A Welsh rugby club has been forced to hire a bus from Cardiff to collect them from Bordeaux after cancelled flights left a 46-person touring party stranded in France.
Members of Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd have been stuck in France after their return flights with EasyJet for their tour of Toulouse were cancelled, with the club saying no alternative flights have been offered. With no appropriate train services available or local buses or cars for hire, the 46-strong party has been forced to scramble around for ways to get home.
The club say their travel plans had already been disrupted due to a previous flight cancellation, leading to them rearranging to fly home from Bordeaux instead of their original destination of Toulouse - 150 miles away.
Thankfully, they have managed to find a hotel to put them up for the night at short notice due to the latest cancellation, with the Mercure in Bordeaux coming to the rescue. It would appear they have also managed to source a convoluted way home, with a Cardiff-based coach holiday company preparing to dispatch a bus to collect the players. That's a single journey of almost f800 miles, lasting around 14 hours each way without stops or breaks.
"It’s not great," Chris Jones, a player on the tour, told WalesOnline. "We flew out on Thursday to Toulouse and a few months ago EasyJet cancelled our return flight from Toulouse. We then booked a return flight from Bordeaux.
"So on Sunday morning we got the lads on a train from Toulouse to Bordeaux for our 9pm flight. The flight was then delayed on numerous occasions throughout the day to as late as 1am.
"The flight was then eventually cancelled at 6pm on Sunday, leaving us stranded in Bordeaux. We then had to call numerous hotels begging for a room to accommodate 46 boys at short notice. We haven’t been offered a return flight or alternative options.
"Train tickets aren’t available especially for such a large group and nor are there any buses for hire. We have been fortunate enough to have a good relationship with Ferris Coach Hire who have been amazing and have now arranged for a bus to come all the way to Bordeaux from Cardiff to collect us and take us home.
"The journey will take almost a day! We are hoping to be collected on Tuesday evening and back in Cardiff by Wednesday night. Most of the boys have had to take unpaid leave from work due to the circumstances - it’s truly shocking that they can leave us out here like this."
The fact that it will have been a week away from home by the time CRCC finally return home isn't ideal, both in terms of missing work and delivering the news to partners at home - with some last-gasp presents likely to be purchased on the way home.
"The boys have been great in fairness and have taken it in their stride, but clearly now want to get home to their families and jobs," added Chris. "We’ll have been away for the total of a week by the time that we get home. That wasn’t the duration on the original permission slips from the wives and girlfriends! The last of the spending money is going on red wine!"
