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It felt a little sad to be starting the last day of our trip. We left the Caledonian Sleeper and got straight onto a train for the 3 hour journey to Kyle of Lochalsh along the Kyle Line. It was a slow journey through some of the most spectacular landscape of the week. Stunning mountains, deep gorges, mysterious lochs and dense woodland passed us by as the weather closed in around it all. Grey cloud descended (or perhaps we ascended into it) and enveloped the whole scene in dampness.
We didn’t see much of Kyle of Lochalsh as we were catching the same train back to Inverness if we were to have chance of getting back to Durham and Leeds the same day. We took some pictures around the station of Skye and its bridge. We sat on the other side of the train going back (the left, or north side) and the scenery was even better than on the way there. Leaving Kyle the train meanders along the shoreline for a while, looking out over still water to distant mountains.
The journey home started down the same line as the sleeper went up earlier in the morning, climbing 1500 feet above sea level through the Cairngorm mountains. The approach to Edinburgh was made over the marvellous 1.5-mile-long Forth Railway Bridge, giving lovely views across the Firth of Forth.
The final journey brought us back to where we started. The East Coast service from Edinburgh to Kings Cross followed the Scottish and Northumbrian coast as it sped southwards and towards our 3517th and final mile. The weather had improved and the golden sun was low, bathing the fields and the calm North Sea in a satisfying rich orange glow, as if the landscape was saying goodbye to us both at the end of our fantastic week.
Photos from the final day are on Flickr.