Benson

Waking up in England, the first view from the conservatory whilst the rest of the household sleeps.

After a fairly non eventful 22 hours flying, plus 10 hours transit interspersed, we arrived in London, to rain.

Whilst parts of Europe have been sweltering, this has not been the case for the UK or Ireland.

An Irish cycling friend Jono posted this meme yesterday stating it was the wettest July he remembers. Let’s hope August is better, although there is a reason I purchased a new rain jacket 🤣😊

I had booked return transfers for a mini van to transport us to Benson. In theory, the driver waits for you with a clearly named sign in the arrivals hall.

Tired and titchy we could not find him. We rang the company and he eventually turned up.

So we are now comfortable in the home of John and Val whom we met in 2013. John was a leader for the cycle company we did five trips with pre doing our self supporting cycle touring.

John used to work for Queen Elizabeth II as her chief flight engineer. He has flown with all members of the family globally until the flight program ceased. He has many wonderful stories from those days.

Recently at an honours service at Windsor, John remet the now King with whom he has flown with many time. The King, noted that the current charter services are always running late and wished that the Royal flights still existed.

Val is a beautiful lady with whom I met an immediate connection when we first met. Very funny, kind and caring and a great cook who loves her garden and crafts, it was great to cuddle her. She had tracked our flight from Dubai.

John walks a neighbours dog, so we walked a few km around Benson.

We met a cycling friend Deb today who popped around for afternoon tea.