Lucy

M's Mum and her friend are away to see, sort of, extended family in The Netherlands this weekend and we gave them a lift to the airport at Inverness this morning.

I'll quickly skim over the retail therapy thing, then M and I had a lovely lunch at the Snow Goose. It was quite funny looking across a couple of tables and seeing folk playing pass the toddler while some one got to finish their now cold soup. It seems like yesterday that we were doing juggling like that too.

Anyway the hassle that dominated our day started when we left Inverness on the A82 early afternoon for home. I appreciate some local knowledge would help in order to understand the events that unfolded next. The big LED sign warned that the A82 was shut at Drumnadrochit. The precise location of the closure is important to onward travellers and with the benefit of the 3G signal M checked the traffic Scotland web site and it was clear that the blockage was nearer Inverness. There is an important junction at Drum. A detour north to Kiltarlity then SW over Culnakirk and back to the A82 would thus by pass the closure (with perhaps an extra 15 miles) and we would still be home for the boys getting off the school bus. The normally very informative radio Scotland remained silent about the closure and the Janice Forsyth program just rattled on in the background.
We rejoined the A82 at Drum and took comfort that the road seemed quite busy and thought we now had a clear run home. Two miles out, near the castle, and the road was shut. I was well aware of the alternative route but a yellow jacket clad guy with a walkie talkie and very poor English started to explain the diversion. I was keen to explain how bad and misleading posting of closure had been. We had already taken a big detour pointlessly. We drove back up to Inverness, in to early rush hour traffic and headed out past Dores and onwards to WhiteBridge on the twisty road on the SE side of Loch Ness. A drive that takes about an hour and ten minutes was lengthened by an hour and a half.

I do recognise our hassles pale in to insignificance to those of anyone badly hurt. The closure was indeed an RTA with a single vehicle involved. The A82 is a very dangerous road and high volumes of traffic can lead to frustration and silly risk taking. Accidents are frequent and lengthy road closures always ensue but the reports and updates today were few and far between and I'm sure a lot of other folk were cursing.