Had to rush to get back to Benny Hill Park for 11am to get the car back. Unfortunately it wasn't picked up until nearly 2pm in the end, so I missed out on 3 hours extra driving. Never mind, we had a nice relaxing lunch in the bar until the helicopter arrived to take us home.
This time Ali & Alan were coming with us on the trip back up north, and like the trip down, we had a scaredy-cat in our midst! Ali is not a fan of flying and had been dreading the trip.
At spot on 2pm, the copter flew overhead and circled the hotel and the nice folks at the hotel drove us down to the landing pad in the golf buggy.
After a few photos and a quick briefing, we were off again ...
We had a quick detour via White Waltham airfield for refuelling, then we were on our way. Because of the detour, our return trip took us directly over Henley on Thames, where I grew up, which was really nice. For those of you familiar with Henley, here you can see Hambledon Lock ...
Temple Island ...
And Henley centre, with the Town Hall and Falaise Square ...
Thankfully, by now everyone, including Ali, was thoroughly enjoying the trip, so we didn't have to worry about making an emergency landing!
In the end the trip up north was very similar to the trip south, except the weather was better, so the visibility was even clearer.
The pilot pointed out a very interesting and sinister-looking place - a lake surrounded by plots where buildings had obviously been in the past. It looked like the scene of a crime, where all the evidence had been destroyed ...
After some investigation on Google Earth after we got back, it turns out that this was the site of the old "American Adventure" theme park in Derbyshire which went out of business in 2006, so not really sinister at all, but quite interesting all the same!
From there we flew over East Midlands airport - directly across the runway again - then on to Chesterfield and the famous twisted spire ...
From here it was on to Sheffield again, then on towards Leeds, past the Emley Mast, which is a landmark around here - you can see it from just about everywhere ...
Finally we landed back at the heliport at around 4.20pm, and walked the 10 paces to the car to go home.
Never before has my Audi S8 seemed slow ... it will never be the same again. Much as I love it, it will never accelerate or sound like an Aston Martin :(
However, on a positive note - it has to be said that all the bags fitted easily into the ample boot, and the back seat passengers were treated to a luxury ride with plenty of legroom, so I guess at least two out of four of us would have chosen the Audi over the Aston!
Finally, a nice evening in my favourite local pub, the Shibden Mill Inn rounded off the fabulous weekend - an absolutely AU55OME experience from beginning to end, not to mention all the lovely time spent with so many good friends!
Now to start thinking about the next one! Any ideas how to top that? Send suggestions on a postcard!
Back to normal for a while now - diarrhoea and puking down the toilet ... (sorry to ruin your pleasant mental image!)
Cheers,
Col x
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2 comments:
what a weekend mate. could only be surpassed by seeing the elysian fields photos i've put on fb!! the ONLY way to commence the next adventure is private helicopter. perhaps setting you down where you bloody well please. that would be my personal choice.
what a top w/e mate. good work!
dave
Nice!
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