G & J away from home

Friday, 3 June 2016

Early start this morning (which seems so long ago it's hard to believe it's the same day) as we had to be downstairs 6am to catch the shuttle bus to Hong Kong airport.  We were a bit bleary-eyed to start with but by the time we were checking in Beth's big smile was back in evidence and her passport was at the ready.

Beth and Marianne checking in

We hadn't been able to choose our seats for this flight and were in a small cabin area - the first of the economy sections.  It was an odd spot and I found it quite noisy so close to the toilets but Marianne had a spot where she could stand behind her seat (last row in the cabin) which she found quite useful and a number of times I caught sight of her standing there with her e-reader propped up on the top of her seat.

Beth and Marianne (still smiling)

The copilot said our flight time was only 11 hours (our tickets said 13) but the arrival time didn't change so we're none the wiser as to what was going on.  I don't think any of us stayed awake the whole time and after 11 hours (or 13) we had lost interest in getting to the bottom of the confusion.

Arriving at Heathrow the queue for immigration was quite moderate but soon built up behind us - something that (perhaps regrettably) always seems to make the queuing a little more cheerful.  Gary and I had to recite our whole itinerary to the immigration officer and change our 'contact' to the address of the B&B we would stay at on our first night in the UK - honestly, if they had wanted that they could have written that on the form and we then would have given them the right information. Meanwhile Beth was delightedly telling their immigration officer the whole exciting story our plans and reasons for travelling.  Apparently there wasn't much need (or opportunity) for the immigration officer to ask questions!


There were no problems picking up the rental car (hmm, did I say that last year?) and soon we were under instruction from Mr GPS and heading south through the English countryside toward Rye Harbour and the Old Vicarage B&B (formerly the childhood home of author Monica Edwards).  The journey was not without some difficulties as the traffic was pretty heavy - almost at a standstill outside Tonbridge so we decided to stop for something to eat.

Stopping for a meal

And again, still smiling!

The meal was excellent (though the ginger beer was a bit spicy and tried to choke Gary) and the reduction in the traffic when we left was great relief.  We made it to Rye Harbour without any more complications and were welcomed by Simon and Tracey who asked up where we'd come from ...

New Zealand?  Oh - today?  From Hong Kong.

It seemed like a strange place to have finished our long days journey but it is really the start of our book pilgrimage.

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