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'I'm not. I would rather just get cycling. I want to get to John O'Groats.'
I wasn't that bothered about going up the mountain either, to be honest, but I was en-
joying riling Ben, so decided to continue. The ticket office was closed, and a sign with the
opening hours showed that we had ten minutes to wait, which made Ben even more furi-
ous.
Once it had opened we explained to the lady in the ticket office that we were hoping for
a free gondola trip in order to fully appreciate Scotland, and other such bollocks.
Wewereaskedtowaitandtwoveryattractiveladiessoonapproachedusandintroduced
themselves as Katrina and Sarah from the marketing department.
'We'd love to be able to allow you up the gondola for free, but looking at the state of
your bikes I don't think it would be a good idea to cycle back down the mountain,' said
Katrina.
'Oh sorry, you misunderstood,' I choked. 'These bikes aren't even good enough to go
along roads, let alone a mountain. We just wanted to go up the gondola, have a quick look
at the view and then come back down IN the gondola.'
'Ok.That'sarelief.Absolutely,it'swellworthdoing.Thesceneryatthetopisamazing.
Especially on a clear day like this,' said Katrina.
'We've got a couple of these Ski Scotland t-shirts for you, too,' added Sarah.
'I bloody LOVE Scotland,' said Ben as we boarded the gondola. It's amazing the dif-
ference that a free t-shirt and a couple of good looking girls can make.
'Shit, this thing is fast,' said Ben sarcastically, as the gondola set off up the mountain.
'It's like being on Nemesis at Alton Towers.'
'It's a cable-car, not a rollercoaster, you idiot.'
'Wow! Look at the views! They are like sooooo amazing. Look there's some grass. And
there's a hill. This is the best day of my life.'
'Stop being a dick. We're not at the top yet.'
'Actually,Iadmitthatthisisprettycool.I'veneverbeenupacablecarbefore.It'smuch
better than I was expecting,' he said, almost sincerely.
Wewerethefirstpeopleupthegondolaafteritopened,whichmeantthatwehadacom-
pletely unspoilt view. A patchwork green carpet stretched as far as we could see. That was
a metaphor for what the forests and fields looked like from above, by the way, not some
Scottish sewing experiment.
The landscape was interrupted only by the many lochs, and the town of Fort William
down to our left.
'Happy you came up here?' I asked.
'It's alright, I suppose. Anything beats cycling.'
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