delays and overstays

my planned journey was to leave the island Friday for Edinburgh, spend the weekend in Edinburgh and return Monday, the second ferry Friday was cancelled due to the strong winds, if I had planned to travel on the first ferry out both these days I would have been fine, a little delayed but not too much, however I could not travel on the first ferry from the island Friday or any other day because there is no public transport on the island into town for the early ferry, this means that whereas car owners have access to 12 ferries journeys a week non car owners have only six,
so I did not get away Friday and woke Saturday morning to even stronger winds than the previous 2 days, there was no early ferry but the captain decided that he could run a ferry leaving the island at 4 pm. oh good I could at least get to Edinburgh for the Edge agm and the talk by James Hunting, errr….maybe not……now the buses to take me to town had been suspended, so I finally did what I do not like doing I phoned friends to see if anyone could/would take me to get the ferry, strangely the actual crossing was not very rough at all, I got to Inverness at about 9 pm so stayed at the YHA and continued to Edinburgh the next morning, I only missed a few minuets of the agm and really enjoyed James Hunting’s talk, it was lovely to meet more members of the group and to see the people I had met when I was there 2 weeks earlier,

I had planned on staying with a friend so did see her Sunday night thinking this would only delay my return by about 7 hours, if I had left immediately after the agm for Inverness I would have been in Inverness for the early bus to the first ferry from Ullapool which ran and I would have arrived home Monday afternoon, my penalty for seeing my friend was that the second ferry did not return to Ullapool and there were no ferries Tuesday due to a ‘swell’ on the Minch (sea we have to cross), so I was stuck in Ullapool 2 nights and eventually got home Wednesday afternoon, I have been travelling this ferry often in winter for 9 years and have not known the weather so bad before,

some photos,
when I travelled between Inverness and Edinburgh on the Sunday morning there was very little snow but coming back Monday morning it had snow quite a bit during that 24 hours, not just on the mountains but road too, these were taken through the bus window,
Road from Perth to Inverness,

the sun was shining in Inverness Monday so we could hardly believe it when the bus driver said the ferry had been cancelled, this was the sun as we left Inverness on the road to Ullapool,

but as we approached Ullapool the sun gave way to wind and snow,

all these next photos were taken early Tuesday morning in Ullapool, it had snowed a little overnight but the air was calm and peaceful, so I was very hopeful that the ferry would be going, no and by nine o’clock the wind was up and the rest of the day was horrendous,

Wednesday morning when I walked down to the ferry terminal as I approach you can see over a wall to the car park for boarding vehicles and I could see a line of juggernauts and hear their engines running, I would never before have thought that a line of juggernauts with engines purring could be sooooo poetic and magical … bliss,