Fort William & Mallaig

High street, Fort William

Ben, our host at Invernevis B&B, Fort William is a great chap, letting us check in late last evening due to train delays. He was really apologetic about many things including the weather and he was really keen to make sure his guests are really well looked after. He must have seen many visitors who like to moan about every little thing. 

Today we walked around town. The weather was to hit a maximum of 13 degrees and showers. Not too bad, we have good waterproof gear on. Fort William is a town of about 10,000 in population and is popular with outdoorsy types as it is close to Ben Nevis, Aonach Mor and other mountains worth hiking. It is situated next to a great big sea loch so extremely scenic all around. Listening to Mountains, by Biffy Clyro - Scottish rock band, makes much more sense around these parts. https://youtu.be/NfzwM4pdyxU

View from our B&B

Fort William town centre

Chapel

Gift shop

In the afternoon, we had booked a steam train ride that leaves Fort William for a 2 hour journey to Mallaig, a fishing port near the Isle of Skye. This is our chance to geek out due to the railway being used for filming for the Harry Potter films. The Glenfinnian viaduct is quite famous also for being on the Scottish 10 pound note. Also in one of the lochs we went past, they filmed the scene for Dumbledore's tomb. Incredible.

The Jacobite, splendid

Once at Mallaig, it was sunny and beautiful. We walked around a little bit and then decided to hop on a Western Isles Cruises boat to check out the little bit of ocean between the mainland and the Isle of Skye (unfortunately didn't get to Skye this time 'round). We spotted some seals on some rocks before the weather came across with some decent rain, hail and wind. 

We retreated to inside the deck where there are seats and windows to look out of. We were informed that the toilet was under the deck and as we descended the stairs, we discovered another seating area and a bar! We promptly ordered a local single malt each - Ben Nevis distillers' edition. A fine example of a highland malt whisky. We got chatting to one of the other travellers also enjoying a dram. He was a Scot who had moved to Nottingham and had gone back to his roots to visit family and to do a little sightseeing too. Lovely bloke.

The storm passed fairly quickly and we returned to Mallaig in time for the train journey back to Fort William. Pub meal that night at the Ben Nevis Bar was hearty, cheap and so good, we dined there the next night also.

Setting off from the port

Started off sunny and gorgeous

The rain is chasing us

Suddenly cold

Lazing seals

More transit

Our arrival in Paris was quite a shock to the system as we were pretty fatigued from the flight and our brains did not quite manage the little French we had learnt over the last few months.  Also trying to find the hotel amongst evening traffic chaos was a bit of a challenge. We did, however experience our first act of kindness from a Parisienne as she tried to help with directions. 

A quick dinner courtesy of a local Monop' (basically a mini mart) of pre-packaged pasta salad and goat's cheese was actually really delicious. We found that the general quality of food and drink was very good even from the convenience shops. We slept pretty well that night.

Gare du Nord, Paris' largest train station.

On the morning of the 4th June we set off to the UK. The Eurostar takes us to London via a TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse - FAST). 300kph of kick arse mass public transport, Australia really really needs this type of thing between cities (really). 

After a super quick visit to London (crossing Pancras road to get to King's Cross station), we got on the train to Edinburgh. A hire car was organised at Edinburgh and off we drive to Fort William, some 3 hours through the most amazing scenery we have encountered. 

The drive past Dalwhinnie and around Loch Laggan coming into the Nevis ranges was particularly spectacular. It was around this time that the realisation that we are really, really far away from home sunk in.

Setting off.

This trip came about as Carol (Kim's mum) had planned to spend some time in Paris for her 70th birthday. She had rented an apartment on Rue St Denis in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, located Northwest of the Louvre. Carol had invited us, her sisters and one of her friends to stay for 7 days in June. What a nice idea to celebrate this milestone.

We then thought, what other European adventures could we work around before or after the week in Paris? So many possibilities, too much too see. Particularly as this would be our first trip in Europe (I did visit Holland and Germany when I was 3 or 4 years old, but that hardly counts).

We thought that rather than cramming the whole Euro experience in one trip and thus exhausting ourselves in the process, we decided to concentrate on two countries this time 'round. 

As it turns out, the UCI downhill mountain biking world cup round was being held in Fort William, Scotland around the time of our stay in Paris. Also, Scotland = whisky. Keen. As.

On 2nd of June, we flew out of Canberra, Australia. CBR - MEL - KUL - DXB - CDG, phew! It was a bit rough with 30+ hours of transit time. We did get a fantastic deal on flights though, so mustn't complain too much. The main annoyance was with the KL and Dubai stopovers, we did not leave the terminals but had to go through security checks getting off and also getting back on the flight, and therefore losing our water bottles that we purchase at the airport every bloody time. Ridiculous.