Day minus two

I've arrived in Fort William! Day started slowly, had to sort car out in Kendal, and pack all my stuff. Quite impressed with myself, not that much... All fitted in boot except for big bag full of clothes on back seat. Had stereo set up with good tunes, duck taped phone to windscreen as sat nav, all set.

In Scotland - cue flags!

Had a small lunch at home in Kendal, said goodbye to folks and then hit the road North. Estimated journey time of 4h30m, had a quick break south of Glasgow before navigating the maze of motorways through the city - crazy road design! Glad I had my android phone to get me through ;) Interesting note, with GPS on and in google maps navigation mode, the battery still goes down even when plugged in! Very slowly mind, but doesn't seem to draw enough power from usb cable to power everything it needs, weird.

Once north of Glasgow the roads get smaller, navigating way up the side of Loch Lomond - beautiful weather and scenery. Picked up two Belgian hitchhikers with big bags, turns out they were walking the West Highland Way but had had an epic day and couldn't manage/be arsed with last 10km to next campsite so were hitching! Chatted in car about the Scottish referendum on independence (prompted by 'so does England own Scotland?') before dropping them in the campsite at Inverarnan. I've got enough lifts in the past round the Lakes, now I've got a car I guess I have to return the good karma!

Onwards north through Crianlarich, Tyndrum and then over Rannoch Moor - been over this 3 times now in the last year but it's still absolutely mind blowing. So desolate and then leading into the utterly spectacular Glencoe, guarded by Buachaille Etive Mor - the 'shepherd of the glen'. Incredible mountain greeting you to the highlands!

Amazing room!

With less than an hour to go I powered on, fuelled by Bob Marley and a sausage roll, arriving in Fort William in perfect weather at around 7pm, moving journey time of 5h13m, not too bad. Let's hope this good weather sticks around!
Parking up outside the address I'd been given in an email from the hospital I wasn't really sure what to expect, but no sooner had I pulled the handbrake on then a lady stuck her head out of the house to greet me! I was shown round my accommodation for the next 4 weeks - it's incredible! B+B style, with massive bedroom, en suite, and small catering area with microwave oven/grill, toaster and fridge. No hobs or sink though, so cooking for the next month might take a bit of imagination, or just eat fish and chips every night... which is what I did after making myself at home and having a quick shower. Nico's in Fort William was the takeaway venue of choice, although I had to run the gauntlet of the main street on a Saturday night, including what looked like a group of hen party women dressed in tutu's dragging a blow up doll around behind them. I guess if you're not into the outdoors there's not much else to do round here!

Saturday night in Fort William

Back at the house I tucked into the take away, lovely. Skyped parents and Alice then listened to 6Music for a bit on my minirig - one of the best presents anyone's ever got me! Check them out here: http://minirigs.co.uk/. Basically a portable rechargeable speaker, but they're crazily loud and really good sound quality - I take it everywhere with me now as a substitute for my stereo!

So I've arrived, settled in and starting to think about the upcoming placement. I'm really keen to meet John, the owner of the house, as apparently he's involved with the mountain rescue team and will surely be able to put me in touch with some climbers around, maybe even be a possibility of helping out with some of the team training - who knows!