Neptune's Staircase, Jacobite steam train, Glengarry and Saasaig - 12 May

Very sad to leave our Fort William airbnb as it's so comfy and cosy, but we must keep a'movin'. When I go outside to locate the bins, I run into four people from Glasgow who are catching the Jacobite Steam Train today. We have a chat, whilst they are waiting for their taxi and when it arrives we part ways with a smile and a wave.

First stop today is Neptune's Staircase which is only 3.3 miles away. As we start to view the Staircase, I see the Jacobite Steam Train pass our location and the steam engine is attached!! Very exciting, but Sue is a bit disappointed as she missed taking a photo 😢.

So, what is Neptune's Staircase? It is a manmade phenomenon that connects the Caledonian Canal to Loch Linnhe. This amazing feat of engineering raises the canal by 19m over a quarter of a mile of continuous masonry and takes around 90 mins for a boat to travel up or down the 8 locks.

Built by Thomas Telford between 1803 and 1822, it is the longest staircase lock in Scotland. The system was originally hand-powered but has been converted to hydraulic operation. We were lucky enough to see the bottom of the lock in action as 2x yachts were passing through. This is from the top of the locks looking down to all 8 'white' gates. The second photo shows it better from the bottom up 👌:



Here's the yacht waiting for the bottom lock to fill up:



Here's the lock opening to allow the yachts to travel through and continue to repeat the process:


Having witnessed the yachts pass through, we return to the car and enter our next destination - Dunvegan Castle (Isle of Skye) - into our satnav. I'm designated driver today as we head off for our 3hr trip. About 15mins in, we pass Glenfinnan Visitors Centre which we all think is a little strange, but then about 5 mins later catch a glimpse of the train again. YAY.

We spend the next 15 mins or so pulling over and grabbing as many photos as we can. Here's some Sue took:



And a video of it passing:


We were all very excited to finally see the steam train and continue on our way. As we neared the town the Jacobite train turns around in, we realised something was wrong with the direction we were taking. Good old Google was taking on the most direct route, when meant we had to cross water!!! That wasn't an option, so we chose a town we knew we should be passing through to redirect Google. This worked, but we had to back track 45mins to head off in the right direction - hilarious.
We didn't really mind, as we saw the train and were also able to take a better shot of the island Dumbledore was buried on (ie missing the glare from the train window). Here it is:


We stopped for lunch in Invergarry at a lovely pub. I had a latte and scampi with chips and salad. Best chips I've had thus far. This is the Hotel:


Back on the road, and given our earlier 'detour' we decide it isn't worth going to Dunvegan Castle, we'd be better off doing it tomorrow. So we type in the address for Jen's B&B and head off. The scenery continues to be quite impressive as we move from place to place. Here's some examples captured from outside the car:




We drop Jen off around 4.15pm and decide to go to the local pub for a Sunday roast dinner around 5.45pm. Sue and I then head back about a mile to find our little wooden cottage for the next 2x nights.

Here's our view from the deck taken about 30mins apart (cloud cover V sun):



It's a quaint little cottage that we have named 'Squeaky and Rocky'. It makes so much noise as you walk around and it sways. We think there's a definite issue with a lack of joists and bearers, but it's cosy and warm 😄.

Our Sunday roast was beef with veggies and a yorkshire pud as big as a grapefruit!! None of us were able to finish everything, but it was tasty.


Another lovely day in Scotland and tomorrow's weather should be AOK for Dunvegan Castle.

Sweet dreams 🛌😴









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