The chaos which has accompanied the shutdown of UK airports has left two members of one family stranded in very different parts of the world.
Niall Duncan and his fiancee Ruth Ewing, of Tayport, have found themselves trapped in Lanzarote until at least Thursday, while Ruth’s brother Mark is stuck much closer to home because he unable to leave his “babysitting” duties.
Mark, a former journalist who now works with the Scottish Parliament, was called in for pet sitting duty for the couple’s chickens and cat to allow them to join friends on holiday in the Canaries and celebrate their engagement.
Mark said that with the pair stuck hundreds of miles away, he is now unable even to make the short trip back home from Tayport to Edinburgh because there is no one else to tend to the animals.
“I have been happily looking after everything, but there’s no guarantee over when they will be able to fly home” he said.
The Courier managed to track down the couple in Lanzarote, and Niall said that the six-strong holiday party had been very lucky as the villa they are staying in is free until Tuesday.
“I called the owners and they have very kindly allowed us stay on until the next people arrive. We’ve also managed to track down other accommodation in another part of the island for later in the week, when we hope to fly home.”
“At the moment the next available flight to our departure airport of Liverpool is on Thursday, and EasyJet has managed to get us transferred on to it.
“When we arrived at the airport to arrange things there was chaos with so many people trying to find out when and how they could get home.
“By the time we left the queue was at least six hours long, and many people would have been struggling to get any flight at all.
“We are also hearing that the situation with the ash cloud might get worse, and we will have think about other ways to get back.
“One route might even involve ferries from Lanzarote to Tenerife then Spain, followed by on overland trip to Dover or Calais, or possibly even to Bilbao, where there is another ferry port”
Niall, who is originally from Dalguise, said he had only just started a new job working with Ladbrokes in Dundee, and everyone had been very understanding.
“I can think of worse places to be stuck, but the whole situation is very uncertain and I really need to get back to take part in training courses at work.
“As far as the animals go we’ll have to make other arrangements if Mark has to get back home to Edinburgh,” he said.
“I’ll be calling my brother in Burntisland to see if he can take over. At least he’ll get some free eggs.”