Tom-na-Creige Fort William

... I've also booked my first couple of hostels too. I've decided to stay just outside Auckland, in Mt Eden, for my first few nights. It's a quiet part of the city but still within a bus journey from all the shops of course:) So after some sight-seeing and shopping, I'll be heading north to Paihia in the Bay of Islands, where I'm thinking of staying for a week. It looks like an amazing place to be, with plenty to do! I ...

... to Glen Nevis, where we went for a walk and saw a beautiful waterfall. Back on the bus and to lunch, where i had a yummy plate of Haggis, Neeps (Parsnips) and Tatties (Potatoes).

Until this time the weather had been pretty good to us - you might even see some blue sky in the photos. But by the end of lunch the rain had set in. We made a quick pit stop to climb a muddy hill so we could see the Harry Potter bridge (second movie, when Harry and Ron are in the flying car ...

... today is terrible, we are walking in 35-50 mph winds and it is constantly raining in our faces. We get to the half way point (in height any way) and stop for some thing to eat. The second half of the
mountain climb was a lot harder than the first and as we climb higher and higher we get further and further into the clouds and it gets colder and windier as we climb. We finally reach the summit and the ...

I've made it to Fort William, checked into the SYHA Glen Nevis and decided to go for a walk in to town to get some dinner. Little did I know that it was 3.5 miles each way in the pouring rain to Morrisons.

Gone to far to turn around and I am wet now.

Liz & Alec, who gave me a lift last night, turn out to be heading back to Kingshouse this morning so offer me a lift straight back to the start of my walk through the winding valley of Glencoe. The sky is already looking ominously dark so it's on with the waterproofs and I batten down the hatches with my rucksack cover before venturing out across Rannoch Moor.

The rain starts almost as soon as I hit the moor. It's relentless and the headwind ...

... very easy walking and the sun is out but after a few miles I'm a bit bored of the rather relentless straightness of the path! Still I meet some nice people en route - a pair of walkers reccying the route for a charity event next year, an older Australian guy who had never done any walking in his life and had come to Scotland to tackle the West Highland and Great ...

... a photo I took of Kilchurn Castle on Lock Awe that left me spellbound - the castle, water and mountains just leave you transfixed.

Oban was beautful in its own right nestled into a harbour and the next day we caught a ferry to the Isle of Mull where we caught a small gauge rail to an old castle.

Sue

Getting out of Edinburgh was interesting. We found to our horror that the ...

... up taking a little ferry back across Loch Linhe at Ardgour. Six pounds and 40 pence for a 3 minute crossing - daylight robbery but it was 8.30pm, almost dark, and with about 15miles around the side of a Loch on a single track road it seemed like a bargain.

We have continued with great weather and it was topped off tonight with the most wonderful sunset... fingers crossed for a repeat performance tomorrow.

... really was (still is) a Lord of the Isles. (That's the title of the chief of Clan MacDonald, whose castle, Eileen Donan, we also saw.) But it was a steam engine. And that turned out to be the problem. We were seated opposite a very nice Austrian couple who does mission work in England, and across the aisle from a Canadian family traveling with two sons, the youngest of their five children. They were celebrating his ...

The bed at George and Sheila's was so comfortable that we slept in till 9.30am and by the time we had breakfast and eased into the day, we didn't get out of the house until 11. This was not good as we had to leave for Isle of Skye by 1pm so that we wouldn't be driving in the dark. Our only plan for the day was to see Billy Connolly's banana boots. These were on display at a museum called the People's Palace. [The guide books tend to skip over Glasgow in favour of Edinburgh so ...