Old Town

This morning we awoke early, packed our bags and headed down to eat some breakfast before boarding a small bus with 25 other eager travelers for the beginning of our 3 day tour of the Isle of Skye!

We drove for around 2 hours before reaching Pitlochry where we enjoyed a leg stretch and some coffee and we loaded up on some snacks as where we were heading didn't have a nearby supermarket apparently.

We drove for about 10 more minutes and we started to see snowfall! The first snow we've seen in a few weeks, which we were very excited about as it's close enough to Christmas for us to pretend we had a white Christmas!

This beautiful white powder has apparently wrecked havoc on one of the major highways as we soon became stuck in some pretty heavy traffic, we found out that 2 trucks and a car had (apparently) decided to collide and the road was closed. No big deal right? Wrong, a bus cannot do a 3 point turn on a thin road covered in icy slush. We sat on that carpark (highway) for 2.5 hours before we could turn around and head back towards the lovely town of Pitlochry.

We finally arrived at the small town again, got service after 3 hours of not having it so the driver was able to let the company know we were alive and start to figure out the plan moving forward.

We got to know some fellow Australians on the bus so we all headed to the nearest pub while Neil our hilarious bus driver figured out the logistics.

After a pint we got back to the bus and his somber face greeted us, they had to cancel the tour as all 3 main roads heading to the North had been closed. So he loaded us up to take us back to Edinburgh, Which should have been about 2 hours back, was it? Spoiler - No.

We left the town and not even 20 minutes on the road we had to find a new route as the highway we took to get there had been flooded.

That's fine, the driver knew a different way - he said it will probably add an extra hour, no big deal? We got a refund for the tour and this counts as a free scenic drive.

BUT once we get on the new road, we come across some people doing U-turns - not a good sign. Turns out the road had collapsed due to a landslide. The issue this time is that this was a back road, so we had to reverse almost 2 miles up the road before there was room for the bus to turn.

We found another route back to Edinburgh, which added an extra 2 hours.

And on top of all this none of us have accommodation for the next 2 nights because we were expecting to be beachside in Iverness. Luckily the hostel (who runs the tours) was able to break the group up into 3 random hostels for the night (free of charge).

Once we got back to Edinburgh we checked into our new hostel, grabbed a 'celebration' beer with the fellow Australians. Went for a walk to get some steps in and enjoyed discounted Greggs for dinner.

So yes, 11 hours on a bus - 1 town which we stopped at twice. Full refund and a discount on a future tour, put up for a night in a hostel for free (it is a 20 person room, so we'll see if sleep happens).

What a day, thanks Scottish weather!

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