I left Lytham St Annes with my son Matthew at 0500ish on 3rd January 2012 with quite strong winds blowing from the North., and as we travelled down the motorway the wind calmed. I said my goodbyes to Matthew at the departure car dropp off point and made my way with three cases & a large bag totalling 92kg to the bag drop off point. The flight to London Heathrow was scheduled for 0820, but just as we were about to load high winds at LHR grounded us at Manchester. We agreed with the pilot that we should board the plane and wait on the apron; otherwise we would not get a take off slot allocated if the wind direction or wind strength changed at Heathrow. Well we got a slot and landed at about 1130, just a couple of hours later than scheduled, but my flight to Entebbe had taken off more or less on time. I hooked up with a young man Rob, his wife and toddler, as we queued for a re-scheduled flight. I've seen these terminal 5 quesues on TV, but the actual experience is quite different to viewing TV. The next scheduled flight for Entebbe was not for 2-days and after queuing for 4-hours Rob's wife managed to get us taken out of the queue that would have probably taken another 4-hours. Because of the toddler we got personal attention and re-scheduled journey to Entebbe, Uganda via Johannesburg, South Africa. So looking on the bright side I've been to South Africa. albeit just for 4-hours inside the terminal building
By taking this exgtended route I did arrive in Kampala a full day earlier than if I had waited in London 2-nights for the direct flight
Unfortunately during all these delays I was unable to contact my Kampala motor mechanic, John, so when I didn't turn up on the morning of the 4th he went to Rewanda to see his father. He got back on the Friday night and worked Saturday and part of Sunday on fitting the new clutch. However as always with vehicles there was more work needed to be done, so it was Thursday afternoon before we left Kampala for Arua and onward to Yei, Souh Sudan, Uganda on Frday to a wonderful welcome by the children and Mamas.(I'll try & post a photo album shortly)