Western Morning News (Saturday)
Clare Ainsworth on Saturday It’s not so bad, to be stuck in paradise
Read Clare’s column every week in the Western Morning News
“IT could be a lot worse”. I’m not sure how many times I uttered those words when my flight home from Cyprus failed to materialise last weekend.
After all, while it was a major inconvenience, I was stuck on a paradise island and had been transferred from the airport to a rather nice seaside hotel while they tried to fix a technical problem on our plane, which was still in Exeter.
Not so much luck for the passengers who had turned up at Exeter International Airport for the outgoing flight on the same plane. They faced an eight-hour wait in a tiny airport before finally taking-off for their holiday.
By the time the plane arrived in Paphos the plane’s crew was “out of hours”, meaning it would be even longer before they could fly us home.
You might not be surprised to hear that, despite concerns about missing work, shopping deliveries, additional parking fees and unfed cats, most of my fellow passengers were extremely stoical about the situation. Even those with young children were very patient and polite to the staff from the holiday company.
Yet there was a huge cheer from the Westcountry crowd at Paphos Airport when our flight to Exeter was finally called, more than 24 hours late.
It’s a simple truth that while we all love going away, we are also aware that the time must come when the holiday will end. We prepare ourselves and we start looking forward to “home sweet home”, seeing our families and being reunited with pets.
So when plans go awry we all start to feel a little anxious, however well we are being looked after.
Meanwhile this week, thousands of other passengers saw flights delayed due to the threat of a strike by French Air Traffic Control (ATC) staff. Those affected were not only the flights to and from France, but hundreds of other flights passing over French airspace. Ironically, the strike was called off but the airlines did not have time to bring back the flights.
As someone who suffers from
holiday flight guilt, considering the urgent need for us all to reduce our carbon footprint, all this has left me wondering if I’ve been given a very gentle wake-up call.
Our desire for cheap flights to gobble up thousands of miles on gasguzzling aircraft is not only bad for the planet but is also becoming increasingly unreliable.
It’s a simple fact that, for most of us, a package holiday to the sun is cheaper than a week in rainy Devon or Cornwall.
But is it actually cheaper than using greener transport to go abroad, whether that’s taking the ferry to Roscoff and driving on, or using trains to complete the journey?
Many will instantly argue that ferries and trains take way too long to reach their destinations.
Yet the journey is part of the holiday experience. So much more can be seen and enjoyed en-route than can be seen out of the tiny cabin window of a plane.
Two years ago I travelled across Spain by train and am still excited by the sights, sounds and scents of the different cities I visited.
And last year I took my bike on the ferry to Roscoff and pedalled around beautiful Brittany, fuelled by baguettes and wine.
But the best holiday I have ever had, required no transport whatsoever – just a backpack and a pair of walking boots.
I set out on foot and walked from one coast of Britain to the other, a total of around 220 miles. It was the holiday of a lifetime.
It was 14 days of blissful escape from daily life, no TV or internet and being reminded how beautiful and welcoming our country is.
And there were no delays to the itinerary – save for a couple of extended stops at particularly nice pubs along the route.
‘When plans go awry we all start to feel a little anxious, however well we are looked after’