WE'VE ARRIVED!!!

And this is what welcomed us to Fort William.  WHEEEE!!!

After a relatively short (6 hours) flight from Newark on an overly warm plane, we all arrived safely in Glasgow and were met by our fearless leader.  We got to our minibus, and that's when some real fun began.  There are 15 walkers and our various pieces of luggage and gear.  The minibus fits 17 folks who are on really good terms with each other.  The luggage?  That was the interesting part.  There was no designated luggage compartment, so the photo below illustrates what we had to do:

The aisle was piled with duffel bags and packs 3 and 4 layers deep, and under foot, and on laps,and piled up in as dangerous a fashion that we could manage.  There was no such thing as a quick exit, as all the luggage needed to be excavated prior to any humans moving.

We drove north along the A9 and stopped at the Museum of Highland Life to see the exhibits and get in a bit of a leg stretch.  After some time there, we continued on to Fort William and checked into our hotel.  At this point, we split up to do our own thing, pick up trail snacks, tonic water to go with the bottle of gin purchased at the Newark duty-free, and anything else deemed necessary.  A few of us visited a great little (Free!) museum and perused the displays.

Our hotel is right acorss the street from Loch Linnhe, and your's truly is in a room that has a water view.  We've just finished dinner, and we're supposed to meet at 0900 tomorrow morning to head out on our first day.  So I am going to sign off for now, and get in a solid night's sleep.