Saturday 27 July 2013

Day 208 - a journey to feed the soul. xx


Saturday 27th July

Pete and I have been married for 23 years today and never spent an anniversary apart until today.  We were married in the New Forest on a beautiful summers day and it was just perfect.  I am back in the forests today but this time on a train journey through the Highlands and what a journey it is.  If you haven't done it put it on our 'to do' list because it is breathtaking.  We just keep climbing and I keep yawning.  It is difficult to believe that people live here but they must do because this train stops every few minutes - no wonder it takes so long to get to Mallaig. 

It is the scale of the landscape that makes you feel small and so it should.  We are all guilty of being full of our self importance from time to time.  This landscapes reminds us that Mother Nature is in charge and we are but a small pawn in an expansive and complex game.  You can clearly see where glaciers would have cut a path through the land and left behind deep and impressive valleys.  Every so often the trees part and we get a glimpse of a loch with its deep blue water and its sense of stillness.  Then we are plunged back into green either side and I feel a little closed in.  The contrast is good for the soul, I think. 
 

The clouds are low in places and sitting on top of the hills as if they have always been there.  To be up with the clouds is making everyone sleepy and eyes are closing all around me.  You see the occasional flock of sheep on the lower hillsides and this the odd house completely alone and isolated.  There is so much ungrazed land that meadow buttercup dominates and turn the odd corner a butterfly yellow. 

As we pull into a station I could never hope of pronouncing suddenly we see houses and lots of them.  We see a road and cars and this little settlement signals a community existing deep in the valleys.  The train shunts about a bit as we separate in two for different journeys.  I am on to the end of the line so I am hoping people will be getting off en route because there are too many people on this train.  There is also far too much chat although I have been reminding myself of my school days German.  A bit more shunting and a bit more waiting and finally we are underway again.  Staying in the moment means that Eigg has been lost from my mind as I focus on the drama that is all around me.  Just the occasional break to text Di and Pete but the rest of the time is spent being completely aware of my surroundings. 

We have stopped climbing and find ourselves on a plateau with farms dotted across the fields.  A pair of border collies are herding a flock of sheep as they make patterns on the earth.  Quite suddenly a buzzard joins the train and stays with us for a few minutes.  We are so close we can see the detailing on the wings and his eyes.  I watched it glide away towards the other side of the valley and wondered where its mate was.  We start to climb again.  Are we not at the top yet?  Below is another small village with roads winding through and beyond. 

I see a river bed completely dry and it is difficult to believe I am in Scotland.  The clouds are parting and the sun is emerging to wash us all with warmth.  The rock outcrops seem to get more and more spectacular as this journey unfolds.   Time for a cup of tea.....

Emerging out of the the dominant scots pine forests we are flanked by the most stunning avenue of trees.  All individual and all beautiful even the dead ones that sculpture the view.   A huge dry cracked river bed follows our journey for a while as green grasslands are peppered with scorched brown patches.  This lack of highland water is a little unnerving and not at all familiar.  It seems like everyone around me is sleeping and all is quiet on the train at last.  Peatlands return us to scots pine once more with the dead forest floors and the shrinking light.  They might be an excellent cash crop but they offer very little to the eye and I find myself craving my dead tree sculptures again.  The distance mountain ranges steal the view and you know that you are in the land of the eagles.  Somewhere out there there are eagles and this feel likes their home.  We are intruding briefly as we pass through in the knowledge that the mountains will not give up their secrets.  We will not see any eagles but they will see us. 

Rannoch seems like a ghost village will dull whispers around every corner.  You start to feel that you are not welcome here either.  In the last few minutes you feel like you are not wanted because this land belongs to others.  We climb again.  Wild deer are just there, close enough to touch and looking right at us.  Now I know why we are intruding but they know we are just passing through.  No one got off the train and no one got on at Rannoch.  A deer fence begins to stretch as far as the eye can see and the separation seems artificial but, at the same time, accepting.  The deer graze close to the fence and everyone is sleeping.  I was the only one who saw the deer.  I am blessed.   A little dog barks and everyone wakes up with a start and I smile.  Heads flop and eyes close once more and peace is restored.  I am tired after a hot and sticky night but I couldn't sleep through this if I tried. The scale of it begs attention and every valley is different and I don't want to miss a second.  Deer are much higher in this valley and edge the skyline which is not so far from us.  A majestic stag watches us as I count the hinds and make that 24.  Lucky boy!  Suddenly a little girl spots them and shouts 'deer' and the eyes are all awake again just long enough to see the stag take his hinds out of view.  My eyes are skyward searching for birds of prey but part from the lonely buzzard the sky is empty. 

The rivers have stopped flowing into the loch and the rocky edges are exposed.  Empty channels litter the hillside where the water should be and you wonder who has switched the tap off.  The loch stretches for miles but still no rivers flow and the shallow waters are full of silt and weigh heavily towards the centre of the loch.  At last, three hours into the journey, I see the heather.  Plums and purples seep down the side of the hillside reminding me that I am, indeed, in Scotland.  A river cleansing the valley floor and the heather sits up and takes notice. The most majestic colours in the Scottish landscape are not lost on my fellow passengers as cameras emerge from bags.  A small child is crying so sleep has been abandoned by most and the constant chatting begins again.  The sun washes the train people start to shuffle.  I fear I have rather taken root.  Time to visit the toilet to get this body moving again.  I will, of course, ignore the pain. 

Ok so the toilet was right at the other end of the train so a good wobbly walk there and back and my body knows it is awake.  My stick is, of course, in my suitcase which is completely buried under a mountain of bags.  Half way through my wobble a lovely gentleman stood up and asked if I needed any help.  Brushing my disabled thoughts from my mind I gladly took the help and he steered me to the toilet and I thanked him and rushed in.  When I emerged he was waiting for me and I was really touched.  How thoughtful and kind and I told him so as he insisted on walking me back to my seat.  I can't sit for this long without consequences but that experience could have been worse.  All that is left is a stagger from the train to the ferry and off the ferry at Eigg where my beloved daughter will be waiting.  I am beginning to feel a sense of achievement. 

Back to the journey.  Spean Bridge I have visited before when we had a holiday near Fort William.  It is a delightful centre for walkers and climbers as we are near Ben Nevis.  We are therefore climbing again and this time we shall reach the top before we turn west.  This last hour or so of the journey promises to be the best.  Any Harry Potter fans out there will know the journey as it is the one the steam train takes on its way to Hogwarts.  A gentle tingling from within signals some real excitement.  I have done this journey across to Mallaig before in a car but everyone tells me the train ride is far better.  Ben Nevis is first and not a small mountain by anyone's standards.  The couple behind me are planning to climb it tomorrow because I heard them talking about it.  It will be quite a climb and I do hope they get a clear day for it.  I will be safely delivered to my cocoon on Eigg by then and hopefully sitting on the signing sands painting what I see. 

The landscapes is opening up as we approach Fort William and cars are most evident.  We are on the edge of civilisation and lots of people are planning to leave the train.  Excellent.  We are probably as high as we are going to get and truly up among the tree tops and the clouds.  The air seems thin and I am yawning once more.  For a while the track is edged with industrial buildings and housing estates and it all seems a bit odd.  I had quite got used to the mountains, trees and lochs.  There is a queue to get off the train and this is very encouraging.  I do like people but not when I am travelling.  I like to inhabit my own space and time and people disturb that with their constant chatter.  Ok, plan might not be working because lots of people are getting on.......

Lots of 'excuse mes' and tutting later and we seem to have found seats.  Close the doors so that no one else can get on.  I am door watching and hoping because the seat next to me remains empty and that is the way I would like it to saty.  I am mindful of that lovely ex army guy who sat next to me on the train from Edinburgh to Retford.  When the train killed that person I was grateful for the company and the two of us jumped into gear helping dozens of distressed passengers.  I wonder what he is doing today?  We got on really well and he was the perfect companion on a traumatic journey. 

At last we are underway and I feel nothing but relief.  There is lots of chatting but I am trying to zone that out.  We are on the final stage of the train journey and it is to be savoured and remembered me thinks.  Journeys are destinations and destinations are journeys to me and that is why I love to travel.  You will, perhaps, understand my frustration about the difficulties I now face but appreciate my determination to keep doing it.  Travel has expanded my mind and this trip has been a delight.  The Scottish landscape has shared its hidden valleys and memorising lochs with me and I feel recharged.  The Neptune staircase comes into view and I am suddenly mindful of my desire to live on a canal boat.  Every day could be a journey then and so enriching as long as I am not in a hurry.  There are lots of important looking cameras emerging from bags and I think we are getting ready.  My shots have to be taken with my iPad as I switch between typing and taking photographs.  It is perhaps this that has kept me awake. 

The train is making a different sound now we have stopped climbing.  It sounds exciting as it trundles along its way to the coast.  It is like the child in the back seat asking when will we be able to see the sea.  The excitement is palpable.  The German guys who have been on the train with me since Glasgow are now drunk having shared the contents of a welly  boot.  I am thinking whiskey by the smell and I don't much fancy their hangovers later. 

Minutes out of Fort William and words fail me.  It is beyond beautiful as it stretches ahead of us.  Deep blue lochs go on for miles and sailing boats bob up and down as if abandoned  to their own fate.  There is a balance to what we can see now with mountains leading to valleys and onto into lochs.  There is also running water down mountainsides and my familiar view of Scotland is restored.  The grey clouds hug the tops of the mountains and in places it all closes down into a more intimate experience.   Then there is the viaduct and I can't get a shot because I am way too polite and get barged out of the way.  Will try on the way back next week.  Lots of very big men with important looking cameras who clearly think they are far more important than me. 

With less than an hour to go I now see what Molly meant when she said you don't really notice the time on this journey.  There is so much to take away from this but my solo encounter with the deer is perhaps my favourite moment.  I love deer and these were very good specimens and they were a picture of calm and all that is well.  Perhaps I will come back as a deer?  Beyond the deer it is the scale of the beauty as it humbles me reminding me of the small space I inhabit in the world.  Largely uninhabitable by humans the landscape creates its own drama and highlights and it is for us to capture it in our minds eye so that we can recall I whenever we want to. 
 
Slowly but very surely my head turns towards Eigg but before that the ferry journey and some glimpses of other islands.  Islands that I want to visit one day.  Skye is high on my list that I don't have because of the dramatic cliffs that are a 'must see'.   As the train ambles ever nearer the sea we are weaving our way through smaller lochs with delightful tree islands rising from the middle.  Once at Mallaig there is a bit of a wait for the ferry which is then another hour and a half until it reaches Eigg.  I am thinking a gentle end to the day with an early supper and bed.  I have a meeting tomorrow morning with one of the Eiggbox team so I need to be focused and with the programme.  After that I am off to explore the singing sands and see if they speak to me.  It is difficult to comprehend an island only 5 miles long and almost totally without cars.  The soundscape will be different.  The first glimpse of the sea as we begin to track the coast down to Mallaig.  I can't help feeling incredibly lucky that this opportunity has presented itself. 

Until tomorrow.
Post script
I have arrived and its beauty is quite beyond comparison.  Molly appears to have gone native and I have had my feet in the sea.  So much more tomorrow.  xx

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