Expedition Loap Solo 2006

Back Home » 24. 8. 2006 at 9:40

Everything went faster than I had expected so unfortunately, I had neither time nor energy to write messages. Here’s resumption of what have happened in last few days of the expedition…

Saturday. Even though I tried my best, my freezing bath in the river resulted in quite nasty cold. I was lucky that I was back in camp and not somewhere on the glacier where my cold could have been a problem. I was feeling so bad that most of Saturday I spent sleeping in my sleeping bag. Later in the afternoon I managed to get hold of Lada from Adventura who is driving Madla (terrain bus) in Iceland. It was great coincidence that he was in Reykjavik! We arranged that he would come pick me up from the bus station. I have one burden off my shoulders! Lada will be able to take my sled back to Czech Republic so I will save money on postage!

Sunday. I take a bus from Kirk to Reyjavik at noon. I get there almost exactly at 5pm. I’m still fighting the cold but finally, I can at least speak a bit without cough attack! Lada meets me as soon as I get off the bus. He says it was easy to find me, just look for pair of skis! We load the sled to the truck and discuss our fresh adventures in Iceland for a while. Lada talks about how he drives tourists around and how he became a guide, I talk about my attempt to traverse Vatnajokull glacier. Eventually, we move to one of local bars with pool tables where two Czech girls are supposed to work. According to Lada there’s also cheap internet there. That’s more important to me than a chat. I have to book a flight ticket home for next day. I spend the whole evening on internet in the end. It is not easy to find a flight under 1500 USD one way! After xx hours and xxx variations of flights I’m flying on Monday at 7.15h with Iceland Express to London Standsted from where I have to take a shuttle to Gatwick. The EasyJet flight to Prague is scheduled to take off at 18.30h. I managed to lower total price for flight with shuttle in London included for app. 15000 CZK. That is half price of IcelandAir flight ticket. The Czech girls. There was only one in the bar - Marketa. Even though I didn’t have much time we had a nice chat. She said goodbye to me with words: “See you next year!” She meant my next attempt to traverse the glacier, of course.

Monday. Simply said, chaos! I’m already at the airport at 6am. The airport is really packed! I have a feeling that another volcano must have exploded in Iceland and so all the tourists are trying to leave at once. There are so many people everywhere that it is easier to get from one end of the terminal building to the other from outside. To walk through the terminal building would take almost an hour! I still don’t know what’s awaiting me in London. We take off with 30 min delay and after a while Vatnajokull glacier appears from clouds. I just stare at it asking myself if Marketa was right or not. I have neither energy nor enthusiasm to spend next several months by planning and preparing for the next attempt. We land at Stansted at noon. I collect my backpack and after bit of searching I get to bus terminal from where the shuttle to Gatwick departs. I have about four hours until my flight so I’m looking forward to some rest at Gatwick. Contrary is the case though! If the Reykjavik airport was really packed, Gatwick is entering the chaos state! What is worst there’s nobody from operating personnel or airlines’ staff to manage crowds somehow a bit. There are only four desks open for EasyJet and in front of them perhaps 300 people waiting! There are no belts or lines, no system, just crowd of people desperate to get to the desk as soon as possible.

I have flown thousands of miles in last five years and have gone through a number of terminals from Mexico, US to European ones but I had never before experienced anything like I did on Monday at Gatwick. What I consier really absurd - there were lots of old and disabled people everywhere. For example, there was an old gentleman standing right behind me with crutches and without leg. He was waiting there for the whole four hours (before I was checked in and went through security gate). I understand the situation and problems connected with flying at the moment but this was obviously poor service from the airport staff and single airlines.

I land in Ruzyne airport around midnight. I’m glad I’m finally back home but I have no energy to exult. At almost 2am I’m finally crowling into my bed. It affects my day today, of course. I’m half asleep, half trying to “tune” myself to new environment. Even to write this message, it took me almost three hours!

I will leave writing about what’s awaiting me and what my future plans are for tomorrow. I can say for now that it’s sure interesting!