Day 2 - Heathrow to Gatwick 30/05/05
Arriving on a balmy English bank holiday, 10ºC, cloudy and drizzling was not unexpected, but the empty airport did seem strange. There didn't appear to be any airport security, customs or bio-security at Heathrow; we picked up our bags and slipped out the door without seeing a soul. The bank holiday did cause a small problem as our first stop was of course the bank or wasn’t in this case.
After a long walk in endless underground tunnels we purchased a (National Express) bus/train ticket, at a cost of £22.50 each, to the Portsmouth motorhome firm where, fortunately, earning a dollar comes before taking a bank holiday. On the train ride I experienced my first look at English houses - rows and rows of brown brick two storey houses joined together houses that all looked the same. The temperature had now risen to 16ºC, however when it was only 10ºC it was 6am.
After a quick tour (driving round lost) of Portsmouth and shopping for pillows, food and diesel we headed for Gatwick to be closer to London where our Lloyds bank branch was. Although we had brought some English pounds we wanted to get the cash point card we had organised through our NZ bank.
By 4.00pm we had been going 42 hours without sleep and I decided on a quick cat-nap for two hours. Two hours turned into 14 hours and we woke up in line with British waking hours and without a hint of jet lag. Imagine our surprise when we stepped outside the motorhome and realised we were on the flight path to Gatwick with planes coming and going every five minutes and we hadn’t heard a single thing in the last 14 hours.
