On some holidays it seems, Mel and I fly through the traffic, singing to our hearts content but on other occasions, we grind to a halt. This holiday is clearly the latter as after only one night in Scotland, we struggled to get to our destination of the beautiful Isle of Skye.
We had spent the night near Fort William in what only could be described as a holiday park, lots of static homes and chalets on the edge of a loch and a token area set aside for caravans and motorhomes. But never mind, we were only there to break the long journey from home.
We got up to a cloudy day and decided to leave reasonably early as it was a 3-hour journey (which means 4 hours in the world of Ethel) and were on our way around 9am. We were heading for Portree on Skye and to avoid the ferry, we were travelling via Kyle of Lochalsh. The snazzy music adapter thing was still working, and all was well in the world. Even though it was Easter Sunday, we found a M&S food hall open and nipped in for some very expensive food, pleased as we thought we were going to starve as we had forgotten that the only day other than Christmas day which the supermarkets didn’t open on was Easter Sunday. It was only after spending £30 on 5 items, did we see an Aldi nearby – we could have bought all the food for the entire holiday there for £30!
Convincing ourselves that we were too posh for Aldi anyway, Mel and I were back on the road and looking forward to seeing the scenery which Skye is famous for. But a smooth journey was not to be as after travelling for about 90 minutes we ground to a halt. And a complete halt it was. We did not move an inch for a while, and I had that dilemma of whether to turn the engine off. I am sure you know the one I mean; if you turn it off, you can guarantee the cars in front will start moving but if you don’t, you will idle for ages, burning precious diesel and killing the planet at the same time. In the end I took the risk and turned it off.
After a while, we could see cars ahead of us turning around and coming back past us and so knew it wasn’t good – either that or they were just impatient. A motorhome turned around and stopped next to us and the very Scottish sounding driver informed us that there had been an accident and the road was closed off in both directions. Bugger.
I started the engine, performed a 16-point U turn in the road (hoping no-one was counting) and headed back in the direction we had come from. Very quickly the aura of stress was pervading the air in the cab. I didn’t know where to go, we couldn’t pull over as there were lots of cars behind us, Mel was trying to look at google maps to find another route and sat nav lady was having a meltdown. We had no choice than to return to Fort William and head in the other direction towards the ferry. Mel then found another way round, but it was longer and for a while there was a strained conversation about time, my tiredness, and diesel. Whilst having this discussion, I was aimlessly driving in circles. Fortunately (and much to Mel’s inner pleasure), I stopped in a garage to get more diesel. Ethel still had ¾ tank, but we didn’t know if we would ever see civilisation again, let alone a garage with diesel.
By now, Mel and I were getting a little short-tempered with each other and so I pulled into a layby so we could weigh up the pros and cons of the 2 different routes. We looked up ferry times and due to the company being short staffed, the next ferry wasn’t till 4pm. It was 11.30am now. By the time we had driven to the ferry, we would still have about 3 hours to wait. But the other route would add another 4 hours to our journey. Both ways would mean arriving at Portree later than planned but at roughly the same time. Another dilemma in our lives.
Finally, we opted for the ferry, and I went to the book tickets page and the evil gods struck again as they were sold out. Every other car in the traffic jam had clearly used their brains before us and jumped aboard. The next boat wasn’t till 6pm. Do we go for that one or do we take the long route? I suggested that the jam may be cleared by now and maybe it was worth trying again and if it was still blocked, we would take the long way.
Yet again, I turned the long-suffering Ethel around and off we went. No singing this time as we were no longer in the mood. Instead, we discussed déjà vu about seeing the same tree, loch, car etc. before and after another 90 minutes, we got to where we had been stopped earlier.
As we got close to where the queue had been, we were pleased to see the traffic moving smoothly and smugly thought we had made the right choice. Up a very steep hill we went, and it was only at the top that we were stopped by the police who told us the road would be shut for around 6 hours. We had no choice. The long route it was.
Now, Ethel is not very fast, and she is not very slim either which makes travelling down single-track lanes at any sensible speed nearly impossible, particularly when you factor in hairpin turns and up and down hills. Then add the rain. Oh yes, to make things even worse, it started to rain. Ethel’s windscreen wipers are pathetic and all they did was smear the many dead bugs which had plastered it over the last 2 days. Now I couldn’t see a thing. Yes, there were gorgeous mountains and wonderful lochs, but I couldn’t see through the smear and rain and to be honest, I really wasn’t in the mood as by now I had been driving for 8 hours. Mel tried her best to keep spirits high by map reading but she knew I was getting pretty grouchy. It wasn’t helped by coming down a steep hill and not realising I had to stop at a T junction at the bottom knowing I was going too fast. For a split second I really didn’t think I was going to make it. But as you are reading this, you will know I didn’t kill either of us.
The last ½ hour was the worse. We were both so tired and the rain was horrible. Knowing we were going to have to set up etc. in the rain was not helping. But we made it and pulled in to Portree campsite 2 minutes after the 6pm ferry would have left – we had beaten it! Mel said that at least we had saved the ferry ticket cost – I didn’t point out how much fuel we had burned on our jollies through the highlands.
I would like to say that our hearts soared as we pulled into a beautiful site with manicured lawns and top-notch facilities, but I would be lying – we pulled into what seemed to be a car park – just a large expanse of gravel. Not very pretty at all. But it was our home for the next two days and I am sure it will all feel better after a long sleep.
2LadiesTravelling 