Britain’s toughest commute
Sick of working from home? At least you don’t have this carer’s 4hr trip ...by foot, rowboat and car (with a 5.45am start)!
MOST commuters are familiar with the daily challenges of traffic jams, delayed trains and overcrowded buses.
But one island dweller has taken the effort involved in getting to work to a whole new level.
The four-hour round trip for care worker vanessa rochester, 32, starts with a 30minute hike, followed by a treacherous crossing in a rowing boat, then a drive.
mrs rochester and her family are the sole occupants of eilean Shona – an island in Loch moidart, Inverness-shire, cut off from the mainland by a tidal channel.
But she doesn’t let that stop her getting to the elderly residents she cares for at an NHS home near fort William – no matter what the weather.
after kissing goodbye her husband Jeff, 48, and their one-year-old son Duke, she begins her twice-weekly journey with a one-and-a-half mile trek across the private
‘It means I get to see other people’
island. at the water’s edge, she clambers into an 8ft plastic boat and single-handedly braves the often-dangerous current.
The 1,000ft (300metre) crossing can take five minutes on a calm day and five times as long in a storm. On reaching her car on the other side, she has a 90-minute drive.
Her worst commute to date saw her blown so dramatically off course she ended up back on the island, where she abandoned her boat and scrambled up a cliff and through a bog to safety.
mr rochester, the island’s caretaker, had to strap Duke on his back and head out with a torch so she could work out her location.
But she still made it to work, taking their leaking back-up boat which is just about usable ‘if you row quick enough’.
a mix of day and night shifts means she often travels in the dark and can be up at 5.45am to start her journey of more than two hours each way in all weathers.
However, mrs rochester insists it’s worth it for a job she loves.
She said: ‘I love working with elderly people and it’s a really good team that I work with, plus it means I get to see other people, which otherwise doesn’t happen much.
‘When we first talked about moving here I wasn’t really sure, but after I visited I eased into life here really quickly.
‘It was a lovely sunny day at the end of spring and everything was bursting with life.
‘The waters were green and the sun was out so it was just magical. It doesn’t look like that at the moment though!’
eilean Shona is a large tidal island owned by richard Branson’s sister, also called vanessa, which mr rochester manages.
The family moved into their 17th-century caretakers’ cottage in July 2016.
mrs rochester started work at the mainland care home a few months later.