Ashes to Ashes
Since we first heard news of the volcanic ash cloud last Thursday, it has been a period of growing uncertainty, punctuated of course by bright sunny days and a lazy pool.
Initially, we were sceptical that it would really affect us, quietly confident that Sky News, as it has a tendency to do, was merely embellishing the situation and that it would all be over by the time we were due to fly home from Lanzarote on Sunday.
Sadly not, and as it dawned on us late Saturday night that our flight would indeed be cancelled and that we were facing a significant delay, we began to scrabble around the internet, looking for alternatives and better answers. Forty-five minutes on hold without reply and a few fruitless emails set the tone.
What we quickly came to realise is that neither our airline, Easyjet, nor any other carrier had anything slightly resembling a contingency plan for such events and, while I accept that a volcanic eruption in Iceland is hardly run-of-the-mill, it should still feature as one of the hundreds of eventualities for which airlines must have some strategy in place to help their fee-paying passengers.
Ok, so I'm beginning to rant, but surely that's the cathartic idea of a blog? No? Fair enough, then I'll try to continue without resorting to cursing, but it will be difficult.
To bring you up to date, it's now Monday afternoon and we've still heard zip from anyone except a blathering volcano geek on Sky News. I did see earlier today, however, that Jet2 passengers can now book special ferry and bus rescue packages back to Leeds. Not a great solution, but a solution all the same and at least some nod to customers that it actually gives a damn.
Gordon Brown has also sent creepy Peter Mandelson out into Downing Street with a few other party plebs to announce that the Royal Navy will be dispatched to gather people from Calais. The futility and short-sightedness of such a plan simply beggars belief.
'Rescuing' people from northern France is not a problem, P&O are doing it every two hours. Plus, the majority of those at Calais have got there through their own initiative, so I'd guess that navigating a 30-mile stretch of well-serviced water will provide little obstacle expect for a few hours queuing.
The real plight is of those stuck on islands and countries further afield. For us, hiring cars, riding trains and boarding buses is not possible - the only way is to pay for a £500 flight to Madrid and hope to find a route north and while Mr P is a very reasonable employer, few of us can afford that kind of outlay on top of a holiday price.
Despairing a little, we've now booked cheaper flights to Madrid for Friday, on the basis that the worst will be over by the weekend, either way. As I type, reports are suggesting that parts of UK airspace will reopen tomorrow but this may be a false dawn for many, given the EU's 'no-fly zone' still occupies much of southern Britain, Germany and France, thus barring any southern Europe flights for the time being.
We will, of course, plough on gamely and the beautiful tapas on offer at Repikada should offer something of a placebo to our efforts as we await further updates.
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