O the glamour!!!

People sometimes think that I live a very exotic and glamourous lifestyle jetting off to run races round the world but I can assure you that is it usually about as far away from that as possible. I now work as a locum GP and so do not get either sickpay or annual leave, so I work hard to enable myself to take the breaks to travel and run. For example, I have just done 2x 6 week blocks of 40-50 hour weeks in order to be able to take the time to visit New Zealand for "Motatapu" and Namibia for "The Namib Race - The Race of Champions".

I was really looking forward to going to Namibia and switching off entirely as we were due to be out in the desert for 7 days and therefore would have no phones or internet...bliss....but first let me tell you about my relaxing stress-free journey out there....

I worked up to the last minute, ie lunchtime Thursday, and then got a lift to the station in Dumfries. 3 trains and a bus ride later, I made it to Glasgow airport...nice and early as it happens, 2-3 hours before my flight. All seemed fine until the time that we were due to board  - and the dreaded word "DELAYED" appeared on the board. Nobody had much information except that the delay was going to be several hours as the plane had been forced to return to Heathrow due to a problem and so they would need to find another plane to send up. This meant that everyone would miss their ongoing connections and so there was a lot of unhappiness in the air (not least from me as I was worried that I'd not make it to the race in time, and another couple who were heading to South Africa for their wedding and would probably now arrive after the ceremony was due to take place). There was little point in me getting upset with the local BA staff so I accepted their re scheduling of my onward flight to Jo'burg (though it appeared there were no morning flights out of LHR so I'd have to wait there the whole of the next day, though they said that the London BA staff would sort accommodation on my arrival there) and the £5 voucher for food (a sandwich cost £5:25 at the cafe next door and the man serving made us make up the extra with our own cash!!).

By the time I finally got off the plane in London (at 23:30.....my Jo'burg flight had left about 90 minutes prior to this) things had become even more complicated. BA officials were meeting people off the plane with details of rebooked flights and accommodation, but my name was not on their list. They said that Glasgow shouldn't have rebooked me and that I needed to go to the desk in the airport to find out about a hotel. Said desk was closed for the night so the staff member I then asked, told me to pick up my bag and go into the main airport to the helpdesk.

The fun and games started when my bag didn't appear (and neither did that of an Israeli girl who couldn't speak English....as side story to me trying to help her was that I nearly ended up with her bag a few days later as it was then labelled to me instead of going with her to Tel Aviv) - by the time I'd filed a report it was about 12:30 am, and then when I finally made it upstairs to the help desk they had no accommodation for me. There was a room booked for someone else who'd missed his connection but from what the BA staff were saying he had been rolling around on the floor drunk so I suggested the best solution was to give me his room and he could sleep it off in the cells....as he'd now disappeared somewhere, they gave me the room and so I staggered off in some drowsy stupor to find the hotel.

The hotel in Namibia where I should have been staying!!

After a brief sleep in the lovely white "luggage replacement" t-shirt that BA had given me (which was actually wider than it was long), I made the most of the huge buffet breakfast that was available. I decided that I should return to the airport to check I had actually been properly rebooked and to further the search for my missing bags. As it turns out, although I had been rebooked onto a BA flight instead of a Virgin one, there was actually another one leaving 90mins earlier so they kindly moved me to that one. It didn't look like it would make much difference at the far end though, as they told me that there was only one flight per day going from Jo'burg to Walvis Bay in Namibia. Good news on the luggage front though, as my case was apparently "definitely" in the transit holding bay ready to travel on with me.
 



Fleur and Nicki - my saviours!

I contacted the race to say that I would be arriving, but unfortunately it wouldn't be until 12:45 at Walvis Bay and we were all due to leave Swakopmund (about half an hour's drive away) for the desert at 1pm (and the "compulsory" briefing was at 8am). They said that they were "happy for me to join the race late" but that no vehicles could wait and so I would have to make my own way up to the Skeleton Coast and that it would cost me about $300-400. I was not overly impressed with this, as I was already at a massive disadvantage to the others who would have had a good night's sleep in a hotel and a leisurely checkin and briefing.....whereas I would have spent 2 nights travelling and hence not getting any rest. They were not prepared to compromise on this and it seemed that there was little I could do, but Nicki and Fleur (the MDs of CurraNZ - an amazing supplement I take) came to rescue me from a Heathrow meltdown and took me out for a lovely lunch with wine and giggles.
 

Although upgrades were not possible, BA kindly gave me Heathrow lounge access for the final hour before I flew and marked something on their computer system to allow me to sue the lounge at Jo'burg (as I was going to be stuck there for 5 hours waiting on "the first flight to Walvis Bay"). Unfortunately, Jo'burg lounge was having none of this and so wouldn't let me in, despite it having also been marked on my boarding pass. My luggage had also not appeared at Jo'burg - and I had been made to go out through customs into SA and then back through customs into the airport again, so by the time I got to the lounge and came up against the "not my job, not my problem" staff, I was exhausted and upset. As I was in tears, a lovely lady asked to take me into the lounge as her guest, but she was refused by the same jobsworth staff as I "was not on the same flight as her", and then she was told off further for bringing me out a coffee and a croissant!!. The staff told me not to be upset as my case was "definitely in transit to Walvis Bay" and there was little I could do but believe them (although I didn't really).

Made it to the Skeleton Coast

My sister had contacted an old friend from her year out in Namibia in 1992, who put me in touch with Kirsty, a lovely ultrarunner who lives in Swakopmund. Kirsty and her husband came to pick me up in Walvis Bay and were going to help me get up the coast to join the race. Unfortunately...surprise surprise....I got to Walvis but my bag didn't! We spent ages filling out yet more lost luggage reports and then Kirsty rang the race to say that we were on our way but explained the further delay. She was told that I should "not bother turning up if I didn't have all of the compulsory kit". Yet more angst for me as although I had most of my running gear in my hand luggage, some things had to go into the hold due to "sharps", eg a penknife/multitool and my blister repair kit, some due to space (eg my inflatable sleeping mat, camp slippers, down jacket etc) and some due to their dodgy nature (dehydrated meals/powders).

Liquid gold....

Kirsty and her husband took me on a frantic shopping tour, but some things are just not possible to purchase last minute. I managed to get a new penknife and make up a first aid/blister repair kit but a sleeping mat was beyond possibility and Namibia doesn't "do" dehydrated meals - at least not in Walvis Bay or Swakopmund. I had to make up the required 14,000 minimum calories somehow, and the only way for me to do this was with excessive packets of instant porridge, sweets and heavy cereal bars - not ideal. We then sprinted up the coast as fast as the dirt roads would allow, fuelled by a few ciders (well not the driver) and made it to camp before dusk. I arrived, met my tent mates and scavenged any extra food/kit and then actually passed kit check. It was a relief to get into my sleeping bag that night and despite not having a mat, exhaustion meant that the tent floor didn't seem that uncomfortable!

Not exactly the glamorous lifestyle of the international jetsetting runner!!!



With my tentmates for the week - finally!

NB The way back wasn't much better as the passport scanner broke in Jo'burg airport so I spent about 2 hours in a queue to have my passport manually read (meaning I also missed my connection...but then again, most people were in the same situation), and had a halfhour nosebleed on the flight to London, followed by a prolonged one lasting the whole of the flight up to Glasgow (and was wheelchaired off the plane) - it was almost a relief to go back to work for a rest!!!

 

And just to add insult to injury - my insurance wouldn't cover it as they said that the long delay/layover wasn't at my "departure airport" which they would have covered, and that because I got my bag back the evening before I flew home, it didn't count as "lost luggage"!!