Day 76 - Slow Going

cheater

Somewhat counter-intuitively, travelling these days seems to take forever. 

I thought that the cheetah on the side of this gangway implied speedy travel.  But no, it seems that it actually means spending most of the day sitting around doing nothing, in true big cat style.

We left home at around 11.45am this morning..

Travelled for 30 minutes by car to Birmingham Airport...
2 hours 20 minutes on the plane to Alicante Airport...
and 50 minutes or so by car to Cabo Roig, just south of Torrevieja.

That's around 3 hours and 40 minutes travel time.

So how come it's now around 21.45hrs, and we've only just got here?!

Ok, so we've added +1hrs to the timezone, and we stopped at the supermercado on the way back to the apartment.  

But we spent a lot of time waiting...

The flight was delayed by 30 minutes, so we had to sit in Costa Coffee for 90 minutes or so, then wait another 20 minutes or so at the gate.  Of course, once on the plane you have to wait around for a bit whilst everyone gets seated and the plane queues for a take off slot.   

The flight was much shorter than scheduled, as we had a strong tail wind, so despite leaving very late, we arrived on time.

Then of course we had to wait for 20 minutes for luggage to arrive on the carousel, then stand around for another 40 minutes or so waiting to pick up our hire car...by this time, the waiting seemed endless, and we were tired and fairly worn.

It was light, sunny and 21C when we landed at 6pm, and as we stood in line for the car, we could see the hills bathed in a warm glow of sunlight.  I was really hoping for a sunny drive down to Cabo Roig.

The journey passes the salt lakes, which are always well attended by flamingoes and other water birds, so I'd planned to stop and get some pictures on the way.  There are also hills and mountains across the way that may have made for some nice landscape shots.

But instead we stood in a queue for a car, and watched the light fade, until by the time we got our car and got out of the airport, it was fully dark.

So rather than a beautiful vista, or an elegant waterfowl, you've got this picture of a cheap and cheerful charter plane.

Lucky you! 

Anyway, brace yourselves, as we're now in climbing country!  Adventures await, and tomorrow we will be off to break new ground (and hopefully no arms, legs or bolts) sport climbing outdoors for the first time...or perhaps I should say, escalada desportiva al aire libre!

Ay caramba!

Bring it on!

B-)