West Highland Way - Harry Potter anyone?

 After a brief stop-over it was back on the trains - this time to Glasgow then on the famous West Highland Way train to Mallaig  (a 5hr train trip) - ready to jump on a ferry the next day to Skye.

I had been fairly well focused on the details up to now (apart from the Llandudno train stations) but I fell down on another train station mix-up which could have been catastophic.

I arrived at Glasgow Central station with 2 hours gap before my next train. Glasgow Central is Southern Cross on steroids. They have a great seating area where you can watch for your train to come up about 30 minutes ahead of time. When the right time came up but not my train, I went over to a staff member.

"You need to be at Glasgow Queen St" he said. Aaargh!! It turned out that it should have been a 10 minute walk, but the major street between the 2 stations was complatetkly blocked off for major water works.

"Catch a taxi around to it" was the helpful advice.

Now, this would NEVER happen in Melbourne.

I approached the taxi driver in a clear state of panic. He was willing to take me, but pointed out that he had to go around several blocks to get there.

"Will I get there on time?" panic rising.  "I'll get you as close as I can",  he reassured me.

Anyway, after that, and not even asking the price, I arrived safely in time to board and settle down my racing heart.

Lots of seats were already pre-booked - they had tags on them, but I found an aisle seat, and realised that the window seat was only pre-booked for a short section, in the middle of the journey.

So I had a table, plenty of space and settled down to relax. Usually I sit and do my blog on the long trips, but I wanted to watch the scenery on this one, and it didn't disappoint. It goes right up into similar terrain to our High Plains, flat but surrounded by higher peaks, some shrouded in mist, a couple still with snow. The West Highland walking track follows beside it for some distance and I could see intrepid walkers in the near distance. I spotted a couple of deer, no time to take a photo. 




The snow covered one is Ben Nevis - one of the highest peaks in Scotland.
I grew up in the Western District and spent many hours with dad up on our Ben Nevis, so that was a 'must get'




The West Highland Way is famous for the Viaduct used in the Harry Potter films. 

It has created a huge tourist attraction as you can imagine, and as we were approaching it, I was talking to a local who says it is a nightmare - those who complain about Gould Memorial Drive should try living here!

Anyway - here it is:






And the tourists at the bottom




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