We are slightly spoilt at our new Helpx – they have a car that we can use! So on our days off we can get out and do a wee bit of exploring. Arisaig happens to be about 20 mins from Glenfinnan, which has the Viaduct that is in the Harry Potter movies. A Viaduct is a big concrete thingy with lots of archways underneath it that the train goes across.
The train is called the Jacobite Train, and costs something ridiculous like $70 each. I doubt that it is an experience shared by many backpackers…but we were content with our coffee shop vantage point. Well, you couldn’t actually see it from the coffee shop, but you could see it from behind a big fence at the end of the car park…
Anyway, so yesterday we went to Glenfinnan and admired the Viaduct over coffee before continuing down to Oban. The drive to Oban was very scenic. We saw Castle Stalker (it’s in movies n stuff), the Ben Nevis range (Ben Nevis is the highest mountain the UK, and there is a ski field there too), but probably the best things were only about 10 or 15 mins away from where we are living. We are right on the coast and there are so many beautiful ocean-meets-land nooks that are just stunning. I wish that we had a good camera (and the know-how to use it) so that we could capture some of this gold to bring back home.
