The Ochils Mountaineering Club

Aye, but she's been running on beans which means that the exhaust fumes are probably not good for the environment!!

Nigel

the lack of joined up public transport in Scotland was illustrated quite wll yesterday

i was in Mallaig ,an d a couple foreign tourists approached me , they had decided to go to Stirling that night and wanted to know how to get there ,
they thought they could simply change at Fort William and get a bus

a perfectly reasonable assumption from them

except that even at this time of year they would have had a four hour wait for the only bus


without seeming arrogant , they had chosen to speak to the right person i.e , Alison the bus-nerd

they got safely to Stirling using an obscure bus from Crianlarich that is rarely used except by pensioners on day trips from Edinburgh to Oban (anyone else heard of the Blue Bus Company, my guess is the tourist info would not have done )

I was able to show them where the 'Crianlarich Bus Station' was and see them right - i was going in that direction anyway showing them as far as the bottom of the hill to the Youth hostel in Stirling - (well my pack did weigh a ton)

however their expereince shows how bad this country is at getting its transport right -

Stirling really isn't connected to the west highlands at all unless you go via Glasgow and that is not good if the aim is for people to be greener

my trip north this weekend had been delayed by a road closure due to a nasty car-smash involving two cars in not far in front of the bus I was on (we were lucky not to witness it) , somebody overtook somebody else and didn't make it , perhaps the frustration of too many cars on the road had something to do with it

Really? I am afraid that the resulting propulsion would have to be regarded as cycling not by fair means (particularly if she put fire to it). This may mean she'll have to do the trip again?!

Alison: I was in Mallaig two weeks ago with similar problems. Generally I find that moving around the Highlands by public transport (I had not done it since the 1980s) requires just more planning and more time (e.g. there's now way to leave Rùm and reach Stirling on the same day). But overall it is amazing how much public transport there actually is considering how sparsely populated the area is! In Germany there are no long-distance bus services (the national rail company sees to them not being granted permission), so many rural areas are more cut off than many parts of Scotland.

Btw I found that Mallaig-Stirling is easy: the one bus per day that goes from F. William to Stirling leaves at 5 p.m. (should have done your tourists fine or not?). This one apart public transport-wise Stirling is indeed regarded as a negligible entity up there in the West Highlands.

Kai, I did suggest this to the couple , but they could not think of anything to do in Fort William for five hours whilst they were waiting ; they were tourists , not hillwalkers ; St Andrews was next on their agenda after Stirling .

I rather think they expected more transport, than what was on offer .
I just get used to the planning, but it does take practice , and tourists haven't got the time to practice - quite understandably .