So far the most sophisticated sleeper I've been on. Whiling the evening away in the lounge car, slouched on a leather sofa, fine 12 year old whisky in hand with the smell of haggis in the air: sublime.
It all started with Tam coming to Euston with me. I feel sorry for her because while I got to board the debonair train she had to settle for the drab 70s monstrosity that is Euston.
Once I had stored my bike, ordered my breakfast and waited in my berth (not cabin, that's for ships) for the train to leave (2 minutes late!), I settled down in the Lounge car. In true Scottish fashion they have a separate menu just for whiskys. I chose a double barrelled aged whisky, I thought it only appropriate given my surname, which had years in a whisky oak cask then a few months in a sherry oak cask.
Because all the sofas and chairs are low you get a tremendous 360 view. Watford junction in the evening but the far nicer Cairngorms in the morning. I had quite a bit of fun sticking my head out of the window trying to get pictures down the train.
Comme d'habitude, I had some very funky dreams. One was a mash up of Die Hard, Inception, Transformers and Harry Potter. In the other I got off at the wrong station and there happened to be a 8 foot tall woman. Read into them what you will.
I was woken in the morning with breakfast in bed so I opened the blind and had my tea watching the scenery go past (see my Instagram page).
I tried to do my ablutions using the sink in my berth and as you can imagine water went everywhere. Maybe it's something I need to practise.
Sadly there was a person on the track near Crewe so we were about 1.5 hours late. Slightly hairy moment when I thought I was going to miss the 4 times a day train I needed to catch. On the plus side I got longer on the Caledonian but on the down side no time for a haircut in Inverness.
I took the rather quaint Far North Line up to Wick. Then cycled up to John O'Groats. 20 miles and it started hurting after 5. F*#K! Let's hope the 120 miles tomorrow will be better.
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