From Montrose to home
After only 4 hours' sleep I was still a little tired, but I was careful to get out in time to leave myself enough time to find the station, and by just after 8am I'd checked out and was on my way. The station wasn't actually far, and when I arrived there I saw Barbara inside with her pack. Phew! :-)
I had no difficulty getting a ticket, although I had to pay £58 for what had cost the others about £14 - I'll know better next time. That was ok, though; the main thing was that I was able to get a place on the train at all. I left Barbara to keep an eye on my rucksack and Little Peewiglet, and dashed over to the supermarket to get some things to eat on the journey. I'd not bothered with breakfast at The George, and I was pretty hungry now. I bought some pasties, Double Deckers and crisps (naughty...), as well as a couple of large bottles of water, and headed back.
By the time I got back the waiting room and platform were beginning to fill up with Challengers arriving for the various trains, and I ran into Bob, with whom I'd chatted in email about kit and things before the walk began. We'd actually met for the first time in the road in Edzell quite unexpectedly, the night before last, but he'd been on his way down to the campsite and so we had no time to chat. We'd spoken a little more at the bash the previous evening, but this was an opportunity to get a photograph, and so naturally I got one.
It was very interesting to see the other rucksacks just sitting around on the station, and I took the opportunity to lift a few of them up and compare their weight with that of the one I'd been carrying. Mine was definitely too heavy, and I really need to sit down and work out why that was when I've had more time to think about things, because there wasn't actually a great deal of heavy stuff in it that I could have left behind.
The train arrived just after 9am, and there was a mad scramble to get on. Barbara and I were lucky, and got seats in a carriage with the Boys from Balerno. Jean was on her way to meet her husband elsewhere before travelling to Skye for the weekend, and so she was no longer with us. There was very little space for luggage on the train, and so a number of us had to cannibalise a couple of seats and pile as much stuff as possible up on top of them.
The blokes all got off at Edinburgh, and I was very sorry indeed to see them go. I hope we may all meet up again on another Challenge at some stage in the future: next year, maybe? :-)
Barbara and I chatted away throughout the whole of the journey from Montrose to Wigan, which was brilliant. Amongst other things we made plans to go walking, and plans about routes for future Challenges. There was a bit of an anxious moment when it looked as though the guard might insist on us moving our luggage to the other end of the train, but fortunately the threat didn't materialise. The journey passed very quickly as a result, and it really felt like no time at all before it was time to grab our kit and get out.
On the station at Wigan I found Kate and Tim, with whom I'd travelled up to Glasgow on the outward bound journey. Barbara and I hugged goodbye, but we'd exchanged contact info and knew we'd speak again soon. Tim, Kate and I made our way across to the other station, and not too long after that the train came, we got on and I was on the final leg of my journey home.
It was great to have the chance to swap experiences with Kate and Tim on the way home. In some ways it seemed no time at all since we'd met for the first time just a fortnight earlier, but in another way it seemed that a great deal had happened since then. We also discussed the possiblity of walking together before next year's Challenge, on which we hope to meet again, and also of meeting up in the meantime as we don't live far apart.
It occurred to me that the train was probably going to stop only a 10 minutes walk from where I live, and so rather than go into town I got up as the station approached and prepared to leave. There were some very anxious moments after the train had stopped when I couldn't work out how to get the door open! But fortunately someone rescued me, and I was able to get out. I waved to Tim and Kate as the train moved off, and walked home. About 10 minutes later I opened the door to go in, and my first Challenge was finally over :-)
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