The summation of today is cancellations, cancellations, cancellations.
Today was our last day with our friends (although we will be meeting up again
briefly for one more overnight before saying our proper goodbyes) and we had
booked a boat trip to replace the cancelled trip from earlier in the
holiday. Unfortunately, we got the news that this trip had also been
cancelled due to the weather. The weather was certainly colder with low
lying fog in places (as seen in the "beautiful" views from the morning drive)
but it was the strong predicted winds that were causing the issues. We
decided to still head for Gairloch Harbour on the off chance any other trips
were running but this was a no go and when even the cafe we had researched to
have a hot drink in was full we decided to head for a short walk over the
headland and spend a bit of time on Gairloch Beach.
We also at this time received our second cancellation of the day but this was
one we had been expecting for a while. We had booked back in February to
go on the Jacobite steam train from Fort William to Mallaig on Thursday 18th
August. Matthew and I have done the Jacobite before in our younger
child-free days but thought it would be a nice trip for the kids to do as
well. Before the holiday we had been watching the dates of the rail
strikes, worried that our sleeper train might be affected but we had never
been worried about a random mid-week Thursday. But, yep, that was the
date they chose and today we received the official email that the trip would
not be taking place due to the line being operated by Network Rail.
After the kids had had a run about and climb on the rocks (mostly pretending
to be dinosaurs) we headed back to the harbour where thankfully Coast Coffee
now had tables available and in perfect time for lunch. Whilst myself
and Forrest enjoyed the soup of the day and Matt went for a bacon baguette,
Paloma went for the waffles and was pretty pleased with her choice! To
be honest though all the food and drinks were really good. We then
parted ways temporarily with our friends as we drove on to Lochcarron before
heading onwards to Skye tomorrow, whilst they are off to Loch Ness before we
meet up in Fort William on Wednesday night.
After a quick stop off to admire the view at Glen Docherty, we are now parked
up in the Wee Campsite which is very different to where we have stayed so
far. Whilst perfectly adequate for what we need, with basic facilities
and an electric hook up, it is more like a car park with hardly any space
between the vehicles so no room for the kids to run about and
play.
The kids wanted some tablet time though and we saw no harm in some down time
that also gave us time to try and deal with the third cancellation of the day
which was for our boat trip tomorrow on the Isle of Skye. Forrest is
very into his animals and so this was a RIB boat trip to search for sea eagles
which were reintroduced to the area in 1975 after having previously been
hunted to extinction in Scotland. After working out that rescheduling
was definitely not possible we then started looking into alternatives.
We might have a few options but haven't heard back yet so will be keeping our
fingers crossed for good news in the morning. If not we also now have a
sort of plan for what to do for the day if all the options fall through.
After a rough bedtime where wrestling seemed more popular than sleeping one of
those options might be just to leave the kids behind!
Blogged by Amber.
