At the Caledonian Canal, and 'Hello world'

We went to see Neptune's Staircase, the flight of locks that elevate the Caledonian Canal from its western point where it joins Loch Linnhe close to Fort William. The canal provide a link for boats to reach the east coast using a combination of manmade canals and existing lochs. 

I left Woodpeckers and her mother to have a coffee at a nearby hotel beside the first flight of locks, as the steam train was due. 'The Jacobite' takes aficionados of steam ewngines on the forty mile journey from Fort William over the hills to Mallaig. Today the engine was a Stanier Black Five, 45407, 'The Lancashire Fusilier', seen here slowly crossing the swing bridge over the canal.

I then walked back up the canal to join Woodpeckers and Kirsty and have a coffee. As we sat beside the first of the five locks in the flight called 'Neptune's Staircase', we saw a yacht  beginning the ascent. I walked over to the lock and spent a few minutes watching the owners as they carefully secured their boat, 'Hello world', in the large locks. I spoke to them and found out that Marte and her husband Håkon, with their yacht 'SY Hello World', were going home to Norway, having just returned from the West Indies where they had been living on the boat during lockdown for the last two years. They work remotely from the boat as software engineers for a Norwegian company. They were a delightful couple and I've sent them some of my pictures so they have a record of this part of their amazing journey