In Between Stays Part II

Anna and I have discovered a way to avoid jet lag from an overnight flight. When you arrive at your destination head straight to bed for 2-4 hrs making sure you are up for the next appropriate meal. Then be sure to stay up until a reasonable going-to-bed hour that night.  This simple procedure has been used to successfully avoid jet lag on four occasions!

We arrived at Heathrow Airport, London at 7 am. We disembarked and immediately found a seat to tuck into our in-flight breakfast snack (handed out at 4 am), which we had stashed away to provide sustenance at a more proper hour. After collecting our belongings and declaring the 30 mL half empty bottle of gin we sneaked off the plane, we caught a bus to Southall. As part of the unofficial 'A Rocha world tour' we decided to stay at A Rocha UK for the few days we were in London. Once we had arrived, we carried out our aforementioned, soon to be patented, jet lag avoidance procedure with great success.

I am starting to suspect that all A Rochas are very similar. No matter what country, it seems that if you stay with them for as a little as a day you begin to feel like you are right at home with some more of your extended family. It was great to meet volunteers from Czech Republic, Slovakia, France...as well as the excellent staff, especially Kailean and Kim Khongsia (centre coordinators originally from India) who were wonderful hosts making sure we felt at home at the centre. We also were able to catch up with Sarah Leedham whom we had meet back in Canada on a trip to Manning Park. Southall is a lively place with over 55% of the population being Indian/Pakistani and only 10% being white British. We went out for a curry, walked through Minet Country Park (the park that A Rocha UK transformed) and ate a cup of corn from a street vendor. Unfortunately we stayed at A Rocha UK over the weekend, when everything was quiet and just missed out on the big volunteer BBQ by one night.

One of the highlights of our stay was going to church with Kailean and Kim and being invited around with them to Elizabeth's place for lunch. Not only did we get a tasty Sunday roast, we were treated to the hilarious banter of Eileen, a retired missionary to India.  

The Rosetta Stone and standing like an Egyptian

During our stay, we checked out a lot of the museums and galleries in the London (they're free!!!). The British Museum was a highlight yet again, with all the ancient artifacts (including the Rosetta Stone) that were pilfered whilst Britain was still an empire. We splashed out on visiting the Tower of London (with a 2For1 voucher) and both volunteered to help fire the catapult. Somehow the girls were the only team to get one of the water balloons going forward. So I guess the girls won because we had too much power!?

Big Ben

From London we headed due west to Bristol to visit my former PhD labmate Emma (and Brendan) who is postdocing at the University of Bath. Emma took us for a walking tour of Bristol that included a visit of John Wesley's first chapel. The chapel was a treasure trove of Wesleyan relics (including a lock of his hair) alongside interesting information about his life and the Methodists (initially a derogatory name - just like Christians). We also made jam from wild blackberriess growing in a bingo carpark.

Emma making blackberry jam

Northward we rode to Liverpool. Though the Beatles are the usual draw card to this slightly depressed city, we were here to visit with another labmate Ben and his girlfriend Kat. More museums were visited - including an excellent Shackleton exhibition and the International Slavery Museum, which was depressing and overwhelming to say the least. There are more slaves today than there ever were.

Ben is a football fanatic who choose to live in Liverpool for his team rather than the exciting work opportunities. Our visit coincided with the first round of the Europa league, so off we went to see Liverpool FC beat a Macedonian team 2-0 at Anfield. Watching football at Anfield is nothing, absolutely nothing like any rugby game I have ever been to. The crowd was charged with football fever. They cheered and clapped in deafening unison. They sung their hearts out and stood for the full second half as Liverpool were playing towards us.  

The long bus ride north to Edinburgh via Glasgow was delightfully interrupted by a stop at a farm store where we bought the best ever roasted-garlic-clove-and-rosemary leaves-covered focaccia bread. MMMM, mmmm. (Anna says it was the highlight of her UK visit.) Our stay in Edinburgh coincided with the beginning of the Edinburgh festival. The streets were packed with tourists and performers alike. To my great delight the baked potato store I enjoyed in 2006 was still there and even had the very same topping I was after. We had booked to see one event during the festival - a Divine Comedy (Neil Hannon) solo show. I had been a fan since 2003 and this was my first opportunity to see Neil live. And he didn't disappoint. We made sure we were right up the front with a good view of him banging on the keys and strumming away. The crowd was in great form, filling in for the orchestra in many songs. Great fun.

Neil Hannon - the Divine Comedy

The next morning I collected a rental car and we undertook a 3-day tour-de-Scotland. First we headed down to Hawick  to see the house that Anna's great grandmother was born in.

 16 Duke St, Hawick (pronounced hoick)

We turned around and headed for Inverallochy in the northeastern corner of Scotland. On the way we stopped to explore Dunnottar Castle. This ruined castle is nestled on a protruding cliff face surrounded by the sea and home to many seabirds. Back in the day, William Wallace torched the chapel when a regiment of English soldiers was hiding in it. We stayed with wee Sarah (a Scottish volunteer that spent 3 months with us at A Rocha Canada) and her family up in Inverallochy. It was so lovely to see someone from A Rocha Canada again. We relived so many stories and caught up with the goss. We went for a beach walk to the next village, passing a whole lot of concrete blocks that were placed along the coast to make life difficult for any German tanks that might have landed there.

That afternoon we departed for a B&B in Kilravock Castle, near Inverness. We were the only ones staying that night so we had the whole place to ourselves. We strolled around like king and queen, attempted to play squash and tennis before retreating to our room in a converted 13th century stables. A full cooked breakfast was enjoyed in the castle's dining hall before our early departure to Edinburgh via Loch Ness and Glencoe. This part of the journey had the most beautiful scenery, especially the rugged hills around Glencoe.

Paddling in Loch Ness and hiking the hills around Glencoe

The very next morning we embarked on an epic 20-hour trip from Edinburgh to London (train) to Cairo (plane) to Nairobi (plane) arriving at 4 am. Thankfully we had arranged to crash during the day at the parents of someone in A Rocha International. Driving through Nairobi in the dark is quite scary. At 4.30 am there are already people walking or cycling to work on the edges of the road. The taxi driver got lost a few times and only after two phone calls did we finally make it to the right address. Again we went straight to bed and awoke in the right time zone. The Owen's were excellent hosts who fed us and sorted out train tickets and arranged for us to get dropped off at the train station. When we were about to leave for the train, I realised that I was missing 70 USD and a 50 CAD travelers cheque. I had the 50 USD note that very morning in the  airport but I had no idea how I lost it or had it stolen. Thankfully we have travelers insurance to cover those sort of incidents and we still had enough money to buy our train tickets. We boarded the overnight train to Mombasa in 1st class style complete with a 2 person sleeper cabin, dinner and breakfast. In the early morning, I awoke at a standstill, realising that the train had broken down. On the positive side that meant we went right through Tsavo East National Park during the daylight and we could see elephants, zebras and monkeys whilst we enjoyed our breakfast. A fun way to travel.

Getting into Mombasa 3 hours late, in the rain and with loads of luggage caused to me to give in to the bargaining of a taxi driver to take us right to Mwamba instead of catching a couple of matatus. It turns out that we got an excellent deal for the 1.5 hour trip to Mwamba stopping at an ATM and supermarket for only 3000 Ksh (~$50 NZ) instead of the usual cost of at least 5000 Ksh. And thus the journey finally ended with us safe and sound at A Rocha Kenya on the coast of Kenya.