Chapter 2
An interesting fact about Inverness, it’s quite far away.
One of the reasons why Inverness had won out over Ireland as our eventual
holiday destination was that it seemed easier to get to. To get to Ireland
would have required either flying and renting a car or driving and catching a
ferry.
My family had often gone to Ireland during my youth for
holidays and there were two main ferry journeys you could get. Liverpool to
Dublin or Swansea to Cork. Myself, Luc and Adam are all based in Stockport, so
we were either looking at a relatively short drive to Liverpool, followed by a
ferry and a long drive down to Waterville or a long drive to Swansea followed
by a ferry journey and then a difficult drive along windy Irish roads.
I could still remember how torturous and long the ferry
journey could be from Swansea to Cork, especially if you went during the day.
Inverness, despite being away up North, was at least just a car journey, and a
direct one at that. It was decided that I would do the driving, so I ventured
to TheAA.co.uk to see how long the journey would be. I didn’t like what I
found.
It takes roughly 7 hours to get from Stockport to Inverness
via car. Yes, 7 hours. All of a sudden I started to worry about what I had got
myself into.
Pete now lives down south with his girlfriend, so he decided
that he would fly to Inverness, a mere 2 hours, and then we could pick him up.
He said that he’d have his parents drop his suitcase round the day before.
Pete’s flight was due to get in to Inverness around 2PM, so
I decided that the three of us would have a set off time of 7AM. Luc and Adam
were informed, I did my packing and awaited for Pete’s Dad to bring the case
round, which he duly did. It was at this point when panic set in. We were going
away from the Monday 6th October and would be returning on the 11th.
However, Pete was going to be staying at his parents for a few days after
returning from Scotland, and he’d packed accordingly.
We were going to be travelling in my Toyota Yaris, a car not
really known for being overly spacious, and I’m not exaggerating when I say
that Pete’s case could probably fill the boot on it’s own. It was time to get
creative. Quick texts to Luc and Adam to ask them to pack as light as possible.
Luc replied saying he’d already intended to. Adam replied that he hadn’t even
started packing yet because he thought we weren’t leaving until the 7th!
Ever see the scene from “Phoenix Nights” where Brian Potter
finds out that his house band are stuck in Stranraer? Those who have won’t
struggle to picture my reaction to everything at this point.
Thankfully, I was able to compose myself enough to get some
sleep and we managed to cram all of our cases into the car the following
morning. Pete had also insisted that we bring some board games with us as the
cottage didn’t have a TV. Somehow we contrived to fit everything into the car
and off we set to Bonnie Scotland!
In Chapter 3, I’ll cover the journey itself as well as
closing out the first day of the holiday.
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