Friday 27/08/04

Spent the morning sorting things out. I'm sending excess stuff off by mail, then board the ferry at 12.40 to return to the mainland. It's a bright day. The crew use the time until arrival at Ullapool cleaning and painting the ship. On arrival at Ullapool, a bus stands ready to take footpassengers on to Inverness. It's green until Braemore Junction, where the road rises to go up onto the moors. Past Loch Glascarnoch, where a webcam is located for the Met Office. At Garve, we cross the railway to Kyle and head further east. Bus branches off to go through Strathpeffer before rejoining the main road towards Inverness. At Dingwall, we go down the A9 dual carriageway towards Kessock. The bridge matrix signs warn of high winds. We arrive at Inverness at 5 o'clock, in the middle of the evening rush hour. Walk from Farraline Park busstation to the railway station and into the Eastgate Shopping Centre. Notice the Safeway supermarket, handy for supply. Cross that awful pedestrian crossing, where each crossing has a 1½ minute wait. You have to cross each lane of traffic separately - and there are 4 of them. The youth hostel still has vacancies, so I book in there for the night. It's the usual mix of hostellers. After doing the laundry, nothing much happens, apart from making and eating dinner.