Where we got to...

Brussels, Liege, Lagos, Sharjah, Luanda, Harare, Entebbe and Cairo.

The story by David

Our jailbreak started at 04:30 on the Friday morning. We had very much intended to get a decent night’s sleep, but our excitement got the better of us, and we weren’t really tired until about 03:00. However, the excitement kept us going!

Our first task was to make it to Manchester airport. Starting so early, there were fewer opportunities for hitching a lift, but we were undeterred. There was a bus available, and we were sure there would be a taxi out there that could help too. The first taxi we saw said no, but we walked on to the bus stop. On the way we saw another taxi, whilst he couldn’t give us a lift, he did direct us to the office for the taxi company, Street Cars. When we got there, the staff were very helpful. Indeed, they were having to deal with the aftermath of one of their drivers having had an attempted mugging, and it was heartening to know that despite this, they still had time to help us on our mission.

The Big boss of the company was there, and he took us to the airport. No taxi cab for us, we rode in style in his personal Mercedes. All the lights were green. It was a good start. We arrived at the airport. We chanced an upgrade, but the lady checking us in didn’t have the power, and it was too early in the morning for the ticket office to be open. Still, don’t ask don’t get. We checked in and got through security with little drama. Well, as with every security check in, despite wearing the same clothes as me, Simon failed almost every metal detector test. This confused both of us.

At Manchester Airport we were hungry, and facing the prospect of little on flight entertainment. We went to WH Smiths to see if they could donate us a book or too. The manager was spared the decision, as a very kind man offered to buy us a book. We chose “Bad Science” by Ben Goldacre. Our next mission was breakfast – we explained our situation to the lovely staff at Costa Coffee, and they donated us some lovely, hot coffee. Just what we needed. We then tried to blag socks, and, whilst the lady at Tie Rack was happy to help, it needed her manager’s approval, who would be arriving whilst we were over the channel. She took our web site though, and promised to keep track.

We thought we’d hit our first problem when we got to boarding and were told there was an hour’s delay. Thankfully, it didn’t last that long, and we were soon on the plane. We arrived in Belgium, and soon found the DHL building Sam had directed us too. Giles, a fantastic guy, had texted Simon, and after a quick call, he drove and picked us up. We arrived at Liege Airport, and amusingly, were given high vis jackets to help us blend in. Delphine arrived with out Crew ID and we went through to the transport to what would be our home for the next 49 hours.

There it was, the Victor Trimble. It was great to wander around and see it all close up, getting loaded with cargo, re-fuelled and the other necessities needed before flying. Giles took photos of us, and we nearly burst with excitement when he let us have a shot sat in the engines. With the plane all ready, we sat in our seats and had a safety briefing, and then, we were air born. Being a better sleeper than Simon, I was easily able to sit down and nod off, whilst Simon read, and looked out of the cockpit window. I was awake though for when we entered African airspace, and also got to see some stunning views of the Sahara later on.

We arrived in Lagos, and the ground crew there were great, helping us take photos/videos whilst security weren’t looking, and doing their best to get our passports stamped. At Lagos they were just unloading. It didn’t take too long, and then, we were airborne again. But this time, Giles let us know we could sit in the cockpit for take off. We jumped at the opportunity. It was fantastic! Our next port of call was Shajah in the United Arab Emirates, which, we realised was in Asia, thus taking our tally of continents to three! Both of us passed out for the flight, but woke up in time for landing, and, again were able to sit in the cockpit as we landed. Before the door to the outside world even opened, we were advised to not even attempt any pictures. So we didn’t.

We were picking up mattresses here, and this took some time, as three of the pallets had been stacked for a 747, not the DC10 we were in. I must admit to dozing again whilst all this went on.

Our next stop was to Luanda, Angola. Our sleep was a lot more comfortable for this leg, as we had 6 ft high stacks of mattresses to sleep on. These were very comfy. We also got look out over Ethiopia and Kenya, which was stunning, and fly over an electrical storm, which was awesome to behold! We also filmed the crossing from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere, and had great views of Lake Victoria.

We had heard bad tales of Luanda’s efficiency, but we were only offloading the mattresses, so it didn’t take too long. Again, no photos! We had to land through an electrical storm too, which was fun, and it looked like a big storm was headed our way by the looks of the clouds on the horizon, however, the eventual rain wasn’t that bad, and we were soon off again. Angola was our official furthest distance for the challenge, as our time was up. However, there was still plenty of adventure left!

Our next stop was Harare, Zimbabwe. Lorna and Pam from Avient were there to meet us. They’d scoped out the location and found a great spot for a photo. We were led through the airport, through a metal detector that beeped for each of us (the security guy just smiled) and into Lorna’s car. We got driven out of the airport, to a big sign, and we stood there, in our boiler suits, with the car headlights beaming onto us. It was possibly the dodgiest looking scene from the whole trip, but made for an awesome photo shoot. After we were done there, we went back the way we came, through the same bleeping metal detector, with the same smiling security guard, and back onto the plane, which this time had 15 tonnes of flowers.

We then set of to Entebbe, Uganda, to pick up fish and vegetables. Whilst Luanda didn’t deliver on much rain (which was nice), Entebbe did. We left the plane, but soon when back in, as a few, big, fat drops landed, and Simon and I predicted there would be a lot more to follow. Indeed, they were harbingers of torrential rain. As Simon said, for a while, the ground actually looked like the sea, such was the water washing all over it. The rain passed, the fish, fruit and vg were loaded, and we were headed north.

We had to sleep in the hold for this section of the fight. The hold was being refrigerated for the cargo, and it was a perfect time to test our sleeping bag’s claims that they were good well below freezing temperatures. Thankfully they were, we were toasty warm inside the sleeping bag, and got a nice bit of kip.

Our next stop was Cairo, Egypt for fuel. We managed to get some video outside – we hadn’t been told we couldn’t, and there were no security about. We were still a little covert though, just in case. We tried to see the Pyramids on the way down, but, alas, Cairo was too hazy with heat and pollution. This was our last African port of call, we bid it fair well, and set off back to Liege.

The trip had some great views, especially the Alps, and Simon was able to tell of many adventures he and his family had had climbing those mountains. We arrived back in Liege, with no real plans of how to get home. We thought of hitching to Amsterdam on a lorry, or maybe the UK via the same route. However, as we had work the next day, and fancied a little bit of sleep that evening, we decided to pay for a flight back, as the stipulations of no spending had elapsed en route to Angola. We tried our luck at hitch hiking in the rain for an hour, but ended up getting a taxi, and then a train to Brussels.

The flight crew on the way back to Manchester were lovely. They gave us free water and sandwiches, and let us give an announcement to the passengers, which resulted in a £10 donation, as well as a few people scribbling down our web address.

We arrived in Manchester, were our friend Ian picked us up, and then we headed south. I made it back at 02:15, Simon at 04:30. We were both very productive on Monday.