Trapped!

I walked up to the Falkirk Wheel tonight cos I had an hour to kill before an evening meeting in Bonnybridge. I've never been to the wheel before so finding my way round in the pitch black wasn't easy. I eventually got to the viewpoint I've seen so impressively lit up in multi-colur in so many postcard pics. It was completely unlit tonight, but I squeezed this shot out of it.

With 30 minutes left to walk back to the car and drive 10 minutes up the road I was cutting it fine, and met someone I know with a crowd of orienteers on the way down the hill, so stopped for a quick chat. When I got to the canal though, the bridge was gone - it was a swingbridge that had been pulled in and locked for the night.

..So there I was, trapped on the wrong side of the canal - my car in the car park on the other side and my meeting starting in 20 minutes. After checking the map-app on my phone and walking along the muddy track by the canal (dead end!) I realised a 3 mile detour was probably the quickest way back to the car. I sent my apologies by email hoping it would be picked up and walked forlornly back towards the Wheel.

Then .. from nowhere, the security man appeared and kindly swang the bridge over for me. I made my meeting a few minutes late, snuck into the audience, and listened to my apologies being announced by the Convener of the Planning Committee who was quite amused to look up and see me gesturing from the audience that I was there. As it happened, I wasn't asked any questions at the meeting, so no-one would have noticed if I hadn't gone...