Ah yes, rest day…… What I had not taken into account was how wet Fort William could be. Apparently it rains a lot in September no wonder there’s no midges….
“ September falls in the rainy season with an average precipitation of 163mm (6.4in). This month generally has very pleasant temperatures. The average maximum temperature lies around 15.4°C (59.72°F). In this month you will hardly see any sunshine with 87 hours of sun during the whole month.” ( (Reference: http://www.weather and climate.com).
Fortunately, not much today. So after a bit of a late start, I decided to explore.
Although I was due to go on the Jacobite steam train from Fort William to Mallaig on Friday 11th, I decided to drive out to the Glenfinnan Viaduct and have a look for myself, probably prompted by one of Mr Portillo’s TV train programmes. This is the famous viaduct that figures in the Harry Potter films – not a Ford Anglia in sight though…….
Unfortunately, I arrived just before the morning train was due to cross the viaduct. The place was heaving ! The visitor centre car park was bedlam, mainly full of coaches carrying Japanese and Chinese tourists, who seem to have a “thing” about Harry Potter. I eventually found somewhere to park about a 3/4 mile walk away. Heard the train, but didn’t see it – just a bit too late.
Naturally everybody disappeared within 1o minutes of the train going through. Which in some ways was great, as I had planned to walk the 4km Glenfinnan Viaduct Trail anyway. The Walkhighlands organisation do a whole series of sensible walks, this being one of them. Great views on this one, with plenty of labelled view points. Eventually ends up at Glenfinnan station, where I found some familiar looking railway bits and pieces…..
Having trekked back to the car, I drove back towards Fort William (to Banavie to be exact) and visited an attraction called Neptune’s Staircase. This is a rather dramatic set of 8 canal locks (the longest flight in Scotland) that is part of the overall Caledonian Canal system, which runs the length of the Great Glen.
Just to complicate things, the railway from Fort William to Mallaig runs across the bottom of the lock flight, necessitating a swing bridge – don’t engineers have fun……
Back to camp.
So let me tell you about the rain. It would be no exaggeration to say that it rained in Fort William continuously for the next 24 hours. I found out soon enough that despite re-proofing the whole tent some months before this trip – it leaks …….. Not surprising, as it is coming up to 15 years old and the rain was relentless.
It even managed to get through to the inner tent and made a bag of clothes unwearable. Damp teeshirts, underpants and socks are not good. I must say it was all a bit damp and depressing, so I cheered myself up with a good solid camper’s feed, some for tonight and the rest for brekkie in the morning.
Hopefully the weather would be better in the morning for the Jacobite steam train trip.