trains beers mountains and drams

It was a straight forward walk along the seafront to the ferry terminal in the morning and we were there in time for the first ferry out of Oban for mull , I had forgotten the logistics of arriving on mull as it was over 10 years since my previous visit to the island  , the ferry journey over isnt long a very pleasant hour or so on a nice big ferry , but you arrive at craignure which is a 40min road drive away from Tobermory , there was a bus waiting for the ferry passengers it costs £11 for an open return, the ferry over was busy so its a very busy full bus , but we were glad that there was at least a bus from the ferry this time ,we went into the tourest information office before boarding the bus,  and had a look at the maps of the island then spoke to the very helpfull assistant , getting a walk up ben more without our own transport to the start point was going to prove virtually impossible even with a wild camp , so we opted to get the bus into town and think it over , it takes a

    We had spent so long trying to decide if we could get our walk done on skye the previous day that it had left zero time to decide where to go once we left skye , the only thing we knew for sure was that we wanted to see the scenery of the kyle line from inside a train we had drove past and over this line various times thinking it would make a lovely train journey , but we didnt know where we wer going to get off the train our original plan of walking some mountains from near train station , was proving logistically problematic to say the least in our limited time scale of a week especially now here in the highlands where the winter public transport system limits the choices even further , after hours of discussuion on our choices we were still knowhere near to making a decision ! so i wrote 4 possible destinations of stations picked from a railway map onto a bit of paper, folded them into 4 seperate pieces and one was picked out decision made ! it was going to be nairn tonigh

     The weather ouside the bunkhouse was incredibly bad in the morning It was so bad it was entertaining just watching the wind and heavy rain batter the area from the safety of the bunkhouse windows , we werent doing any walking today and there was other walkers in the bunkhouse that had cancelled any idea of walking today , the bunkhouse posts up weather forecasts and bus timetables etc , It was to brighten a bit after midday and the was a bus into town at 11:30 so we sat about in the kitchen area of the bunkhouse chatting with the other gusts about their plans , there was some asian guests im gussing north india or packistan they were eating there chicken curry and rice with their fingers from plates . i suppose it saves dishes but it was facinating sharing a big house in the middle of knowwhere with all these other nations , there was some french kids and tehy spent the whole morning on their individual mobile phones never talked and hardly moved , i suppose british kids would be

Why October !                           I've had a very busy year between trips away in the van music festivals and a trip to Poland over the summer, with all that and working away from home has meant it has taken me a while to squeeze in a week that I was totally free to take fullest advantage of Scotrail`s highland rover deal , its a great deal you Get four days unlimited travel over eight consecutive days across the Highlands for £81.50.From the beautiful landscapes of Skye on the west coast to the wild expanse of Caithness in the northern  highlands and the windswept east coast with some classic scenic railway lines right through the middle , the Highland Rover is your ticket to some of Scotland’s most scenic journeys by rail, ferry and coach , too good a bargain for someone like me to miss out on , I love trains and have done long distance routes across Europe china India and south America , I also love my home country of Scotland especially the mountains   ,