**AN ARCTIC ADVENTURE **
** CHAPTER THREE **
** GETTING TO THE START **
On the day of the "off", I was wished "Bon Voyage" by Annie
Courtenage (who
founded and runs Annie's Country & Western Club in Malvern, as
well as Brenda
who runs her own very useful and friendly `Alterations' shop near
home. The latter
provides what I deem a very useful facility for a bachelor with
decreasing visual
acuity (i.e my eyes are getting worse!!).
The taxicab from `DG Cabs' arrived at the appointed time and
sped me to the Malvern
Link Station, with much bemusement that I had got a return ticket
from Malvern Link to the
North Pole !!
A gloomy low-clouded sky accompanied me during my short wait
in the `Waiting
Room' (that's what BR calls its portacabin on the up-line
platform!) at Malvern Link Station.
The InterCity Express sped me even more quickly and smoothly
to Paddington British
Rail station in London. Calm, almost still, waters ran below the
Severn Bridge at Worcester.
Distant mists gave a typical November `Air' to the scene. British
Rail's `standard'
accommodation was remarkably comfortable and clean. It was eerie
with its high-tech
automatic doors (which appeared to have minds of their own -
unless that was in eagerness to
anticipate each passenger's move). The ticket inspector
incorrectly punched my ticket and
apologised. I'm sure that it was because of the non-standard
format of the NSR ticket
(anyhow, on the subsequent return trip it was deemed as OK!).
The case-humping phase was now about to begin as I lugged
the overpacked cases
from Paddington Station to the Tregaron Hotel on Norfolk Square.
The hands and heart
survived that, but after checking-in I found myself on the
long-haul up to the third floor, to a
room that I had often used whilst on official business. Recovery
time was remarkably quick -
as I settled into the room which was actually in the Ashley
Hotel. Several years ago, the
management had acquired three adjoining Hotels, - the Tregaron,
Ashley & Oasis!!
As usual in the UK, the room was over-heated and I was
obliged to turn the heating
OFF in order to survive. I then had a comfortable, leisurely
evening in that room, - the usual
No 8, consuming a collection of sandwiches that I had packed in
Malvern. Later on, I visited
a new (for me) restaurant called the "Chef's Hat" in Praed Street
rather than my more normal
"Mickey's Fish Bar" which I had used for decades. That meal,
based around a Cheeseburger,
was well received by my constitution!
Back in the Hotel, I mixed pleasures between the TV, the
radio and the self-help
"Coffee facilities". Being of a musical disposition, I enjoyed
the `Radio 2' offerings of Folk
Dancing (complete with a `caller' on Radio!!), a feature on Ewan
McColl, his music and
songs PLUS a Nana Mouskouri programme.
Having retired to the bed at 9.30pm (to build up reserves of
energy for the coming
fortnight) I was
prevented from rest
and relaxation by
some noisy young
men and old boys
with their fireworks.
Being already 3rd
November, I
suppose it was
understandable - but
most nights in Norfolk Square present the weary traveller and
workaholic with inconsiderate
noisy people.
These firework explosions ricochetted around the canyons of
the Paddington area with
a similar effect to what they would have had in a closed
cave-system. Worse than that, some
peoples' Car Alarms had their sensitivity set at an unfortunate
level causing close-proximity
fireworks to set them wailing into the night. It was at that
point that I thought " If the rest of
the fortnight is as eventful as this, I had better take notes for
a possible short story that I
could write." The structure of this book was given its first
thoughts.
Eventually, I dosed off, until a noisy morning arrived. Dark
as well !! Putting the light
on to check the `time' proved that it was still only 12.29 a.m..
Noisy voices in adjacent rooms
were also an inconsiderate distraction. However, both inside and
outside the Hotel quietened
down by about 2 a.m. and the well-awaited sleep was obtained
after 4 a.m.! I re-awoke at 6
a.m.. Being the day that my expedition starts, it seemed not too
inappropriate to get up for a
brief trip to the toilet - and then I returned for my real
relaxation until 6.50 a.m..
Much more excited now, I hump my now-packed case from my
room on the 3rd floor,
down the narrow stairs to the 2nd floor - and thence via a more
civilised stair-width to the
Ground Floor. Nice to get that job out of the way before
breakfast !!
The hotel served it's normal English Breakfast ( quite
appropriate for a Welsh
management and Thai girl waitresses !). I polished off some bread
and jam for some
sustenance to enable me to keep going until my`New World'.
I left the hotel at 7.50am and lugged the case ( and cabin
baggage) to the Circle line
station at Paddington. From there, I went for a few stations
until a
change was necessary at
Gloucester Road to obtain the Piccadilly Line to Heathrow. That's
where the first problem
was! A Tannoy message explained the fact that there was a
Security Alert at KingsCross, that
there would be obvious delays and some re-routings would be
necessary. Furthermore, there
are also signal-problems on the District Line - and personal
re-routings were also
recommended there.
However, I arrived safe-and-sound , and in time, at the
"Heathrow 1,2,3" station which
I required for Terminal 3. The next thing to sort out were the
multiple entrances to the
Terminal Building - I required an entrance for the Scandinavian
Airlines. That was easy finding,
but a very long walk - especially with that luggage!! Having got
in, I found an empty check-
in desk (about desk-number 6 or 7) and checked-in at 9.20am. The
case checked in at 16
Kilogrammes! I received my `Boarding Pass', showing my passport
for the first of many
times. The desk also wanted a few simple questions answered.
I waited in the main Departure Lounge and watched all the
displays. My flight (SK
516) didn't yet have a `gate' assigned to it - so I made use of
the pre-flight toilets! On
studying the `boarding pass' whilst waiting , I saw that I have
indeed got a seat in the Non-
smoking area - specifically, number 22C (a gang-way seat). I took
my second Stugeron (to
counter any motion-sickness tendencies) at 9.48am and awaited
further developments with
interest.
An announcement declared that any unattended luggage would
be removed and
DESTROYED. Seems a sensible warning - so I hung onto mine with
close affection!
At 9.58am, the Flight Information Board displayed:
SK 516 1040 GATE OPEN 53
which indicated the start of another walk to Gate 53. It was a
long walk of progressively
tighter filtering until gate `53' was reached. That was at
10.14am.
There were no extending fingers to plug the building into the
SK516 aircraft and thereby ease
our passage. What they cunningly arranged, purely for our
exercise, was to walk downstairs
to catch a bus which would take us to the `plane! That's
progress?!
At 10.24am, about three dozen of us boarded the bus which
moved off at 10.31am and
took us to the patiently waiting aircraft named Rollo Viking. It
is a type which I haven't seen
before but which reminds me of a BAC111 or a Caravelle. No
external markings are giving
any clues!!
I got seated in a surprisingly comfortable position devoid
of tobacco smoke ready to
enjoy our trip - which was NOT direct to Bergen but via
Stavanger. The announcement
confirmed this - saying that Stavanger is one and a half hours
away.
The mystery aircraft, belonging to the SAS (Scandinavian
Airlines - not what you're
thinking!), lumbered down the runway and, after 32 seconds, it
`rotated' at 11.05am for the
take-off for Norway. It climbed steeply until it got above the
clouds, displaying the first sight
of the sun that I'd had in days! Once at a steady altitude, lunch
was served - this being a very
attractive salad based on Salmon and Chicken. The sweet-course
turned out to be a nutty
chocolate mousse! Delicious!! I got my delivery of the
Independent newspaper to pass away
the time above the clouds. A crew member identified the aircraft
as an MD82 (i.e it is made
by McDonnell Douglas).
I saw my first Norwegian islands at 13.13hrs on our approach
to Stavanger ( Norway
adheres uniformly to the 24hr clock - lucky to say!).
We had,
naturally changed from GMT
by adding an hour during the flight. The initial surprise with
this scene was that it wasn't
snowy at all. It was a green and pleasant land, the number of
waterways and islands making
it a stunning panorama. Touchdown was at 13.34hrs - this being
very shortly followed by
great armfuls of reverse thrust to decelerate us effectively
before the very long taxying phase
to the Terminal.
After a brief interchange of passengers at the airport, we
toddled out to the runway,
accelerated for 28 seconds and then `took off' at 14.04 hrs. The
short leg to Bergen carried us
over many beautiful islands and we reached there in the pouring
rain. Bags of reverse thrust
brought us again to the start of a long taxying phase.
Because of the increases in walk-lengths at airports
nowadays, I decided , this time, to
get a trolley for my luggage. They certainly have better handling
characteristics than the
average UK Supermarket trolley!! The next thing was to find the
`bus' to transport us to
Bergen as planned. Several walks around the exterior to the
terminal revealed no bus with the
NSR marking. I thus returned to its interior , later being in
close proximity to a genial guy
with a PETERS card, which he showed me, held close to his
chest.
My face lit up with `thanks' and I gave him a " thumbs up "
sign to indicate that we
are the people looking for each other. He led me to his mini-bus
in which I was the only
passenger from the Airport to the Quay where the boat departs
from. The mini-bus journey
started a little later than its scheduled 14.45 hrs and was a
beautiful trip with a rocky-inlet
landscape, fjords, mountains on its 12 mile run. The first
Norwegian that I was to have
conversation with in his own Country certainly speaks English!
Return to Arctic Adventure title page
for next selection.
or Go To Chapter 4 .
EMail (?) to:
Roy's Location.
This page's reformat dated 2 November 1998 - and later editted on
28 Nov 98 through to 19 March 2005