Scotland 🏴 - Day 1, 2 & 3 - Inverness
This summer, I took an Interrail pass just like I did last year, although only for 5 travel days. As always, I checked whether it was actually cheaper than taking individual train tickets. What made a big difference in the calculations is the Caledonian Sleeper.
Caledonian sleeper is a night train linking London to multiple places Scotland. And surprisingly enough, it’s included in the interrail pass at no extra cost—the normal seated ticket price was at least £85 (~100€) when I checked so the interrail pass was definitely better value overall.
I chose Inverness for a couple of reasons. First of all, it’s the furthest up north Caledonian Sleeper goes. It’s also the capital of the Highlands, and I was looking for mountains, so that’s a good place to start.
I took the train from London at 21.15 and got to Inverness at 8.45 the next morning. Of course, the journey wouldn’t actually that long if the train was going at full speed, but there’s no point in arriving at 3 or 4am somewhere, especially because there are quite a few other stops before Inverness.
Obviously 9am is way too early to check in to any accommodation, so I had to keep busy until mid-afternoon. The hostel was also away from the center, in the middle of a residential area on the edge of an industrial/shopping area, so I chose to keep my bag with me until the afternoon.
I deliberately packed as light as I could anyway because of the plans I made for the following days, so it wasn’t too much bother.
I picked up something to eat from the Co-op shop in town, and started walking upstream of the river Ness.
Embarrassingly enough, I realised only 2 days in that Inverness, and the river Ness, were named like Loch Ness—yes the Loch Ness and its monster—because that’s where the river Ness starts, and the loch is literally just a 20 mins bus ride from the centre of Inverness. I have no idea how I missed that when looking at maps before getting there, but here we are.
So I found some little islands further along the river Ness—and I wasn’t aware that was its name at the time. It was a nice little spot, with a few locals taking a morning walk. I sat down there for a while to have a bite to eat and enjoy the nature.
After a while, I headed back to town to find some place to have lunch. I found a sort of local fast food place called Confort Foods, which was decently priced.
I stayed in there a couple hours, right until I could check into the hostel at 16.
I had a little chat with one of my roommates before crashing out immediately. He’s an Indian guy, about my age, staying in the UK for a month to see his sister and visit around a bit. Really nice guy.
I slept for 3 or 4 hours, so I decided it was too late for dinner and was still too full from lunch, so I skipped that meal.
The next day I checked out of my room by 10, and had breakfast in the hostel kitchen before going for a hike. The hike I’d found started just out of Inverness, but the bus couldn’t take me quite there, it was still another hour’s walk away. It wasn’t the nicest walk to the starting point, mostly along roads, but I got to see a bit of country.
Before leaving the city, I picked up things to make sandwiches for lunch at the Morrison's close to the hostel.
The actual hike was mostly uphill, through sheep grazing area, as most hikes in Scotland are.
I had lunch at the top, though that might not have been the best idea, with the wind blowing hard and my fingers dying off quickly. It did offer a good view over Inverness and the mouth of the river Ness.
On the way back, I hoped to hitch a ride back to Inverness, but I barely saw any cars going in my direction until I got to the bus stop. The bus was still another hour and a bit later, so I found what I thought was a good spot to hitchhike, but none of the many cars that drove by even stopped.. :/
I'll admit I was quite surprised because I'd read that hitchhiking was fairly easy in Scotland. Maybe it's because they didn't think I was going to Inverness? It was an impromptu hitchhiking attempt so I didn't have a sign with me.
I finally checked in to my hostel for the next couple of nights just after 6pm, after waiting for a very long time to get back to the city.
The room was empty when I got in, but someone else got there shortly after. She was a German girl living in Estonia. We got chatting for a while, then she went out for food. She came back a few minutes later to ask if I wanted to come with her because she was felt awkward going into a restaurant on her own—to be fair, it does feel a bit uncomfortable the first couple of times.
We just went to the local Wetherspoons for a quick and cheap meal, and it was cheap indeed: £8.09 for a fish & chips with a drink. We stayed chatting for some time, then went to bed.
I got up not too early in the morning, and left at about 11 to go for a walk in the mountainous forest right outside Inverness. This one was easier to access, with just a 30 minute bus ride right to the start of it.
The downside with that is it means it's a much more popular place, so I saw a lot more people—yes 30 people is a lot 😠.
At the entrance of the forest, there was what looked like a little doggy cemetery! It was just a relatively small area, with crosses and actual tombstones with messages like "beloved furry friend", "loyal dog", and "we will miss you Rex".
The walk itself was quite nice, although the terrain was a bit muddy at time, but what else do you expect from Scotland??
I got back to the hostel in the late afternoon to relax for a bit and write in my travel diary. As usual in hostels, I had new roommates! I got chatting with my bunkmate, an American mum of 3 on holiday in Scotland for a few days.
We met up again for a drink after I had dinner. We tried a couple other bars which seemed too crowded or with a vibe we weren't looking for before we found a bar with live folk music. They were evidently a local band.
We didn't stay up too late as we were both getting up to go to Skye the next morning. It turns out everyone in the bedroom was actually going to Skye in the morning, so nobody got disturbed by the 7am wake up call.
On my way to the bus stop I stopped at the local Coop to get some food for the next couple of lunches, before the 8.25 start.
