Travel Day 1

Well that was a day we would sooner forget....

We woke up this morning to no power, which also means no water, and there was about a foot of snow outside. Was it a sign of things to come, or was it all up from there?


We got to the airport about 2.5 hours before flight time and were through security a half hour after that. Once on-board I figured we had it made, and that the very short layover in Toronto was going to be a non-issue. Unfortunately we lost about an hour waiting for the luggage crew before we started to taxi. Of course, we were still not home free, as we had to stop in for a “quick de-icing”. With only a one-hour layover we were never going to make our connection. 😡 On the upside, we would be in Toronto so had a higher likelihood of making new reservations.
We flagged a flight attendant down during our descent to see what our options were. She came back with the good news that our connection was an hour late! With just enough time for a washroom break, and a $20 trip to the convenience store for two packs of gummies and two waters, we boarded the second leg of the trip and were on our way!! 🎉. Was fortune back on our side??
NOPE!!! The rest of the trip was uneventful until we got to Glasgow. One of our biggest fears on these hiking trips is that our bags get lost in transit. Our house, our kitchen, our wardrobe, our maps, literally everything is in them. Without our packs the trip is obviously over before it starts. To make a long story short, after an hour of asking questions at the airport our worst fear came true. We made our way to our hotel and after hours of phone calls/ texts/ tweets, we have determined that our bags will not be here until Friday, three days late. Aaggghhhh!!! 🤬. It is very frustrating that we can’t get them here sooner, but fortunately we have enough flexibility in our plans that we can adjust. Thanks to Booking.com we have been able to make most of the changes we needed to. We only lost one reservation including the full fee, which we hope to recoup from Westjet (I am sure that will be a fun and hassle-free exercise 🤪). Our good friend Joyce has very generously offered to host us so we will be heading to Perth tomorrow. We will make our way back to Glasgow on Thursday, in the hopes of picking our packs up at the airport on Friday morning. If successful we will bus and taxi to Inverness then Torridon Friday afternoon and be on the trail Saturday morning, two days late. One possible upside of the delay in starting is that we now have a better chance of meeting up with some of our friends from previous crossings which would be amazing!! 🤞🏻
Once we got ourselves sorted we relaxed for a bit and then hit the pub for dinner and a much-needed cider. Despite all of the ups and downs of the day, and with all of the logistical changes taken care of, it did feel good to be back. We have always enjoyed the kindness and humour of the Scottish people, and it was nice to be around it again.
That’s it for today. We are just watching a little TV before some sleep. I think we will get a good rest tonight and hopefully tomorrow will be much less eventful. Thanks for reading!