two near misses
A bit long this, sorry...

I got the train to Mallaig with my (then) girlfriend and her wee girl for a weeks holiday yomping around the west coast. On arrival it became clear that her rucksack wasn't on the train and we hadn't seen it since Fort William. This was a bit less than brilliant as, apart from the lost clothes and stuff, it had two sleeping bags and all the cooking kit. At least we still had the tent.

The train staff were reasonably helpful, especially after I happened mentioned the unscheduled stop we'd made on Loch Treig to let some fish botherers (mates of the guard I guess) off. They had lots of kit, could they have taken it?

The same staff were running the train back south so they stopped at the loch to have a look. There was the rucksack. Even though it was only a few miles to the nearest Station the bastard fishermen had just abandonned it there. Cnuts!

So it went back to Fort William before making the next train north again. The first we knew was when, while sitting eacting chips at Mallaig harbour, a wee girl wandered up to us and asked if we were the folks who has lost the bag. It would be on the 11:30 train, she said. And it was.

The next day we cadged a lift on school bus to get down to the coast away and I left my wallet, complete with eighty quid, on the bus. Two days later, at the next phone we found, I phoned the bus company to ask if it had been found and was pleasantly shocked to be told that one of the kids had found it and handed it in. The following day the bus stopped as it passed us on the road and the driver handed over my wallet with the cash intact.

Nice people up there, apart from the fishermen.
(urchaidh, Mon 6 Dec 2004, 17:54, Reply)