The journey home

The day started just like the others with wall-to-wall blue sky and sunshine. After breakfast and checking out our first stop was to have a ride on a rib boats on Loch Ness with Beastie boats.

We spent fantastic 90 minutes going up and down the loch seeing an osprey nest, more views of Urquhart Castle And the place where the John Cobb tried and failed to beat the water speed record, managing to kill himself in the process.

From here we went back up the hill to Foyers where we went to see the waterfalls. Sadly because of the dry weather they were not that impressive. It wasn't hard to imagine what they would be like in Spring when the snow melts.

We made our way then to Inverness where the plan was to drop the car off at the airport and then spend the time exploring. Sadly one of the things that the Caledonian sleeper service doesn't do well is cater for any luggage.

So after dropping the car off and catching the train back into the town but most of the afternoon enjoying sun and blue skies before it was time to check in at 8:00 p.m.

The crew on this return leg weren't really as good as the ones on the way up and service was rather perfunctory. However we had some food and enjoyed the last of the views as the train trundled South.

We slept well and woke early for breakfast seven. This seemed particularly early given that the train was not due to arrive until 8:30 and in addition was running almost half an hour late because of problems with a carriage on part of the train that joined us earlier in the night.

We arrived into Euston having had a rather circuitous route, at just before 9:00 a.m..

We played some cards and had a drink to kill some time before the final leg of our journey from Paddington to Stroud which sadly also included rail replacement service from Swindon. Even that couldn't dampen the enjoyment that we'd had. I'd definitely recommend the Caledonian sleeper service as a treat!Read more