South Wales to Fort William

All packed up, excited, and ready to go on our adventure, I anxiously awaited Sarah’s arrival at my home. She was running late because she prioritised eating breakfast. I, on the other hand, had not because my brain doesn’t understand how to make time for the essential things. While I was avoiding eating a healthy breakfast, I was panicking and trying to establish if I had everything I needed with the following questions swirling around my head: Had I packed correctly? Did we have enough food and snacks? Were we going to make the train? What would happen if the first coach was late? Would I even be able to carry this weight for seven days? Etc etc…

Sarah finally arrived, and we completed our last-minute checks, or, in Sarah’s case, a whole repack. After a struggle to get the backpacks on our backs, we said goodbye to Squishy and Edgar (my cute little cats who would now be at the mercy of my friends for the next 12 days) and set off from my home. We walked down my street taking selfies, all excited, and a friendly local shouted, "Where are you both off to then?". In response, we shouted ‘SCOTLAND!". He wished us luck with our travels as we passed him. Literally, two minutes later, Sarah realised she'd forgotten the snack bag…. THE SNACK BAG. Let's be honest, you can’t travel 8 hours on a coach without it, so she slammed her bag down and ran back to the house. As she passed the friendly local again, he shouted: "Back already?". I waited by her bag until she arrived back, and we now finally had everything we needed and got our butts to the local train station.

Get off my train!

We arrived at the train station with 2 minutes to spare, and I quickly bought myself a ticket before heading onto the platform. The train was obviously delayed, but only by a couple of minutes, so we felt confident. This confidence did not last, though. The train pulls up to the platform, and the conductor jumps off. Everyone starts heading onto the train, and as Sarah and I get on, we hear the conductor shout "OI, YOU’RE NOT GETTING ON MY TRAIN!". This was directed at a different passenger. We started to giggle at the drama, thinking nothing of it until those giggles became nervous giggles. We had been sitting on the train for 5 minutes and the end of the conductor/passenger argument was nowhere in sight. We both got extremely anxious as time passed, and the train was not moving. The passenger was being asked to leave the train as they had dodged a fare earlier that morning, but they were pleading with the conductor to let them stay on the train as they had paid their fare this time. Ten minutes later, with testosterone levels high, the conductor announces to all passengers that the train will not leave until the passenger does and the police have been called. Everyone got up, groaning and moody, as we all departed the train. Luckily, across the platform, another train had just arrived that was also going to Cardiff. We jump on this one in the hopes that we will still make our bus to Scotland.

We were 15 minutes behind schedule, which was going to cause us an issue in regards to our walk from the station in Cardiff to the bus station. We needed around 20/30 minutes to lug our giant backpacks but only had around 15. So, we made the executive decision to get on at a different bus stop in Cardiff. This gave me time to get that all-important coffee and breakfast. As I sat there tucking into the driest Costa vegan sausage butty, I anxiously kept asking Sarah if she was certain we could catch the bus here. She had gotten buses from there in the past, so she was pretty certain it would, and it did… But, as we were boarding, we were warned by the bus driver that it was a request stop, and just by chance, a SINGLE person was getting on there. We counted our blessings as we started the journey to Birmingham, unfortunately not sat together as the coach was very full, and everyone took up two seats to sit on their own.

Our adventure begins!

Well, to Birmingham anyway... Luckily, there wasn’t any more faff, and we arrived in Birmingham two and a half hours later. We jumped off the coach and ran towards the toilets, both bursting because of coffee + coach. Sadly, this was Birmingham coach station where you have to PAY to PEE. I only had notes, and the machine only took coins… Super old school. We ran to the shop and had to buy something to break the note. They had vegan KitKats (how exciting!) so I picked one up and requested that the change be in as many coins as possible. The shop assistant was lovely and did exactly that; finally, we could pee. We had a quick bite to eat and then headed onto our second coach, destination GLASGOW. I was so excited; the furthest I had been into Scotland before was Gretna Green, which is pretty much at the border.

This second coach was a 6-hour drive, during which we assumed there would be no stops. The bus once again was packed, so we had to sit next to the toilet… ruh roh. It also turns out that we sat next to someone who seemed extremely ill. They made frequent visits to the bathroom to be sick, which made the two of us slightly uneasy. Thankfully, as Sarah’s travel sickness started to make an appearance, the coach stopped at what was the poshest service we had ever been to. There was a friggin’ farm shop and a patisserie… What in the heck!? After fawning over everything in the services, we grabbed a hot chocolate and jumped back on the bus for the final leg of the journey.

Next Stop: Glasgow

We finally arrived in Glasgow around 8:30 p.m. It was raining buckets, and I had never seen rain like it (and that’s saying something, coming from Wales). While unloading our bags, the bus driver, unfortunately, threw our bags on the floor, so they were already absolutely drenched. Great start. We headed to one of the restaurants we had decided on. The puddles were insane, and the streets were packed with people. We had forgotten one thing. It was a Friday night in a large city. We arrived at the first place, and it was fully booked. So, we head off and grab some pizza before heading to our AirBnB.

I think we might die tonight, Sarah…

Outside the AirBnB, we both fumbled trying to get the key out of the box. The lady heard us and opened the door. She said, "Danielle?" to which I responded "Yeah". She looked confused and then asked why there were two of us. I cleared up the confusion, and she let us in. This woman, although lovely, was very overwhelming and didn’t give us much breathing space. As we walked in, we were greeted by a bunch of men who were chilling on the sofa as if they were having a get-together. I was confused and slightly scared at this point, as the advertisement said it was a female-only room and home. So why were there men here?

After being truly overwhelmed, we were shown to our room, and we instantly removed our belongings and jumped on the bed. Which, by the way, was super comfortable. Sarah and I looked at each other with the expression, "Oh god, what is happening?" Laughing and eating pizza, we start to panic that we don't have a lock on the door and start coming up with ways to lock it without actually locking it. Finally, I get up to be brave and have a wee, only to find we do indeed have a lock. Feeling relieved, full, and tired, we get into bed and go to sleep. Knowing I would be 27 the next morning and heading to Fort William.

Happy Birthday to Danielle!

Surprised that we survived the night, we woke up bright and early and got ready to leave. It was weird to wake up on my birthday with no gifts in sight and in some random AirBnB, but it was exactly what I wanted. The gift was the adventure we were embarking on. We quietly departed the home, hoping to leave without waking anyone up. But the lady clocks us. She took our pizza boxes and watched us awkwardly put on our shoes as we attempt to leave her home. Finally free, we walked into Glasgow, of course, being tourists, taking lots of photos of the sights. We had decided to get breakfast at Glasvegan, and I am so glad we did. We then headed into Glasgow with time to kill before our train to Fort William and came across an arcade. Of course, I made Sarah play in it. We grabbed tickets and hit the dance mat because who doesn’t love a dance mat? Both sweating, we head to the photo booth and got some photos. Satisfied, we get snacks for the train and head to Glasgow Station.

Away to Fort William

We got on the train, not sure what to expect. What we didn't realise was that this was one of the most beautiful train rides in Scotland. It was four hours through the Highlands, and it was spectacular. Sarah and I sat in awe of the sights out the window. I even got to see a Bambi. Four hours passed so quickly, and we arrived at Fort William, where we would stay for the evening before heading out the next day to start our walk. We looked for places to eat, but we were both so tired that we just opted to eat at the hotel. This was a big mistake. In hindsight, a McDonald's Plant Burger and a supermarket cake would have been a much better option.

Not knowing what we were getting ourselves into, we sat at our table and mulled over our food options. I thought, ‘Ooo, a vegan hunter's chicken sounds interesting." Never again. The vegan chicken was so dry with the tiniest amount of BBQ sauce. You could not even cut it with a fork; it was like it had been left to stand under a light all day. As I chomp through, Sarah laughed her head off, and we await Sarah's food. At this point, I have almost finished, so she checks with the staff. There seemed to have been a mix-up, and she finally gets her fake chicken breast, which looked way better than what I had been served. She had opted for a carvery, and I kind of regretted not choosing this too as I watched her pour the gravy over the sad vegan chicken. Wine in hand, we chinked our glasses and said ‘Yaki Da’. Although Pudding saved my soul, and we headed back to the room to prepare for our big day tomorrow.

All in all, it was a very eventful two days of travel leading up to our big day. And although the hotel room was stuffy and a tad too warm, we both managed to get some sleep to prepare us for what was ahead.