Our first full day in Fort William greeted us with sunshine (something we'd found hard to come by up until now) and another hearty Scottish breakfast full of eggs, toast, French press coffee, sausage, bacon and beans. Even recounting this story to you I'm salivating. This was probably one of my favorite breakfasts of the whole trip. The owners of Treetops Fort William were so sweet, and wonderful cooks.
**side note: I'd forgotten this, but wanted to share it with the previous post - look at the address for this place. Could you find it? "Treetops, Badabrie, Banavie, Fort William, Scotland, PH33 7LX". Seriously, this is the address. No street numbers, nothing.**
We planned to hike Ben Nevis - at least that's what I'd planned in our color-coded Excel spreadsheet (oh no, I'm not kidding...) but given the weather (still kinda rainy) and the low lying clouds that obscured the view of the top of Ben Nevis the entire time we were in Fort William we decided to head into town to see what we could find rather than over-exerting ourselves with a hike. Let's face it, I'm a creature of comfort - which usually means sitting down.
Nope... still can't see Ben Nevis's top!
Our first stop was the Old Inverlochy castle which was home to the Comyn's for 28 years and subsequently a stronghold for Robert the Bruce in 1308. It's now little more than a shell and because of it's un-manned status it appears to have fallen prey to local teenagers who have left piles of empty and/or broken bottles of alcohol all over the place. Quite sad, really, in my opinion, but I suppose when one lives here, one castle is the same as the next. We had the place to ourselves to explore for a while so that was kind of fun.
We found the "Treasures of the Earth" museum next, as it started to rain. The Museum hosts geology finds from around the world, specifically focusing on precious metals and gems. They had a small upper floor which boasted fossils and a map of the various ages (Triassic, Jurassic, etc.). It was an entertaining way to spend an hour but felt like something we might find in no-where's-ville, USA. I did, however, document it from the outside just in case you're curious:
We debated taking the train to Maillag but decided against it since we'd have to sit and wait at the train station for an hour. So instead we went back into Fort William (the museum was in Corpach) to find Hubband a new book as he's finished the one he brought with him, have lunch, and just idly spend the day.
We had lunch at a pub called the Grog and Gruel. We shared a steak and ale pie with curly fries (because everything comes with fries here) and we each had a beer. I'm sorry to say that I don't recall exactly what we had but I think mine was a floral beer, perhaps a lavender... I think it was called the White Lady. And I've got no clue what Hubband drank but he loved it. And as a side note, for you dog-lovers who care to visit Fort William, the Grog and Gruel is dog-friendly! Dogs right in the pub with you! Seriously!
We strolled up and down high street - I was on a mission to find a silver Thistle ring and I was actually successful - I was so successful in fact that I took a picture of the shop, just for you!
And just for your education:
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And there you go. Lesson over. After we left High Street we decided to try to find the Ben Nevis distillery and instead ended up on quite an adventure. I was going from memory and thought that said distillery resided at the base of Ben Nevis. As it turns out, it does not, but we did find ourselves on a very narrow two-lane, and subsequently a one lane, road that snaked it's way through the hills to the "back" side of Ben Nevis. If you take a moment to Google "Ben Nevis" in Google maps and then "Ben Nevis Distillery" I think you'll find yourself adequately amused.
Needless to say, we saw some beautiful sites (sights?) on the way but had some harrowing moments when passing (or being passed by) other vehicles when all we had to one side of our vehicle was a steep drop into a river or gorge.
We did persevere and I'm pleased to have survived to recount this story to you. We went back into town to the Tourists Info center and were given a map to the distillery which, in a cruel twist of fate, is very near the B&B. We drove ourselves over there only to find, in an even crueler twist of fate, that they were closed to public tours for the remainder of the afternoon as they had some tour busses about to arrive.
After our failed visit to the distillery and various other nail-biting moments on the roads we decided to head back to the B&B for some R'n'R and Whisky. For dinner we had Indian at the Indian Garden Restaurant (and we DIDN'T drive down high street this time!). We had vegetable pakoras, chicken tikka masala, shrimp buhla and garlic nan with a cobra beer (a light lager). We were told, under no circumstances, would we be served the Beef Vindaloo because it's "too hot for you". We were on a mission to prove them wrong... we just had to find another Indian restaurant. And we did.
That night as I took notes about the day and sipped my night-cap, I could hear the sheep "baa-ing" on the hill next to us. At the time nothing seemed more surreal than rain pattering down on the window sill and sheep saying their goodnight's...
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