Day 180, 31 December 2012 - New Year's Eve. Fort William to Mallaig (pictured) - scenic train journey. Mallaig to Fort William (boring, dark, wet train journey). Cab ride to Portree (Isle of Skye). Another cab to Knott. Finally. Oh what tangled webs we weave .... we we are too darn busy to check/double check and re-check travel conditions.
Had a cracking night's sleep on the Caledonian and immensely enjoyed watching massive snow-fed lochs, red deer and snowy peaks as we headed towards Fort William. It wasn't light until 8 am and the train was running late so we had extra time to enjoy the wild and woolly scenery. Upon arrival at Fort William all the efficiency demonstrated by ScotRail disappeared like half of a favourite pair of socks in the wash. Unexpectedly. Unexplainably. And jolly unnecessarily. We bought return tickets to Mallaig for the 12.10 pm train, saying we'd be coming back in 10 days (good opportunity to say that the ferries to Skye had been cancelled for the past 4 days due to wild weather). We got on the train. One minute before departure we're told the ferries have been cancelled. No one else moved and we've honestly never seen the need to memorise local transport systems in every destination (not in Africa or Morocco or Turkey or Egypt or even France). When the world's worst conductor came through we asked what other options were there once we reached Mallaig. "Och no" he said. "You should have gotten off the train and taken the bus to Skye". Of course we should have. Silly us. Had a wee bleat when we reached the train office in Mallaig. To which the attendant replied "Well, with all due respect, we're not here to assist tourists". Of course you're not. Silly us. Checked with the ferry terminal - definitely cancelled. The one woman taxi company in Mallaig was booked solid and wasn't about to drive us all the way back to Fort William. There was nothing for it but to sit in the pub with all our bags and wait patiently for the return train. Eventually made it back to Fort William and just couldn't face the wait for the bus (another hour or more). Managed to convince a cabbie about to knock off for New Year's Eve that he really did want to drive a couple of hours to get us to Skye. There are times when throwing money is simply the only option. The snow and sleet was horizontal and the night was very dark and stormy. Neither the cabbie nor James had a huge amount of faith in my directions - take the main road out of town, hang a left at the Dunvegan Road, look out for the turn off to Knott (between Skeabost and Edinbane). Turn right. Take the first left and go to the end of the drive. Studio 1 is ours. The Fort William cabbie gave up in Portree and offloaded us to a wonderful local cabbie called Don. Who not only knew the 6 house village we were heading for - he knew the people who ran the place we were staying. Loving Skye already - Happy New Year!