Paintings, pasta and Piccadilly Circus

Jet lag wakes us up at 4:30am or at least keeps us awake.  We're actually woken up by the occupants of the room above who sound like they're dancing around the bed or at least making sure they step on every square inch of wooden floor board while they shuffle from one side of the room to the other, around and around, creaking, shuffling and squeaking all the way.   

It means we're out early and can enjoy a leisurely breakfast close to Trafalgar Square.  A rather serious looking hawk provides some amusement at its choice of perch when we meet up with Amanda.  

This bird means business

At 10am we're through the doors of the National Gallery and spend a few blissful hours (well for me anyway) drifting through the rooms and soaking it all in.  Have a look at the small sample of the collection available at Google Art Project, it's magnificent.

It's raining when we leave the gallery so we drift slowly towards Covent Garden, window shopping along the way (or real shopping as the case may be when Ross discovers GAP)... It's lunchtime and we stop for a splendid meal at Jamie's Italian.  Oh this is the life - it's a Monday and we're having a long lunch in London - in London dahlinks!  I think I'm starting to relax.

Our mission for the afternoon is to find Amanda a waterproof jacket for her European tour.  We search through the Covent Garden markets but it's not until we reach Piccadilly Circus that we find that elusive style/cost combination that is just right.  

Fatigue is starting to set in again so we say our goodbyes and Ross and I return to the hotel for a quiet night.  Or at least that's what we hope when we go to bed at 8:30pm that our upstairs neighbours won't be dancing the samba again in the wee hours.

London

The Heathrow Express gets us into Central London before the Tube station has even opened and when we reach our hotel at 7:30am, we are far too early to check-in.  Ross and I leave our bags and venture out onto the street.  It is a clear sunny Sunday morning and Oxford Street is only just starting to stir.  We wander the quiet streets for a while but the fatigue is starting to set in so we haunt the pavement outside Patisserie Valerie until it opens for breakfast.  It is a slow wait at the hotel until 10am when we can finally access our room and have a welcome shower and some sleep.

In the early afternoon we arrange to meet Amanda close to her hotel in Bayswater but on the way there we get swept up in the crowds and chaos of the Notting Hill Carnival.  It's a buzzing throng of excited young people, colour, drums, costumes, police, music, floats, street drinking, and mounds of litter.  We find Amanda and together follow the crowds around a few blocks, stopping to view the floats and trying to hear our own thoughts above the din.

The sights, sounds and smells of the Notting Hill Carnival

In the end jet lag wins out again and we say our goodbyes with Ross and I making our slow way back to our hotel on foot.  Tube stations are closed so it's easier to follow the crowd as it snakes its way past Hyde Park towards Marble Arch.

We retreat inside our comfortably dusky room with its four-poster bed and plush couch.  Despite our best efforts to stay awake, blissful comfortable uninterrupted sleep claims us at 7pm.

...The first day of the holiday

Feeling decidedly mañana this morning so I don't give a second thought to putting my packing on hold while Wendy and Bill stop by for coffee or Adam, Flo and Ella drop by later on to say hello.  Plenty of time... flight isn't until mid-afternoon after all.  For a week I had been gathering my belongings into little piles to go into my suitcase but even so, my nightmare is realised when I am still shoving things into my suitcase at 12:25pm when we are due to leave the house at 12:30pm.  This is the first, and hopefully last time, I leave everything to the last minute.  I get into the taxi flustered and stressing about the hundred things I've probably forgotten.  Funny how even though you're travelling to another first-world country, you feel compelled to bring every last item of your own toiletries in case you should (gasp!) run out of toothpaste or shower gel during the trip.  

We meet my dad at the airport as his flight is at the same time albeit on a different carrier. My mother tasks me with the important responsibility of keeping an eye on him while we're away.  It starts with repacking his bags in the departure lounge to reduce the number of items he needs to carry.  I inherit his raincoat which I must now carry to Cumbria before it can be reunited with its owner.

Finally wheels leave the tarmac and we're on our way.  

21 hours later after innumerable movies, in-flight meals and snatched moments of restless sleep, crying babies, claustrophobia and general malaise, the pale dawn light of a London morning heralds our arrival.

The night before...

After a 13 hour day at work and a record late finish of 9:30pm I came home exhausted and without any will to pack whatsoever.  The last few weeks have been intense and having to find a 'replacement' to act in my position for the next four weeks an added burden.  Having to organise papers for a corporate planning day (which fortunately I won't be here to minute:o) was another extraneous task I could have done without. 

Hence the late night, gnawing on nuts and whatever other stray snacks I could find in my desk drawer in lieu of a meal, compiling papers and uttering 'this is ridiculous' as the office progressively emptied until I was the last one there and the hours ticked by.  There have been too many late nights this week with long days at work followed by evenings researching online and booking B+Bs for later in our journey....but I think everything is organised now.  I left work satisfied I'd left everything in order and got home satisfied all the bookings had been made for our holiday.    

Too tired to think or feel excited about not having to work for the next four weeks.  Fatigue has robbed me of that 'WOO HOOOOOO' moment I should have felt when I shut down my computer and the elevator doors closed behind me.  Maybe it will sink in tomorrow.  

Eagle View Walk (John Forrest National Park)

The stats

• Distance - 16km circuit
• Grade - classed as 'medium' to 'hard'
• Estimated time to complete - 5-6hrs
• Actual time taken - 4hr 45mins (with half hour stop for lunch)
• Resources - WA Top Trails website and Department of Environment and Conservation Eagle View Walk Trail guide
• Cost - $11 national park entry fee
• Tip - Doing the walk clockwise gets most of the ascents out of the way early on!

The verdict

One more week before we head to the UK and undertake the Coast to Coast walk for real.  The Fellowship was finally restored today for our final training walk as my Dad decided to test his rehabilitated foot on what would be our longest and most challenging walk yet.  Our thinking was, if we could best this we'd be able to handle C2C no problem...

On arrival at John Forrest National Park we marvelled at the explosion of colour.  The wildflowers were out in their full glory and the trail was dotted with splashes of yellow, pink, white and vivid purple. 

The riot of colour along the Eagle View Trail

With our collective knees strapped we headed to the ranger's office to register and then set off on the circuit.  The trail was well marked but the guide was helpful and is recommended.   

The path fringed by wildflowers

The gradient was in the most part manageable however there were steep sections and the track varied from easy to rocky and uneven.  The walk was varied and interesting in its passage through numerous habitats including riparian, woodland and granite outcrop.  Don't forget to stop and (see) the flowers!  Having said that we probably would have completed the walk faster had I not been stopping every 10m to look at flowers!

Rough track

Finding a suitable spot for lunch also took a bit longer than anticipated as the fallen log had to be 'just right' but we got there in the end!

The gentlemen at lunch

All up a fabulous walk which did test our fitness.  The good news is we did it in good time and dodgy knees/feet held.  It was the perfect season for visiting John Forrest National Park and the walk trail is a definite must-do-again next spring.  

Cumbria, here we come!