Living in Perth, Western Australia generally means a long flight to get anywhere and this was no exception. I’d already been in Sydney earlier in the week so this meant there was a lot of travel this week before I’d even set foot on the plane. The trip to the UK involves two flights , 19 hours of flying and 14,612km travelled.

On this trip due to the logistics of our hike, we are flying into Manchester via Dubai and then returning home from Heathrow direct into Perth. This works better for us as we will be spending much of the last week travelling around the south of the UK and means we won’t need to travel back up to the north to return home.

Whilst there was a lot of travel ahead, it was good to remember that after three years of essentially being locked up in Australia, we were at last free to travel and explore the world. This was something which, even at the start of 2022, looked a long way away so it was amazing to be finally able to leave Australia and undertake this trip.

Our flight to Dubai left Perth at 10.20pm so it was good it was a night flight to help the time go quicker. My friend Ben made the trip up from Bunbury to pick me up with his wife Lisa and we headed to the airport together. Sadly, it was soon time for goodbyes. My wife Nicole was in the Gold Coast so we’d already said our farewells so it was just down to Ben and Lisa.

Given all the time off from flying since the pandemic, I’d forgotten the pleasures of being cooped up in economy for a long haul flight. I didn’t manage much sleep and we were eventually spat out in Dubai after an 11 hour flight. We headed straight to the lounge and did what any self-respecting people do at 6 AM in the morning on a weekday – drink champagne.

Back on the plane, we had a further 8 hours to Manchester which seemed to drag on a little. Eventually, after endless hours of watching the inflight map and willing the plane to speed up with the power of my mind, we touched down in Manchester.

We had a further two hours on the train across the Pennines to reach Leeds and meet up with my sister, Tina. It was great to see her and we headed out for dinner at Pizza Express. After a pizza with chilli oil and an IPA, I can definitely see maintaining the weight on this hike will be a challenge!

After dinner, it was then back to the Headingly Premier Inn, and after little or no sleep over the past few days, it was finally time to hit the sack for some well earned rest.