July 30, 2013
London
The long trip from Brisbane to London went surprisingly easily. The leg to Dubai is 14 hours and we did something we don’t usually do, we each took a sleeping pill which ensured a reasonable sleep. Three hours on the ground at Dubai drinking what seemed to be the most expensive coffee in the world then back on the plane for another 7 hours. It is certainly good to have that behind us.
One of the most stressful things in a bike trip is waiting for the bikes to come out with the luggage. With a good imagination it is possible to imagine all sorts of horrors but they arrived ,one of the boxes looking decidedly second hand. Gatwick is a great place to put bikes together. Just near the belts where the luggage arrived was a quiet corner well out of the way of the milling crowds. We set up our bike shop building a fence around it with our trolleys and boxes. Then to work. Initial panic when we unpacked my bike, we couldn’t find the steering stem, now that was going to be a problem! However we eventually found it tapped to the pedals. The bikes went together with as much ease as you can expect when the ‘bike mechanics’ have just come off a long flight. We repacked our panniers then pushed the loaded bikes through customs, found the shuttle to the South Terminal, were directed to the lifts which took us down to the bike track. People had been particularly helpful up to this stage but then things deteriorated as when we asked some men in Hi Viz gear which direction to Crawley they stopped talking long enough to say ”Havent a clue”. Naturally we went in the wrong direction, the path got worse and worse and eventually we could no longer push through the brambles beside the busy road We must be going in the wrong direction. Back we went and found a lovely lady just coming to work, who gave us detailed directions and off we set on the correct path. It was a pretty easy ride and we actually managed to find our hotel fairly easy even though the ride which should have been 6km turned out to be 15km. It is not the usual sort of place we stay in, it is a huge international hotel but really very suitable at the moment as it is very comfortable and has plenty of space for all our reorganization.
Tuesday was meant to be spent going up to London to generally wander around and to meet up with Joe and Georgina for lunch. Unfortuately it is not to be. On the way over Ken lost a massive filling in one of his teeth and the razor sharp edge is playing havoc with his tongue, so the day needs to be spent in Crawley on the great ‘dentist hunt’. Last night after approaching random people in the street we found a nearby dentist so this morning we were on his doorstep when he opened at 8.00am. Luckily Ken has an appointment at 2.30pm and then he should be able to eat again.
What do you do on a miserable wet day in Crawley besides hunt out dentists. We walked the shops, had a coffee and I had a delicious toasted teacake. We found a great outdoor shop having a sale a bought ourselves a T shirt each. The way out of Crawley to Brighton will I think be a challenge so we spent a couple of hours finding and walking the route which will be a help in the morning. Now soaking wet we are back in the hotel waiting for 2.30.
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