It was worth it for the rainbow!

 Aug 2nd

We were not expecting to be riding a gondola today. The plan was to see the Jacobite Steam Train. We had tried to book and were not at all surprised to find all seats taken for the foreseeable future. This from West Coastal Railways

Described as the greatest railway journey in the world, this 84 mile round trip takes you past a list of impressive extremes. Starting near the highest mountain in Britain, Ben Nevis, it visits Britain's most westerly mainland railway station, Arisaig; passes close by the deepest freshwater loch in Britain, Loch Morar and the shortest river in Britain, River Morar, finally arriving next to the deepest seawater loch in Europe, Loch Nevis!

The plan was to see the locomotive as it went over the Glenfinnan Viaduct. The viewpoint for this was along a short walking trail, roughly 20 minutes. Rain had been forecast, not the ideal conditions, but we had waterproofs, and it was the next best thing other than to actually take the train itself. 

Things don't always pan out as planned because as we drove along the A82, the views were pretty spectacular the nearer to Fort William we got.

 

 A sign with Nevis Range Mountain Gondola came into view. This had to be investigated and with the centre about 1.5 mile off of the A82, we headed up for a look.

Standing in the queue waiting to find out prices, we very nearly didn't bother. A family in front was having great difficulty in making the girl behind the desk understand what they wanted and was taking an age, in the end we decided to wait and eventually our turn came. The price was £49 for us two oldies, I really fancied going up, so Ian dutifully paid over the money, and as a added bonus were told this was an all day ticket. In other words, we could ride the gondola as many times as we liked!

This morning's weather wasn't perfect, but mostly dry and the views at the top as clear as it could be for the conditions. We headed off for a walk to one of the viewing points, roughly an hour's walk there and back. 

 

Stupidly, we didn't bring waterproofs! Of course rain started, thankfully on the return as we neared the café and even though we had the rain, the sun shone over the hills in the distance, and we were awarded with the most spectacular rainbow over the valley below.

Ian's photo was more vibrant than mine.

Because we could ride the gondola as many times as we liked, down we went to get our waterproofs. There was another walk we wanted to do, but this time in the opposite direction.

By the time we returned, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. 

 

Into the café first for a snack (hot dog) hoping that the rain would ease, it didn't! Still we were determined to do that walk, quite challenging with many a downhill rocky section and equally steep rocky uphill path. But in spite of the weather making us feel like drowned rats, we made it.

Top Left. The hike took us to the top of that far hill. Bottom right shows how nice it was this morning (me with the rainbow)

What a day, one we hadn't anticipated but turned out to be very good indeed. The car park was also motor home friendly, in other words for £15 we could spend the night and for a further £5, a shower token could be had. 

Unfortunately the rain is set to continue for the next few days, our plans may change because of this.