Hiking, Scrambling, Mountaineering, and Climbing

This seems to be the right place :)

An escape from the south.
Haven't been away for a few years, last couple of trips ended in hospital. If i hadn't already booked the Calidonian sleeper i wasn't overly fussed about this trip.
So the adventure begins near Dover, a bus to the train station, a delayed train to St Panc's, a womble down the road to Euston, the chaos of London on a Friday afternoon and what's being touted as the first weekend of school summer holidays, the mass exodus of escapers.
While killing time at Euston (we factored in loads of time so not to be late) we foraged for food. The food plaza outside the station being packed we ventured off into a small Italian resturant who wasn't phased by large rucksacks and promptly stashed them behind the counter. A nice place.
We returned to the station to see the train was delayed and went upstairs to watch the waves of people flow in from the platforms, then the mass migration as a leaving train had it's platform announced and everyone ran to get a seat.
Our train was free from it's delay and platformed, no rush as booked seats only....... gates where open and everyone ushered through to get the train away.
2xSleeper chairs Euston to Fort William, change at Edinburgh £45 each, thats cheap. So quirky allocation of seats and some informal rejigging of seating among us customers saw me and wifey together, a mum of 2 now next to her children and a happy chap with a laptop of movies on his own.
A blindfold and earplugs, limited access to food if not pre-booked and a small service hatch, the cabins have a lounge, we are not ment to go there.
The seats recline and are larger than on a plane. The ticket inspection..... the couple in front of us have no tickets and somehow managed to get on the train. They are taken aside as langauge is an issue and things are sorted and unbooked seats found and credit card action.
Although fairly quiet, the carriage lights are not dimmed and i can't switch off. We started travelling around 3.30pm, the train left around 9.30 and Edinburgh is around 3.50am, it's now 1am. I snatch a few minutes sleep here and there.
3.45am Guard comes along to awaken the Fort William passengers, we get off and just get told to walk to the front of the train.
3.55am Edinburgh is cold and quiet, about 10 of us wait slightly confused as to whats going to happen.
The train is split, an engine and carriage is added to the 4 sleeper carriages. Leaving time is 4.50am. The sleeper chairs are old and tired, but we have lost them..... we now have an older and more tired standard carriage to continue. Expected ETA at the Fort is 9.50am, we head to Glasgow, then up past Loch Lomond.
This is where the sleeper chair pays off, as you trundle across the moors, Red Stags lining the track side, vistas of Glen Coe and Rannoch Mor.
Trying to get a drink was hard work. A single stressed member of staff in the service saloon, i made 3 trips to get served, the cabin passengers take priority.
Fort William, now to get over to Mallaig. Next train is 12.15 limited buses on a Saturday, over to 2 hours to kill, time for food.
About £25 for 2 singles to Mallaig or take the steam train, the Harry Potter train, think that was £50 each.
Another hour and a bit to the coast.
We are now in Commando/Potter/Jedi Land
Just a ferry trip one way 2xsingle is £7.80 for foot passengers, the small isles.
We land on Eigg about 24 hours of travel time and loitering at transport stations.

1 Attachment