It was always going to be a big day, we needed to get driven by Mary and Norm from Busselton to Bunbury at 4:45am to catch the 6:00am train to Perth then ride to the airport and to then board the 3:30pm flight to London (via Singapore). The night before we watched the Perth news and watched in amazment at the big storms which knocked out the power to over 100,000 homes, all very exciting to watch from Busso.
We said our very sad goodbyes to Mary and Norm and we cant thanks them enough for the great time we had in Busso. And big thank you to Andrew and Kerry for the loan of their house (we replaced the Bombay). Sandy and I were sitting in our seats while we waited for the train to leave and Sandy remembered that we didnt have our camera. (If you've been reading this blog you will remember that we just bought it). Then as they called 'All aboard!!!' Sandy remembered we had put it in the console of Mary's car so she dashed off the train with Norm in tow to fetch the camera. Panting and with the conductor holding the train for her she plopped back into her seat. We had such a laugh at how close that was.
Let me return to the storms the night before; As it turned out the electricity that was cut powered the signals that controlled the train we were to catch and the power was not fixed until we had sat on the train in the middle of nowhere for an hour and a half. This cycle touring is exciting stuff!.
What we looked at for two hours :)
So an hour and a half late into Perth, Sandy and I had to turn our leisurly ride to the airport via a nice coffee shop into a bit of a race. Shortened time frame combined with, huge headwinds (left over from the storm), we had a very tough 17km ride. We got to the airport in time but had not eaten anything since we boarded the train and that single scone had run it's course so we were both a bit wobbly while we disassembled the bikes to put them in boxes. It was great to get into the Qantas Lounge and have a shower after checking in. We then ate and had a small G&T to calm the nerves from the stressful morning. As it turned out we had plenty of time as our flight was delayed by an hour :)
At checkin the lovely lady noticed that we had pre-purchsed our excess baggage and that I had made a bit of a booboo by buying 10kg for each of us rather than just 10kg. The lovely lady then gives us exit row seats for the whole trip to London. Doesnt that sound great? You actually pay extra to get the exit row seats nowdays. I will try and describe an exit row seat. The exit rows on the A330 are over the wing (and therefore engines), beside the toilets and therefore the bulkhead that they use for the baby cots. You also dont have a seat pocket in front of you to store your stuff. So imagine, and you may need to close your eyes for this, the middle row is full of young babies (I am not kidding), people going to the toilet every 30 seconds must stand on your feet while they wait and you cant hear the movies because of the engine noise. I tell you all this so that if ever you get the urge to ask for, nevermind pay for, an exit row seat.....DONT!!!
The leg to from Singapore to London (Kerry and Andrew we said hello as we flew over your place) was not much better. The 747 had almost the same layout with exactly the same number of babies.
Fast forward to what felt like an eternity to our arrival at Heathrow. It was pretty chilly when we arrived with a slight drizzle so the hour we waited outside for our taxi was a bit frosty. We decided that we would catch a taxi/van to the B&B we had booked and after two attempts we got one that could take our bikes and got to our little room for the next fews days. Had to have a bit of a sleep and then we headed into Ealing to buy some things we needed. I, having never been to the UK before, was, and still am, in awe of the beautiful buildings, bridges, etc and I'm pretty sure we are not in a particularly special part of London. Bought some tea bags and some yummy biscuits and put the bikes together as we brought them boxed from Heathrow. The day turned out to be lovely and it warmed up so that I didnt need my 58 layers of clothes.
Afterwards we went out and I had my first English pint in an English pub that was built before Capt. Cook sailed to Australia....very cool.
2 comments:
Welcome to the UK!!!! This isn't cold, this is hot compared to a few weeks ago! Hope you enjoy your stay, I look forward to reading more of your tales.
A great read. Keep up the blogging.
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