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Published: September 22nd 2006
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I woke up early and took a (nicer) bus from Edinburgh to Fort William in the Scottish highlands. My main reason for traveling to this little hamlet was to see some of the highlands and maybe get some hiking in. It just happens that the highest peak in all of the UK is close by. Ben Nevis, as it's called, is a massive 1344m or 4400 feet. Well, it's not exactly Everest, but I figured that it would be a nice hike.
I arrived in Fort William and found it to be a quaint little town full of people wearing far more gear than they could possibly need in such a climate. Anyway, I wandered around a bit, and found my hostel, Fort William Backpackers. It occupies a large victorian house a little ways away from the town center. The atmosphere was really laid back, and it was totally inviting. So, it was a nice change from the shit hole in Edinburgh. I spent the day catching up on general stuff like laundry and postcards. By the way, if you want a postcard from an exotic location, send me a message and I'll see what I can do. I spent
Looking back
This was taken near the summit, looking back at the saddle between Ben Nevis and its neighbor. the evening relaxing in front of the fire, and turned in early in anticipation of climbing Ben Nevis in the morning.
Of course, my well-laid plans didn't work out and I woke up to typical highland weather -- rainy and overcast. Certainly not my idea of a fun day for hiking. So, I scrapped the idea of hiking and spent the day being totally lazy, which is never a bad thing. I spent the evening, and wee hours of the morning playing an interesting card game called 10 Stages with some Germans, a Dane, a Canadian, and Englishman, and some French guy. I'm not even going to try to explain how the game works, but suffice to say we must have been doing something really wrong because it took us 6 hours to finish the one game. The Germans kept telling us that it never takes this long, but I think it was some plot on their part to keep us all awake for their amusement. Come to think of it, there were two other German girls who watched us play the entire game, which was a bit odd. I mean come on, how do you watch someone play
Top of the world
It does feel like you're pretty high. a card game for 6 hours?
Oh well, so I went to bed wondering if I was going to manage to get up for my 11am bus to Glasgow. When I woke up, I looked out the window and saw something amazing -- sunshine. The fog was burning off and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. So, after a quick call to the bus company to change my ticket for the next day, I was off to climb Ben Nevis. I had no idea what to expect, but it turns out the hike was fantastic. The scenery was stunning, and the mountain was actually a bit challenging since it rises 4000 feet from the valley below it. Aside from seeing about half of the people in Britain on the hike (yes there were that many people), it made the entire trip up to Scotland worthwhile. The view from the summit was stunning, and the fact that it was a sunny day added to the experience. One odd thing about the Highlands is that they are pretty devoid of trees. There are stands here and there, but for the most part the hillsides are bare
Sheep!
These little guys seem to be everywhere. grass or shrubs. I wonder if a lot of it has been deforested to create pasture for sheep and cows.
I met two rather interesting people in Fort William. The first was an Aussie named Rob. Rob has a severe speech impediment, and he has trouble walking, so people tend to steer clear of him, which is really unfortunate because he has a pretty amazing story to tell. The gist of it is that when he was 24 (my age) he got really sick (I didn't ask, and he didn't volunteer what he got sick with) with something that essentially crippled him and caused his speech to be very slurred. For the next 15 years he worked to recover from his disability, and a couple years ago he reached the point where he had enough mobility to get around on his own. As soon as he managed that, he set off on his life long dream to travel the world. Something that he wishes he had done when he was younger, but is not going to let anything stand in his way now. I really enjoyed talking to him, because once you sit and listen to him you realize
The dorm
Most of the dorms look something like this. This was actually one of the nicer ones that I've seen so far. I had the top bunk (with the red backpack). that his mind is working just fine, and he has some absolutely amazing stories to tell. Plus, just seeing him realizing his dream is very satisfying.
The second person who was of some note was a guy named Ken who was born in Texas, but has lived in Northern Ireland for the last 25 years. Ken's quite the eccentric. He carries around a large stuffed lion in a duffle bag with him, and he has pictures of it (and its predecessor, a rabbit) in front of quite a few famous sites -- the Taj, World Trade Center, Angkor Wat, etc. Anyway, he has quite a few interesting stories to tell, once you get past the stuffed animal (which he puts on its own seat next to him). As it turns out, he was in the Marines in the early 80's. Of course, me being somewhat of an idiot, I asked him if he was in Beiruit. Well, it turns out he was. In fact he was in the building when it was bombed and people on all sides of him were killed -- he barely survived. He's been traveling for the past 10 years, and has been just about everywhere, but it's quite interesting to talk to someone like this because his experiences are just so different from most peoples.
Stay tuned for Belfast!
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Jack
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2 questions. Was any $ involved in the 10 stages game, and who was scarier, Ken or the stuufed lion?