All our stuff got home safely, but it was a real trauma in the airport.  We asked at the check-in desk about packing the bikes in the bike bags.  Once we’d confirmed that our bags were acceptable, we found a space right next to the desk and set about packing the bikes.  We got them all taped up and took them to check-in, got them weighed and tickets stuck on and then we were sent to the ‘oversized baggage’ belt.  The people there said they were too big!  We had to strip them down and take the wheels off.  Trouble is all our bags had gone through check-in at that stage so our extra packing, bags and tape had all gone with them.  To cut a long story short – after running around the airport several times we managed to unpack the bikes, take the wheels off, re-pack the bikes and take the wheels to the man with the cling-film machine that seals up suitcases to wrap the wheels.  By the time the ‘oversize baggage’ were happy we were short of time to get to the gate and ended up running to get there.  We can’t say we enjoyed our first experience of flying with bikes.

Now we’re home the place looks like a bomb has gone off with dirty kit everywhere and the garden is a jungle, feet-deep in dried up weeds.  This is when we say “never again”, but we don’t mean it.  Watch out for news of next year’s tour!