We then retraced our route slightly and drove the 33 miles (an hour's drive on the country roads) up to Glenfinnan to the famous viaduct. Apparently both the viaduct and the island on Loch Shiel (this location was used for the Triwizard Tournament) are featured in Harry Potter movies, but we've not seen any of them.
There is a large car park and NT Scotland visitor centre, which I presume was built pre HP days because of the Glenfinnan Monument located just across the road overlooking Loch Shiel, rather than the viaduct. The iconic monument, erected in 1815, of the lone, kilted
highlander honours the Jacobite clansmen who fought and died in the cause of Prince Charles Edward
Stuart. The raising of the Prince's Standard took place at the head of the loch
on 19 August, 1745, in the last attempt to reinstate the exiled Stuarts on the
throne of Great Britain and Ireland (internet image)
Our first stop was to the Visitor Centre for the loo and just nearby we saw a signpost for Viaduct Viewpoint 5 min walk. This was in completely the opposite direction and considerably closer to where I'd read about to get the best view of the train, so Ian asked and sure enough it only took you to about the same height as the viaduct and the girl told us the correct, 15-20 min walk/climb we were looking for.
It was a well prepared path and followed a small river for a short while.
Again the Rhododendrons have colonised the river bank.
This one was a particularly lovely shade.
The path then went under the viaduct and up around the back left side. There was a steady stream of people but luckily most were relying on phone cameras only so wanted to be closer than I did with my long lenses.
We were about 1/2 hour early so I had time to take a few test shots at various stages up the hill. After a little while an "ordinary" train came through and we realised we wanted to be higher still.
Eventually settling on this view.
The midges were quite bad so we were hoods and masks on, just to keep the blighters off. A couple of views of the surrounding area whilst we waited; grey skies all around.
The time passed really quickly actually and before long we saw a tell tale puff of smoke in the distance and the Jacobite quickly came into view. Of course I took advantage of my 10 fps and a telephoto lens on a second camera, so I have just about every stage of its viaduct crossing, but I'll limit myself to just a few.
But ................. unfortunately the link up of the engine and tender is wrong; the engine is pushing the tender which is at the front. I read online that it happens that way on its return leg as there are no turning facilities at the end of the line, but I'm really disappointed that we got the wrong way round too as it looks so odd (although to be honest I didn't realise until Ian mentioned it).
Walking back down, this tree stump had been fashioned into a seat.
I'm not quite sure what this lad was doing in the river and I'm pretty sure it was very, very cold.
We then walked back to the visitor centre and up the short track to the other viewpoint.
From Glenfinnan we took the A830, known as the Road to the Isles, to Mallaig. The road was very quiet but we got stuck behind and ancient camper van that kept changing its speed so was quite frustrating to follow. I'd read that Arisaig Beach was rather beautiful so we took a detour to visit that; not at all beautiful in my eyes. We had a wander round an old boat yard which had signs for wildlife trips but there was no sign of life - wild or otherwise - anywhere.
This cottage was quite cute.
We then drove on to Mallaig, which is both the end of the line for the Jacobite and the main port for ferries to Skye. It's a rather pretty little harbour town.
I always seem to photograph fishing paraphernalia.
But I'm not too sure what these are used for?
The shape of this little boat was so funny, I'm sure it should be called 'Boaty McBoatface'
We made a quick visit to the Co-Op to stock up with supplies for the evening and following day (just in case there are no supermarkets on Skye!) and then headed back towards Ardgour. Back on the main road and lo and behold, we were back behind the same annoying little campervan from earlier.
So we stopped off at Morar to look at this lovely bridge which we'd seen from a distance on the way.
There was also a weir which Ian thought had a footbridge across but when we got closer it didn't.
The fungi on this old tree stump were amazing.
We then crossed over the main road to visit the Silver Sands of Morar which, despite the very flat lighting, were beautiful and the patterns made by the receding tide were lovely.
No need to look so guilty Ian!
There were only a couple of other people there; one with a metal detector who we had a quick chat with and another who was just frantically digging holes in the sand. I did ask him what he was looking for but there was no reply and Ian quickly realised that he was probably best left alone - enough said.
And we found Nessie!!!!
Along with some witches.
As it was still quite early, not yet 16:00, we decided to take the scenic route back to Ardgour, which was lovely but turned out to be very long and quite hard driving. I stopped a few times along the way but I can't remember where, so just a few random images.
At first glance, it almost looks like a little bridge with water coming underneath but of course it's just a pool.
On several lochs we saw these kinds of beds and presume they're breeding mussels or some other shell fish.
I rather liked this rock formation so took 3 images for a panorama but unfortunately I couldn't quickly clone the "joins" to my satisfaction so I just whacked on a couple of textures.
Nearly 2 hours later we were back to the Inn at Ardgour and the little ferry was still chugging its way back and forth.
And there was a glimmer of light on the hills.
We'd both intended to have the scampi for dinner as it was so delicious the night before, but unfortunately they'd sold out so we had to settle for haddock - still delicious. After dinner we wandered outside for a short while but the midges were DREADFUL so just a couple of images of the ferry still going and the flat, calm loch when the ferry isn't churning it up.
And this one was taken at 22:40 but through the not so clean bedroom window.
A long, but very enjoyable day. Night Night.