Liz’s Luggage

And they’re home! The otters are back in West Yorkshire, minus one suitcase and plus two new friends from the USA, fellow stranded travellers who were also heading over the Pennines, so we offered them a lift.

We’ve had nothing but positive vibes from everyone we’ve met on this trip and these guys were no different. Thank you Grace & Greg for swapping stories and keeping us entertained all the way home!

Do just one final drama of Liz’s missing luggage to sort out before normal life resumes… whatever next?!

Terminal Turmoil

Yesterday, a sprint from gate 7 to gate 52 in Helsinki airport (estimated walk time 36 minutes, we had 3) resulted in a missed connection, so imagine our panic at arriving at gate A35 in Frankfurt and having to get to Z15 in 30 minutes!

Thankfully, the alphabet in Germany goes A, B, C, Z… or at least it does in Frankfurt airport. Here we are at the gate on time… we’re coming home!

Duty Free

Strange to find yourself completely free from day to day duties. It turns out that Liz and I are quite happy to spend our time sleeping, eating, more sleeping, more eating and a spot of shopping thrown in for good measure.

We are starting to understand why Finnish people are so happy. It’s a lovely country, very calm and full of welcoming people and thoughtful touches. There are certainly worse places to be stranded, and worse people to be stranded with!

Two Otters, Stranded, in Helsinki

News is coming in of 2 otters, native to the River Wharfe in Otley, West Yorkshire, spotted in Helsinki airport without onward flights.

These brave creatures were returning from a expedition that took them outside of their natural habitat to take part in a meeting of other water-dwelling creatures from across the globe when they were unexpectedly caught out by a delayed internal flight in Finland resulting in a missed connection.

Lucky, otters are resourceful creatures and a local source has revealed that they are setting well in temporary accommodation, taking the opportunity to rest and regain some strength after their extraordinary adventure in the Arctic, and are reportedly enjoying a large and luxurious home-cooked meal that these remarkable animals have pre-prepared in case of emergency.

It can’t have been easy for them to learn that they’ll be home more than 24 hours later than planned, but with their adaptability and determination, they’re sure to make the best of it.

Let’s hope all goes well for the onward trip to West Yorkshire, via Frankfurt and Manchester, tomorrow.

Time travel & no time due to travel time

Sorry for the delay in updating you all.

Both finished safe & sound, both time travelled, and both found it challenging.

Both slightly overwhelmed by finishing and both managed to not hit record on our finishing videos… pair of mums on tour!

A very quick turnaround required to get us to the airport on time, could have done with a tardis for that part of the journey!

Here’s a quick picture of us at the finish (not Finnish) line, note the Dr Who scarf to celebrate time travelling!

A huge, huge thank you for all the supportive messages and encouragement as well as the generous sponsorship. We have almost doubled our original target of £2k to reach £4k (plus gift aid) which is incredible.

Thank you.

I was so pleased with this video, but it turns out I only pressed record when I’d finished speaking!

National pride

As the nation prepares for a great sporting event that is about to take place, we remember the blood, sweat and tears that has gone into the preparation. The hours of grit and determination it takes to be at the top of your game. You can’t help but admire the athletes for all they’ve done to get us to this point.

Coincidentally, England are playing at the same time!

Super soup

Race day is here, although with a start time of midnight it still seems fairly distant. We’re behaving like true athletes and carb loading, as well as trying out some local delicacies.

We walked 3.5k to the nearest cafe for a soup buffet: reindeer soup or salmon soup with bread, cold drinks, tea, coffee & biscuits included, all unlimited. And not too DEER which is good because we’re trying to REIN in our spending (sorry)!

When is a finish not Finnish?

Spent Friday afternoon exploring the race finish area over in Sweden. It’s very confusing because the Finnish section isn’t the finish line, it’s the start, and the finish isn’t on the Finnish side at all. Coupled with the hour time difference between the Finnish time and the finish time, it’ll be a miracle if we get all the travel arrangements right!

Friday evening was spent hopping between the sauna and the river to cool off, only to realise that the sauna is not, infact, a free perk of our accommodation, but a booking-only paid for service. This means we have been gate-crashing other people’s peaceful sauna sessions for the past 48 hours. Oopsies!

Day Minus One..

Lovely morning settling in to our Finland home. We ventured upriver in the car to find an entry point to the river and swam back to our accommodation, just to get a sense of what to expect tomorrow.

We met some lovely folks along the way and a beautiful dog, but we did at one point have a momoment of self-awareness when we found ourselves at a bus stop in a foreign country wearing our swimming costumes.

We’re off to Sweden next to register for the event and explore another new country for us both.