I have now been out of the UK for 4 months! A lot has happened in 4 months. I am such a sad git that I have now created a spreadsheet with a summary of all of the trip so far....For each country I recorded where I stayed, the weather, the distances on bike, hiking, running and car and the activities I did. It has been such a fab trip so far!
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I was up at 3 having only had about 2.5 hours sleep. As I was tired it took me a while to get my stuff together even though I had packed up most of my stuff yesterday. Left Lesley and Pete's at about 4 and biked to the airport. I had no problems finding it but was further to the airport than I thought and then I had issues at check in with the weight, at over -sized baggage drop off with a queue, at security with plastic cable ties and ended up running to the gate. My name was being called and they were saying that they were removing my luggage from the plane! Arrgggg. It was not the best way to start the trip. Turned up on the plane sweaty and hot and flustered. I was too high on adrenaline to sleep on that first flight but I thought it would be fine as I have many others. Oh well hopefully this is my last set of flights before I get to the UK.
It turned out that I am in fact only allowed 23kg with Qantas! A Qantas member of staff told me that I was allowed 32kg on my ticket type and that this is only for less than 1% of passengers. However, I was informed in Auckland that this is not the case. I have been incredibly fortunate so far as I have not had to pay any excess baggage and I am carrying so much weight on my bike. It is 32kg without my clothes, tent, books and electronic stuff. I hate to think how much weight that actually means I am carrying on my bike when I have water and food as well - probably close to 50kg. The guy at check in was smiling at me as he allowed though my bike box with 32kg and said pointedly "You do only have 7kg of hand luggage don't you?" to which I replied, while straining to pick up my bag, "Oh definitely". He very kindly did not ask me to weigh it :-) Once past the check in I could then take off some of the layers of clothes I was wearing and put them in another bag meaning that I was carting round one big pannier bag, a rucksac and my front pannier bag (my handbag equivalent). The Qantas people very kindly let me on to 4 flights with these 3 bags.... THANKYOU!.
I arrived at Brisbane at 7 am local time (3 hour flight) and then had to wait till 2pm for my next flight. I spent the time catching up on my blog, compiling statistics on my travels so far drinking lots of coffee and using my Aus sim card to phone my Aus friends.
I then got on my flight to Mumbai. I knew that the flight would stop in Singapore but I was told when I arranged my flights that it would just be to refuel. However, it turned out that it was a stop over of 4 hours. It really messed up my chance to get a decent sleep on the way from Brisbane to Mumbai. I did have some lovely sushi and some toblerone at Singapore airport though.
I arrived at Mumbai at 1am after a 5 hour flight from Singapore and then had to get through customs with my bike box and then get on an airport transfer to the domestic airport to then again check in for my flight to Kerala at 5.40am. It was strange arriving in Mumbai as I remembered what India is like - the smell (not bad - just different) and the heat even in the middle of the night. Carting a bike box and 3 bags round between 2 airports and on and off the buses, through customs and security in a foreign country, in the middle of the night having only had 5 hours sleep in the last 52 hours was not much fun. Coffee......
Blog Link to add
I was up at 3 having only had about 2.5 hours sleep. As I was tired it took me a while to get my stuff together even though I had packed up most of my stuff yesterday. Left Lesley and Pete's at about 4 and biked to the airport. I had no problems finding it but was further to the airport than I thought and then I had issues at check in with the weight, at over -sized baggage drop off with a queue, at security with plastic cable ties and ended up running to the gate. My name was being called and they were saying that they were removing my luggage from the plane! Arrgggg. It was not the best way to start the trip. Turned up on the plane sweaty and hot and flustered. I was too high on adrenaline to sleep on that first flight but I thought it would be fine as I have many others. Oh well hopefully this is my last set of flights before I get to the UK.
It turned out that I am in fact only allowed 23kg with Qantas! A Qantas member of staff told me that I was allowed 32kg on my ticket type and that this is only for less than 1% of passengers. However, I was informed in Auckland that this is not the case. I have been incredibly fortunate so far as I have not had to pay any excess baggage and I am carrying so much weight on my bike. It is 32kg without my clothes, tent, books and electronic stuff. I hate to think how much weight that actually means I am carrying on my bike when I have water and food as well - probably close to 50kg. The guy at check in was smiling at me as he allowed though my bike box with 32kg and said pointedly "You do only have 7kg of hand luggage don't you?" to which I replied, while straining to pick up my bag, "Oh definitely". He very kindly did not ask me to weigh it :-) Once past the check in I could then take off some of the layers of clothes I was wearing and put them in another bag meaning that I was carting round one big pannier bag, a rucksac and my front pannier bag (my handbag equivalent). The Qantas people very kindly let me on to 4 flights with these 3 bags.... THANKYOU!.
I arrived at Brisbane at 7 am local time (3 hour flight) and then had to wait till 2pm for my next flight. I spent the time catching up on my blog, compiling statistics on my travels so far drinking lots of coffee and using my Aus sim card to phone my Aus friends.
I then got on my flight to Mumbai. I knew that the flight would stop in Singapore but I was told when I arranged my flights that it would just be to refuel. However, it turned out that it was a stop over of 4 hours. It really messed up my chance to get a decent sleep on the way from Brisbane to Mumbai. I did have some lovely sushi and some toblerone at Singapore airport though.I arrived at Mumbai at 1am after a 5 hour flight from Singapore and then had to get through customs with my bike box and then get on an airport transfer to the domestic airport to then again check in for my flight to Kerala at 5.40am. It was strange arriving in Mumbai as I remembered what India is like - the smell (not bad - just different) and the heat even in the middle of the night. Carting a bike box and 3 bags round between 2 airports and on and off the buses, through customs and security in a foreign country, in the middle of the night having only had 5 hours sleep in the last 52 hours was not much fun. Coffee......
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