Saturday, March 20, 2010

Dr Livingstone, I Presume?




We are now in Ambleside, in the English Lake District. I think I prefer the idea of walking 2,000 kms in 10 weeks to that of flying 20,000 kms in such a short space of time, especially last night's 14-hour flight, which started when we were already well past bedtime.

We had a very pleasant surprise at Singapore Changi Airport. As we were waiting to board our flight, a smiling man came up to us and spoke our names. It was William Brambell, with whom we always make our travel arrangements at his excellent company, Trailfinders.

William claimed they had been on holiday in Australia but we recognise this for what it is - outstandingly wonderful customer service - to travel all the way to Singapore just to make sure that we got home safely.

It was very nice to spend a little time with William and his wife, Karen. He is always unfailingly polite, helpful and cheerful. We can now confirm that he is still the same after such a long flight, because we saw him again at the Manchester end.

This breaks our duck. Some people we know never go anywhere without meeting somebody they know, but normally we travel all over the world without bumping into a soul.

As you can imagine, not much walking has been done in the past 24 hours, but I have, here in Ambleside, equipped myself with a pair of Leki walking poles, which I have a feeling may come in handy on those up and down tracks in France which, after such a wet winter, may still be slippy and muddy in May.

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