Travel/rest day.
Welcome
Yesterday was a long day. We disembarked from our airplane at Heathrow and traveled to our accommodation where we settled in for a extended session of timezone conversion therapy.
The 14,000km flight from Darwin to London.
My day started as we flew Northwest at 900km/h cruising ten kilometres above the Gulf of Oman. It was still several hours until breakfast so I watched a movie and looked at the scenery as we flew over Iraq and Turkey and then crossed the Black Sea into Romania.
Flames are visible from excess natural gas being burned off atop these oil wells in Southern Iraq. This excess gas can be processed in recapture plants and reused but currently there is only one of these hugely expensive plants operational and it only recovers half the gas from the three large oil fields in Basra.
My first meal of the day consisted of an apple and cinnamon muffin, traditional Greek yoghurt with blackberry, acai fruits and granola, and a seasonal fruit plate clad in grapes, mango, pineapple, watermelon, and strawberries.
We touched down at Heathrow just after 5am and had our bags shortly afterwards. From there it was a 45 minute taxi ride to our accommodation in the charming suburb of Finsbury Park where we settled in for a day of trying to stay awake.
Tristan demonstrates the proper carousel removal technique.
All baggage collected and ready to leave the airport.
We took the time to explore the neighbourhood and did some window vegetable shopping before settling in to watch the Formula 1 qualifying. This is the race before the proper Formula 1 race where the cars race only against themselves and the clock.
Liz and Jon took a walk around Finbury Park, one of the first great parks constructed in the Victorian era.
Flowing through Finbury park is the New River, an artificial waterway opened in 1613 to supply London with fresh drinking water. Under Royal Charter it was a penal offence to throw rubbish or carrion into the river, while anyone washing clothes in it or planting sallow, willow or elm trees within five yards of it would incur the "King's displeasure".
Snug as a bug watching the Formula 1.