Two Extra Nights In Oban Day One

Our flight was scheduled to leave Sunday morning at 8:35, so we had planned on taking the mid day train on Saturday and then the Airport Shuttle to the hotel I booked in the late afternoon. If we couldn't get to Glasgow on Saturday, we didn't have a chance of getting our flight. We found a website for ScotRail to keep up to date on the trains and a traffic site that provided up to date information on the road closures. There were so many people in the same position as us and so much conflicting information. Randy found a Facebook page called Information Oban, and I asked to join, so we watched that as well. By mid afternoon, it was pretty clear we wouldn't be getting to Glasgow. I contacted Air Transat, and they said if we missed the flight, we would have to purchase new tickets. I called our credit card travel insurance number, and the agent told me we would have to get a police report to file a claim. One of us had to stay at the table with our belongings so Randy went off to the police station. It was only two blocks away, but boy, did he get drenched. The police said they don't provide reports for things like this, so we took screen shots of the various online updates. Hopefully, that will be sufficient. We were having a tough time finding a place to stay. Everything in town was booked, and even though people couldn't get into town, reservations weren't being canceled. We took turns going to the different hotels and guest houses. I even called a couple of hostels. We knew we could stay in the restaurant until 2 a.m., but after that, we would be on the street. I was starting to get a little nervous at the prospect of spending 6 hours outside. Did I mention it was raining? I had put a post on the Facebook page asking for assistance in finding a spot, and i did get some very supportive responses. We didn't see anything online about emergency shelters, so we decided to go back to the police station and ask them. It was my turn to venture out, so I cut through McCaigs, a rather large shop that catered to the tourist trade. The ladies who worked there were so nice that we'd been chatting to them a few times for their local knowledge. They'd seen my post on the Facebook page and wanted to help. They also pointed out a man who was sitting in a doorway across from the shop. Apparently, he had come off the ferry on his motorcycle and had nowhere to go. I went over and introduced myself and told him about the restaurant we were camping in. He was worried about leaving his bike, but I told him there was a place where he could put the bike closer to the restaurant. He was pretty relieved at the thought of getting warm and dry. He offered to come to the police station with me, he'd already been there and they didn't have any help to offer. It was pretty much the same response. So sorry, not our role. I was so surprised everyone else was trying to be helpful. The only advice was to call the Council Emergency Lines. He didn't even provide the number. We went back to the restaurant and our new friend Dave joined us at our table. He was a very interesting guy. He'd just bought a Honda Africa Twin touring bike and had spent a week in the Highlands trying it out. He was supposed to be back at work in Southern England on Monday but didn't think that would be happening. He said riding in the rain had been a pretty grueling experience. He had come in on one of the morning ferries and was stuck like the rest of us. I left Dave and Randy chatting and went to check out the ferry terminal. We thought if it was open 24 hours we could spend the night there. The customer service reps said they closed at 10, so that wasn't an option. They suggested I go to the police station when I shared our challenge. One young lady in particular was getting upset that there wasn't any assistance, so she offered to get in touch with the Council. After 20 minutes on the phone without actually getting any answers, she told me to give her 30 minutes, and she would try and have answers. I made a few more calls looking for a room and put my name on cancelation lists. Randy was checking Booking.com every 20 minutes or so, hoping cancelations would come on there, too. While I was waiting to hear back from Ellie at the ferry terminal, Randy sent me a note to check Booking.com because there was a vacancy at Blair Villa South. Success at 6:35 pm we had a room. Wow, what a stressful day. Ellie came back to say she had received permission from the ferry line to shelter people in the ferry terminal. By this time, there were a few people also looking to stay there. I went back to the restaurant and Randy and I took a taxi to our guest house. It was so nice to have a spot to call our own. The guest house was lovely, and we had a quiet night. The next morning, we were able to book it for Sunday night, too. Since we'd already missed our flight and the next flight to Toronto wasn't till Tuesday, there was no reason to rush back. The busses and trains weren't running yet, and the roads were still closed but only in one place now. Guess what. It was still raining, just not as hard.Weiterlesen