WEDNESDAY, 23 OCTOBER 2024

(Home, UK – Heathrow, UK)

After working until a little after five (in my case) and six (in Andrew’s case), we hadtea, washed up, cleaned the kitchen, emptied the fridge, and got the last few pieces together. We loaded the cases into the car and, by 8.10pm, we were ready for departure.

The drive down to Heathrow was, thankfully, very uneventful, so there’s not much to report. The motorways were relatively quiet, so the only things that slowed us down were the intermittent 50mph roadwork zones. As went smoothly until we were 4 miles from the airport, when more roadworks closed the turnoff from the M25 to the M4. One frustrating 5-mile detour up to the next junction and back later, we were back on course and soon made it to the car park. 212 miles, in 3.5 hours. Pretty consistent pacing.

From there, it was a fifteen minute walk through the maze of subways between that car park and the hotel, where we are now having a cup of tea. It’s nearly 1am, so we need to go to sleep soon to prepare for many hours on a plane, and eating all of the food that I hope Virgin will serve on board.