It happened again. I picked up another Tour, (this time only 24hrs notice) to Scotland. The Tour Manager had to go to hospital (Get better soon Lucy) and I got the “Please Help” phone call.
The Tour was for Great Rail Journeys – Highland Adventure. Because of the short notice I had to do a lot of work while the Tour was in progress, so I haven’t been able to do daily blogs as usual. Instead I’m going to roll this short (3 day) Tour into one. This will probably make this image heavy page a little slow to load – apologies.
Day 1 saw us travel onboard “The Jacobite” heritage steam line from Fort William to Mallaig. Below I’ve put some Steam Porn photos for my friends and followers who are loco enthusiasts.
On the way back we stopped to pay our respects at the Commando Memorial. This was where they were trained which can’t have been much fun in traditional Scottish Highland weather conditions. There was a rather touching memorial garden nearby where the victims of more recent conflicts are remembered, sometimes with a beer or a whisky.
Day 2 featured a visit to Eilean Donan Castle, via Loch Ness and a return rail journey from Kyle of Lochalsh to Inverness.
For our final day, we took the train to Aviemore for a “Highland Coo Safari”. We were treated by our Rangers, Ray & Ollie and introduced to their lovely herd of Highland Cattle with a fascinating description of farming in the Scottish Highlands. I just love these animals – they remind me of some of the bands I followed in the 60’s & 70’s.
From there we moved on to a whisky tasting (needed warming up)…
And finally a visit to the Culloden Vistor Centre and a superb guided Tour of the battlefield.
That’s it. Tonight is the last night and tomorrow I’ll fly back home down South. Next blog post when I’ve caught up on sleep. Bye for now.
TimOnTheTrain 