Where to begin? London to Africa, Part I

Okay this is going to be a LONG story. How much time have you got to sit here and read what I have got to say? It's an interesting story, at least, I think so....

When left home in the first place, we packed a LOT of stuff. But we kind of figured that being gone for 6 weeks, we would need it all. Well, after dragging all that stuff through the streets of London, not to mention up and down stairs and through the Tube Stations, we realized that maybe we packed too much stuff (seriously, on the way back to the airport on Sunday, we had to change at Paddington Station for the Heathrow Express, and I thought that both Shamus and I were going to collapse from exertion, but it was only a 15 minute ride to the airport, so I was happy).

This point was driven home to us when we arrived at the airport in London, Heathrow. We were told that the weight restrictions for Virgin Atlantic was only *1* piece of carry on luggage per person (ie, a laptop bag) and a maximum of 23 kg of checked baggage. Umm.... We each had 2 pieces of carry on bags. Shamus had the laptop bag and a GPS case that he was not to let out of his sight (costs more than his life), and I had MY laptop bag and a bigger carry on that had some of my stuff and the satellite phone (worth more than MY life). We also had 2 bigger checked bags that oddly enough, we didn't have ANY problems getting on the plane in Canada! (I would like to have aword with the travel agent that didn't bother letting us know about THAT little detail.) So we freaked out, naturally, and there was a little panicking going on. The lady behind the desk told us that Virgin Atlantic charges 33 Great Britain Pounds per kilogram of over weight bags (we were 30 kg over, sad, I know). PLUS our carry ons weighed too much, and we had an extra piece. (Do the math... the exchange is 2:1, so 33 GBP is about $66 per kg... 2.2 kg in a pound. yeah.)

You with me so far? We are in big trouble. So the Virgin Atlantic lady in her cute little British accent suggested that we could ship some of our stuff, rather than pay the HUGE overage charges. We inquired at the shipping place on how much it would be to ship some of our stuff to Lesotho, and it was still pretty expensive to do that. Shamus went to go find a pay phone so he could call his boss and ask him what to do. I think HIS suggestion was to just leave everything behind. Not really what we had in mind.....

So what we ended up doing is going to one of these nifty little repacking stations that they have there and putting all the things that we didn't absolutely need (or so we thought with only 10 minutes to do this in) into bags that we would ship back home to Canada. Still REALLY expensive (I'm not telling, too painful a memory, really) but at least it wasn't going to be 2 ways (there and back). I am a little upset that we had to do that because a few of the things I shipped home included my bigger first aid kit (I kept the mini one and the Needle kit), my shoes, clothes, toiletries and my Teddy bear. Some of your might laugh that a 25 year old married woman is upset that her teddy is not a trip with her and that it's being shipped across the ocean, but I have had this bear since I was 3 years old and I saw it up in my mom's closet and wanted it. He uhh... IT is the perfect size to hold against my chest so my shoulders don't collapse... regardless, he is one of my most prized possessions. I already had to leave my cats behind, plus the rings (too dangerous to have jewelery), so leaving teddy too was hard. So I feel a little foolish for thinking that I actually needed the amount of clothing that I decided to keep, but not the bear. But it was because of all of that survey equipment that we HAD to bring, plus Shamus' heavy survey vest and steel toed boots, that we were still over by 4 kg when we finally checked in. Oops. That was pricey too. We insisted on bringing everything that we had carry on-wise even though the ticket agent wasn't sure if they would even let us do it upstairs. She thought they might make us check that extra piece.

When I say that we had to ship the stuff home, I make it sound as though it were an easy process. You see, we went to the Virgin check in desk, over (a little ways) to the Shipping place, then back to the re-packing area, to the check in, to the shipping place, to the OTHER shipping place where they x-ray the bags and take them, then back to the check in area to go up stairs to the departures area, where we hurried through security, x-ray, and a separate shoe inspection area. Then we speed walked to our gate (our flight had started boarding) only to find a line up, so we were able to have a little rest while we waited.

When we got on the plane (they didn't bat an eye at how many bags we had) it was awesome! Near the very front is the First Class section, where the seats fold all the way down to make a bed, and they had tonnes of room and a bar. With liquor and stools! Then we walked past the Business Class where they had leather seats and lots of leg room and more shoulder room as well. But once we got to the Economy class, it was like we had reached the 3rd class section of a cargo ship, back in the old days (a la Titanic)... there were 2 seats at either window and 4 seats across in the middle, and we were seated right in front of a bathroom. We were the unwashed masses, all huddled together (especially *after* the 11 hour flight was over). All night people were lined up in front of us and we would hear the flushing of the toilet. Yea.

On the plus side, they had little tvs built into the back of the seat in front, and there were tonnes of programs to choose from. TV, movies, a map to track our progress, and you could even play games. It was great, except Shamus' didn't work. So he craned his neck to watch Oceans 13 with me, but mostly entertained himself on the iPod. I am very glad I let him get that thing. He is much easier to get along with when he has entertainment, lol. We managed to sleep a little bit but it was hard to get comfortable.

I think the rest of it is Part II, I am getting tired of typing and I am sure you are getting tired of reading.

I think I am going to go take some pictures of this place and check out the pool!!