Walked down to the TIC. Arrived at 8:55—it opened at 9 and I wanted to be first in line for one of the two computers.
Sent an email to work and to family saying I can’t be easily reached by email but that my mobile phone works, even though surrounded by mountains.
Went to Nevisport again and tried on hiking boots. I do need new ones but came to my senses. With the exchange rate I would pay almost twice as much here.
Then walked by the old Fort but will do more of that tomorrow. Walked along the loch—Loch Linnhe (pronounced Linnie). Then I came to the boat dock, where I’d planned to take a boat tour of the loch. Cost £7.50 for 1 1/5 hours. Really worth it. Cold as cold can be. Met Joan and Terry. Both are retired and on holiday. They live in the south of England in Oxfordshire, in Sonning Common. Joan does volunteer work with the police department and Terry is retired from British Aerospace. He’d helped build the Harriers. Was an electrician. Had also been in the Merchant Navy and was full of history and wonderful stories about Great Britain.
The boat took us by a salmon farm and also by a really small island where we saw two grey seals. I think I got some good pictures.
I asked Joan and Terry if they’d like to have lunch after the tour. They were agreeable, so we walked to the Ben Nevis Pub, the oldest pub in Fort William. Really neat, pub atmosphere, but they had vegetarian food. Joan drank some wine, I had a McEwen 70 (Scottish beer), and Terry had Cider and Guinness which he said was a poor man’s Black Velvet. A proper one is made from Guinness and champagne. He also said a lager and cider is called a snakebite and can make people out of their head in no time.
We had a lovely conversation over lunch and they were heading out to the aluminium plant, while I headed up to my hotel room to get some work done. Instead, I took a nap first…drinking in mid-day did me in.
Had dinner at the hotel, and it was decent. After coffee I came back to the room and relaxed a bit, caught up on my blog-writing, and did a little work.
posted by Jerilyn Dufresne, author @ 17:49
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