Hi,
Yes,as the title suggests,we were illegal immigrants for just a few minutes on Sunday afternoon and it was completely my fault,as I will explain shortly.
Since our last blog we have spent our time in Birmingham browsing the shops and the Christmas Market,just getting the last few bits and pieces for Christmas while we had the chance.A couple of friends from the good ship Fanakapan,joined us on Tuesday and our evenings have been spent with them enjoying some very fine Real Ales in some of the nicest pubs in Birmingham.On Friday morning we left Andy and Di’ and made our way down the Worcester & Birmingham Canal to where we have moored Chyandour while we set off on the next stage of our travels,this time though a bit farther afield.
Another couple of our friends,Rob and Suzie Conroy,from Swamp Frogs,went of to Cyprus a few weeks ago and before they left they invited us to fly over to join them for a week or two.We took them up on their offer this weekend and that was when we got into a bit of a pickle at the airport and,temporarily,became illegal immigrants.We wanted to get to the airport early and get everything sorted so we could relax,explore and watch other planes leaving for various destinations.It was our first flight out of the UK for many years and we weren’t familiar with the procedure so,seeing the Departure Lounge sign,that was what we made for.We went through customs,got scanned and I had a body search ‘cos the alarm went off.I hadn’t heard the instructions on what to take off my person and it took three attempts to get through the scanner and this frustrated the customs officer.From there we went through the duty free shop and had started our exploring when our names were called over the loudspeaker,asking us to return to customs.When we got back it transpired that we had missed checking in at the airline desk on the ground floor so this all meant that we had to go back out of the airport and start again but that’s not easy.
We had to get an escort from the airline,thank you Richard,to take us back through immigration while our luggage was escorted by two customs officers back to the airline check in without going through customs.It sounds easy,but at the time it was a bit worrying and we were thinking we might miss our flight.Anyway,after checking in properly,we were escorted back to customs to get scanned again and this time I was wiser and did it without a glitch.As a result we arrived in Larnaca safe and sound to be met by Rob and Suzie at Arrivals who then drove us here to Paphos and their villa.
A Monarch Airlines plane being serviced,we flew with Monarch but not this aircraft.One of Ryanair’s planes taking off in the background.
A couple of views from the patio at the villa in Paphos this morning.
The Edro III, an 83 meter long, 2,517 ton freighter that ran aground in stormy weather in the Sea Caves area of Paphos between Coral Bay and St. George’s Island on 8 December 2011.She was carrying a cargo of Plasterboard to Rhodes when she was disabled about ten miles out and then drifted to here.A view of the Sea Caves from the point where the Edro lll is aground.
Well,that’s all for this week folks,sorry it’s a bit on the short side.Since our last blog we’ve done 0 Locks and 13 Miles,giving us a Grand Total of 535 Locks and 951 Miles since we set off in October 2012.Take care everyone.
Haha oh my!
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