Finally the team was ready to begin its 20 hour journey to Guyana. That would be the whole team minus the diarist, who claimed he was “about a minute away” when leaving his room for the 15 minute walk down to the lobby. And yet, the whole team made their way over to Gatwick after a hearty breakfast at the Hilton and promptly arrived at the check-in desk. The check-in was smooth by comparison to management experience, but we still managed to sneak 20 minutes in at duty free!
The morning was helped by a timely delivery of various brews by Ellie, now affectionately known as the Coffee Fairy ™️. Our organisational and packing skills had inadvertently caused the first of two airline delays of the day, as with one case (not containing rifles or parts) and being checked in as oversized baggage, the loading crew were left somewhat confused as to the “discrepancy with baggage” upon seeing 14 rifle cases but only seeing 13 completed firearms forms. Thankfully it was all resolved without too much impact and we were safely away just under an hour after our scheduled departure.
Our time on the plane was colourful. While most tour members managed to escape any marks or stains to their number 2s, some happened to order shepherds pie and red wine, resulting in several unfortunate accidents. Our stopover in St Lucia yielded the second airline delay as the apron was too wet for takeoff after an accident with the plane’s liquid tanks being emptied. The team took the opportunity to use this time to stretch their legs, compete in “who wants to be a millionaire”, and making sure all AirTags were connected and in range. Despite a notification of case 4 being last seen “somewhere over the Atlantic”, all members, bags and cases safely made it to Guyana. With a breeze through security, we managed to get to the hotel before the bar closed to meet our hosts and have our first team meal. Given how tired everyone was, the daily tradition of lollipop awards was suspended, however this diarist has kept a note of some interesting statistics:
Reasons for manual security bag checks in Gatwick:
- [ ] 2 scopes in hand luggage
- [ ] 1 Tub of slightly pink powder
- [ ] 1 water bottle/shampoo check
- [ ] 1 Metal case around a deck of top trumps
- [ ] 1 plastic breech stick
- [ ] 1 powerbank
- — Other fun things that happened on the flight:
- [ ] One glass of red wine spilled over stone chinos
- [ ] Bottles exploded (2)
- [ ] Number of anti-malarial drinks consumed (21)
- [ ] 2 team members became a millionaire
- [ ] Number of white shirts ruined 4.
- [ ] 1 Shoutout on the plane from its captain
And finally:
Number of eSims working upon arrival in Guyana: 0
