Kingussie to Spean Bridge – Magic Bus

I caught two trains yesterday to travel most of the length of the British mainland from Leeds to Kingussie with a view to catching an early train this morning to Fort William, which was to be the starting point for my trek.

I arrived at Kingussie late into the twilight. It’s a village in the Cairngorm mountains national park. Outside the station was the local memorial for those who gave their lives in two world wars.

I always find these incredibly moving, but this one was off the scale. It’s a village that you can walk through end to end in 15 minutes and the number of lads who gave their lives was massive. This was one of three lists. Poor little buggers.

The first thing I did was stop at the chippy on my way to the hotel and get my usual haggis and chips.

I was the only one staying in the hotel. I had to put a code in a box to get the key out and never saw anyone. It was an old building. There were footsteps upstairs. I knew it must be another customer and nothing paranormal so I played it cool, gathered my thoughts and shit my pants!

You can’t write decently for more than 5 minutes can you? Answer me boy! Can you? You have to refer to bodily functions in a rude way don’t you boy?

Yes sir. Please don’t hit me again. I’ll be good.

This morning came and I had to get down to the station for a 7.30 train to Fort William. The only one of the day. A quick East to West dash. I arrived at 7.15 and the platform screens didn’t indicate that a train was coming, but a screen in the locked ticket office said it was a bus and it was on time.

The long and short of this tedious story is that the bus never came and I had to get a train down to Stirling, another train to Glasgow , another train to Crianlarich (which was delayed as it had run over somebody on the track – sadly true) a bus to Fort William and a bus to Spean Bridge. I got here at 18.15. I feel so brassed off that I could ****.

BOY!!!!

The route in red is the one the Magic invisible bus would have taken. The blue route is the one I took.

The big plus is that the route from Glasgow to Fort William was the most beautiful route I’ve ever taken on a train/bus.

Tomorrow I have to get a train from here at Spean Bridge back to Fort William to the start of the East Highland Way. I had to stay here because I’d already paid for the hotel. Well…..Maggie had. I have to go back because I’m walking the East Highland Way, not part of it – all of it. But; and this is the rub – it’s not a train tomorrow morning at 7.19 because the line got knackered last week. It’s a bus! And if it turns into a Magic bus and is completely invisible, like the useless non-arrival this morning, I’ll scream until I……. Until I……. Until…..oh ****!

BOYYYY!!!

Night night.