Home to Mallaig
...and then I was off along the road!
It wasn't long before I was at the station - early, for once in my life - and there was a wait of about 20 minutes before the train came in. When it did, though, I could see no sign of Kate and Tim on it, and began to panic that I'd got onto the wrong one! I sat in a corner and worried until a guard came along and reassured me that this was, indeed, the train for Wigan, and then I began to worry that Tim and Kate might actually have missed it! (I'm quite an accomplished worrier...)
It took longer than I'd remembered to get to Wigan, but it all looked just as it had last May and I soon found my way over the road and onto the other station. Getting to the correct platform took me a little longer, but I made it in the end because the crowd of about 20 people on the other side of the tracks wearing rucksacks and happy, smiling faces was a bit of a giveaway :)
As soon as I got over there I ran straight into Barbara, and we did a bit of a mad jig together on the platform :) People told me that Tim and Kate had already been through, and that they'd taken an earlier train to Glasgow, and so that was a worry off my mind.
I sat with Barbara and Sue on the way up to Glasgow - we managed to press another passenger into taking a couple of pictures for us - and there was no time to be bored before we were there.
Once there, Barbara led us over to Glasgow Queen Street station, and just as I was emerging from Boots, where I'd been searching for sunglasses (having just smashed mine on the pavement...), I ran into Bob and Rose, all smiling and full of excitement :)
I'd not been to Queen Street the year before, and I'd had no idea that there'd be so many Challengers gathered there, waiting for the trains to Oban and Mallaig. It looked like hundreds, but I suppose it can't really have been quite as many as that... Roger was also there, keeping a careful eye on his rather unruly flock, and I nipped across to thank him for the offer he'd made the night before to send on my supplies parcel for me, and explained that I'd been able to make alternative arrangements (which essentially consisted of threatening my sister with immediate death if she forgot to post it for me by Special Delivery that morning... ;)
As I was standing around a little confused by the sea of unfamiliar faces a couple of blokes came up, one of them recognising me from pictures of last year, and introduced themselves as David and Tom :) David and I had shared some email correspondence some time earlier about the relative merits of the Monadhliath Hotel and the graveyard at Laggan Bridge, as overnight accommodation, and it was fun to meet them both :)
Russ Manion also came over to say hello, as we've chatted together on the TGO Website, and gave me a big, warm hug, and I began to feel a little less shy amongst such a large group of new people :)
I noticed that a few people were sitting in the bar having a drink, and I was just thinking about nipping across to join them when someone said the train was going to be leaving soon - I'd forgotten to make a note of the times of the connecting trains - and so I got my things and made my way to the platform instead. Barbara and Sue were now lost in the melee, but Rose and Bob invited me to sit with them and so we made our way along to a carriage with some spaces and settled back to enjoy what is said to be one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world.
The journey was certainly beautiful, and time passed quickly because it was so much fun chatting away excitedly to other people about the great times that lay ahead! It turned out that we'd chosen to sit in a carriage that was going to Oban when the two halves of the train separated some way into the journey, but in due course we managed to find new seats in the right carriage and it didn't seem long before it was time for Bob and Rose to get off, as they were starting from Lochailort.
We got into Mallaig just before 6pm, and I set off to find my B&B, the Western Isles Guest House. It was just a short walk out of the village, and the walk provided an opportunity to take a closer look at the lovely harbour, from which I'd be setting off by boat to Knoydart the following morning.
The guesthouse was lovely, and as soon as I'd put my pack in my room I set off back to the village to meet Andy Howell for dinner, since I was absolutely starving and hadn't eaten since the last of my rolls, some time much earlier in the day. Andy was staying at the West Highland Hotel, and so I went up there a little early and told him I'd wait for him in the bar. It was a thrill to have met Andy for the first time that day, since he and I have known each other in the cyber-sense for many years now, having first met on the acoustic guitar newsgroup, RMMGA, and later on the walking newsgroup, URW. In fact, it's entirely due to Andy that I have my lovely Northworthy Carsington guitar, as it was he who told me that he'd seen it in a shop in Birmingham and that it was one of the nicest guitars he'd ever played.
Anyway, Andy soon joined me in the bar, and we spoke for a while about acoustic guitars as I finished my G&T and he drank a glass of lager (I think). He was starving too, though, and so as soon as we'd finished we made our way back to the little fish restaurant we'd noticed on the way up from the train, ascended the stairs and went in. There were other Challengers there already, which seemed like a good sign to me, and we sat down at a table with a view of the harbour and spoiled ourselves with langoustines, followed by some pretty magnificent cod and chips, all accompanied by a bottle of red wine :)
At the next table were Ann, Alvar and Simon Thorn, whom I'd not met before, and the 5 of us soon fell into conversation. This was Ann and Alvar's 10th crossing, and their son Simon's first, and Ann told me a very interesting story about Charr bothy, where I was planning to stay on the penultimate night. That heightened my sense of anticipation still further - which I wouldn't actually have believed possible, bearing in mind how excited I already was! - and when Andy and I left to make our way back to where we were staying I could hardly wait for the morning to come.
Unfortunately, on the way down the stairs I had a sudden and unbeatable urge to buy a packet of cigarettes. I gave up smoking 4 years ago, but started again a few months ago out of sheer idiocy. I'd tried several times in the intervening period to give it up, and by the time I got to Mallaig I hadn't smoked for a week, but I now gave in to the urge for a cigarette, bought a packet at the little shop next door to the restaurant and smoked one on my way back to the B&B. Uh-oh...
It had occurred to me earlier that if I was really lucky I'd be able to watch House and Grey's Anatomy in bed, but I wasn't entirely surprised to learn that Channel 5 wasn't available on the television and so I slipped into bed to watch something else instead. While I was there I remembered to take a picture of my room...
...and then I read for a while before falling asleep quite early, my mind filled with excited thoughts about the days ahead.
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