and lowland areas in the northwest of Scotland, and down the western coast to north Wales. The midge is usually very prevalent from late spring to late summer.” Wikipedia
Ah, this does not even begin to tell one about the misery the midge can cause the traveler to the Highlanders during this time if they are not well prepared!!!
We spend quite a bit of time reading about the best preventive measures to take in not interacting with this menace that has ruined many a tourist’s trip to the Highlands
We dig out the nets we used on The Great Ocean Walk in Australia to deter the flies and hope the
mesh is fine enough to deter the midges. We treat our clothes with permethrin and buy wipes with permissible amounts of DEET in them. This will necessitate a quick shower to clean our skin when we arrive at our daily destination.
We arrive to find it has been a light midge season. Perhaps it has been the drier and hotter weather. Midges thrive in a damp environment and they love the peatlands of the Highlands. We have used our “prevent midge bites” items very seldom. Thank goodness. “The bites cause small, red lumps and are very itchy and painful. Sometimes bites can swell up alarmingly and fluid-filled blisters develop.” NHS information. (UK National Health Service - NHS)
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