The,"Caledonian Sleeper" - slow train to the Highlands.

Pinewoods and snow from my bunk

Every night except Saturday a long sleeper train leaves London Euston station for the North. In the middle of the night the train is quietly reconfigured at Edinburgh; one section leaves for Inverness, one for Aberdeen and mine for Fort William.

This morning  I had my breakfast, porridge with honey, as the sun rose over Loch Lomond and the train snaked through pine woods below snow covered mountains to Crianlarich.

Then coffee on Rannoch Moor where the winter landscape compares with the "Trans-Siberian" where it pulls out of the Urals into the west Siberian steppe in the early morning. At Corrour it only needed  Babushkas selling piroshki and beer to make it Siberian.

For comfort, convenience and affordability this is the best route to Scotland. It beats flying as ,"walk on cargo", it saves the cost of an hotel, saves a day and you get a romantic adventure, what's not to like about it? For climbers and  winter hill walkers it gives access to some of Scotland's most isolated high mountains, bothies and the wildlife.

Corrour

Just before ten o clock we slid beneath the north face of Ben Nevis into Fort William station; on time, well fed and refreshed.

If you have a smart phone (I only have a dumb one)  Scottish Natural Heritage have produced an app for you; see "The View From The Train" to accompany your West Highland train journey, at -  http://snh.gov.uk/enjoying-the-outdoors/viewfromthe train/