Rescue

I didnt need rescued yesterday, but I did today.

I left Inverness about 1.30 and took the same road back to Fort Augustus as the one that had been flooded yesterday.  I had checked and the floods had abated but there was quite a lot of road debris and about half a mile from the village of Whitebridge I hit two potholes, one of which shredded a tyre.

I immediately got a red message on the Tesla screen as the air gushed out  but I manged to find an inshot by a farm gate and came to a halt there.

Tesla is meant to be famed for its customer service and support , particularly when there is a breakdown.   But viewers in the Highlands, as they say, look away now.   

I sat for almost two and a half hours as I waited for Tesla to tell me what they were going to do.,   A very nice lady on a switchboard in Maidenhead had promised me all sorts of things  (including being saved by a Tesla Ranger!) when I first got in touch though the Tesla App (more sophistication that proved hollow)  but eventually rang to say there was actually nothing they could do because I was miles from anywhere , but if could find a garage they would pay for a tow, , but not for any more than 50 miles.     Then to add insult to injury I got a message on the app telling me that they had made an appointment for me to get the tyre changed , but at the Aberdeen Tesla Centre on Friday.  Scottish logistics, not to say geography. had clearly bamboozled them.     

The fact remained however that I was around 50 miles from  Fort William, and over 150 from  home.  I couldn't move the car, there was nothing around me in terms of facilities and there were light snow showers sweeping across.   it was also by this time getting dark and even colder.  My extra picture gives the atmosphere  .   

Tesale were immovable but fortunately the AA weren't.   I had suspended - but not cancelled - my membership because of my so called :"first class" Tesla support but they re-instated it quickly and within ten minutes I had received a message saying that the West End Garage in Fort Augustus would be coming to pick me and the car up.

They rang shortly afterwards , said they hoped to be able to change the tyre if there was no damage to the wheel  (there was no spare of course, it being TESLA who are meant to do everything and indeed give dire warnings if you use anybody else that might damage the car) and that they were getting one from Inverness.  This would take time but they would get to me as soon as they could.   They were clearly  extremely busy having been  constantly picking up people with damaged or flooded vehicles for the past 24 hours or more.   

It was more than another two hours before the rescue truck hove into view, but the car was quickly hoisted onto it (my picture shows it about to happen) and I sat in a nice warm cab as we went to the garage.   There I had coffee made for me and , fortunately, their fear of possible damage to the wheel did not materialise.   So I was on my way just over an hour after being picked up.

The excitements weren't over however.  

I narrowly avoided a group of deer just after Kingshouse  when they appeared out of the moorland dark determined to cross the road, and as the temperature fell, black ice started to form.  In places, like Tyndrum, it had frozen, broken and refrozen and bits were blowing when cars passed.  There was a rather spectacular car smashed into a tree near Crainlarich which concentrated the mind wonderfully.

The surface was very slippy and by Loch Lomond side there was also  a huge amount of surface water coming off the hills, and freezing in places.   To cap it all the Rest and be Thankful was closed with convoys going along the Old Military Road.

It was well after midnight when I got home.   But at least I got home, no thanks at all to Tesla but very much thanks to the West End Garage, Fort William, and those who work there.