January holiday is snow joke ...

This is not so much a grumble at the weather but about a gross miscalculation of the effect adverse weather can have on the deliriously unprepared.

A group of girlfriends and I decided to book a country retreat to help us fight the bleary January blues.

The weekend rolled around and as we woke on Friday to severe weather warnings across Scotland, it seemed the pre-planning had negated to include the precarious Scottish winter.

A well dissipated group, travel was attempted from all parts of the UK. Those flying from London trundled across the city’s tube network, sweaty in ski jackets, in the hope that the winds would hold off long enough to deliver them safely to Scotland.

Cars were packed in Glasgow and abandoned in Edinburgh (bridge closure...) as eight girls and a baby, laden with Prosecco and board games, wound our way to Glenfarg.

Ensue a night of regressing to our younger years. We ate, drank, laughed, reminisced and planned our lazy Saturday.

Notably, at no point had we considered the weather as a factor in future activities, nor our escape route home.

The childlike excitement of opening the curtains to see a blanket...nay several blankets, of snow covering the landscape was lost on us.

How would we get home? The cottage was five miles up a single track, steep, winding, all-but abandoned Z-road. And not one of us had snow chains, tow ropes or any significant winter driving precautions.

All I will say is we all made it albeit after enduring a 45 minute convoy of nervous chaos and we have all learnt a valuable lesson – to holiday abroad in January.