25 August: Riding the 'Harry Potter train'

Crying children (not mine, thank goodness!) woke me up before 06:00 and I couldn't sleep after that. That's one of the charms of camping at a camp site.

The good thing about waking early was that we had no trouble making it to the 10:15 departure of  'The Jacobite Train', also known as 'The Harry Potter train'.

A ride through magnificent landscapes

At the train station in Fort William, a lot of people had turned up to wave us off, or so I liked to think. A more likely explanation was that they came to admire and take photos of the charming old steam train.

As the steam train left the station in Fort William, the sun was shining, the sky was blue and all colours in nature were strong and vibrant. We were ready to see Scotland from its best side.

We had four seats around a big, old-fashioned table. As soon as the train left the station I got out our bread, houmous, cheese, soft drinks, strawberries etc., preparing for a gourmet breakfast. I'm afraid the other passengers may not have liked all the clutter, but everyone was too polite to say anything so we were free to enjoy our food and the superb view.

Splendid views

The train ride started in Fort William, with a nice view of Ben Nevis and the other mountains in the area. We drove along the Firth of Lorn and past a beautiful old lock, before we once again were in a landscape with mountains and lochs that looked a bit like some parts of Western Norway.

The train ride included a stop at Glenfinnan station, a charming old station which was now the home to the West Highland Railway Museum. It was nice to have half an hour in the sun, it seemed a shame to spend such a warm, sunny day travelling. But on the other hand, nature would have been a little less vibrant and colourful on a grey and rainy day.

Visiting Mallaig

As we got closer to the coast, we started seeing beautiful white beaches and soon the landscape opened up to the great Atlantic Ocean and the islands of Rum, Eigg, Muck, Canna and Skye.

Our end station was Mallaig, where the train was 'refueled' with more coal. The passengers were allowed a couple of hours to take a look at the town and to get some food before returning to Fort William. We had dinner in a local pub, but this time the food was extremely bland - adding some spices would have helped a lot.

Back on the train again we once more enjoyed the scenery. With the soft huffing-puffing noises of the steam engine it was difficult to stay awake after dinner, but there was too much to see for me to allow myself to fall asleep.

Harry Potters viaduct

Despite all the splendid scenery, the highlight of the train ride was the magnificent 21-arched Glenfinnan viaduct. The viaduct was made famous by the Harry Potter movies, where we see the Hogwarts Express train cross the viaduct as Harry and his friends travel to start a new year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It doesn't take long to cross the bridge, but it is still the highlight as it is such a beautiful construction.

When we left the train in Fort William, we quickly got in our car and started the long drive home, This time we had a smooth ride and got home just in time for the boys' bedtime.

For more background information on the train ride and the viaduct, I have embedded a YouTube video from the BBC which was rather interesting and not too long.