Geoff

Today's the day ..................... to miss the connection

We've had an amazing day - and all because our train was five minutes late into Edinburgh Haymarket and we missed our onward connection to Inverness. Couldn't they just have held up the Inverness train, you might well say? Well, it was a different Railway company, Scotrail as opposed to Transpennine, and apparently a huge fine is imposed if you cause a delay to another operation.

So we found ourselves travelling to Glasgow where we joined another Inverness train. Then quite unbelievably we were taken by taxi from Inverness to Thurso, our final destination - a distance of over a hundred miles. In fact we were dropped off within walking distance of Christine's house, where we will be staying for the next few days.

It could have been a miserable day - but it was completely the opposite. We got to know some lovely people who were in the same boat (or do I mean train!) as we were. This is Geoff who was on his way to spend a few days hiking in the Cairngorms. He had a nine mile walk in to the bothy where he was to spend his first night. They stopped the train specially just for him to get off at Dalwhinnie because that was the nearest station to where he wanted to be.

A life affirming day, if ever there was one .......................!