Shopping in Fort William - 13/10/04

Today off to Fort William on the 8.40 bus to buy some outdoor stuff. It's a nice run, taking 2 hours and 20 minutes. The weather on the mainland is just plain awful. Low cloud, sometimes descending to roadlevel, incidental drizzle. People getting on at Kyle, Balmacara and someone got off half-way down Loch Cluanie to walk to Glen Affric. 15.5 miles in this weather? The driver was distracted by his granddaughter who was sticking piccies in a book. Not a good idea at 55 mph. Arrival in Fort William at 11.05, upon which I headed straight for Nevisport. This outdoor shop sold me a new multilayered coat, a new set of the boots that I've worn to threads over the last 2 months and a thin fleece. The idea is to create layers to "wick the moisture away from the skin". Unquote. We shall see what that actually means in practice when I go out into those hills tomorrow. After a few expensive buns in the cafe and a little book about walks in Skye I sort of doddled off to the busstation. The 14.00 bus back to Skye was late, because it had broken down at Tyndrum. A quick turn around ensured we weren't much more than 15 minutes late in leaving. Although the cloud had lifted somewhat, the weather remained dreich. Two ladies told each other they could only do "it" after a pint or two. God. Thought it came natural with the right encouragement. Ahem. An elderly gent coming on at Invergarry spoke to the driver right the way to Skye, although he shouldn't have. All about how the Germans never learned after WW2, the beautiful landscape (can't fault that) etc etc. Arrival back in Skye just after 4. A lady frantically waved her arm at the Kylerhea turning, but just a tad late. She had to run 200 yards in the verge of the road, 'cause the driver couldn't stop on a dime at 55 mph. She needed to go to Broadford. Although I'd seen her in the hostel the day before, she still got off early. Later on, I spoke to her and she had a pretty severe defect in her eyesight. Hadn't stopped her bagging all the Munro's and a lot of Corbetts. For the uninitiated, Munro's are mountains over 3,000 feet (914 m), Corbetts are over 2,500 (760m) I think. An Australian lady was driving around Skye and wanted to see what it was all about. So, I told her where she could go and have a good look. And there was the 6th form class out of Leeds who were exploring Skye for a project. Tomorrow they'd go to Edinbane and interview local people about a controversial windfarm project. I know a little about it, so I told them what I knew.