10 NOVEMBER 2006

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Farewell meal and our flight home

The next morning, we got up an hour later than usual and headed out onto the streets to find some breakfast. The students were returning back to campus with takeaway noodles and we had some initial difficulty getting something to eat. Afterwards, Bruce sat down with Zhanghai and exchanged photos, survey data and GPS data before lunchtime arrived. Our bags were hurridly repacked and we had some extra unwanted luggage left accidently by John Whalley to spread between ourselves which included several flashguns and SRT harness/kit.

We sat down in the upstairs room of a small restaurant/cafe just around the corner from the gates of the Jiangcheng College - China University of Geosciences, where we were staying. Here Zhanghai ordered some good food that was very traditional to the area and to where he was born. Professor Yan also arrived and seconded Zhanghai's choice. Bruce tried to refrain from eating due to the delicate nature of his stomach and the pending flight. He attempted to drink just cold beer, however after the spicy chips arrived and fried noodles, he took the plunge.


Wuhan street near the Geociences University

Afterwards we were guided down the nearby streets to do a bit of shopping for VCD's, computer programs, LED torches. Eddie had his mind set on acquiring a compact yet versatile chinese sewing machine that he felt he could put to good use back home. Several times he had spotted these machines on our travels and with the help of Zhanghai negotiated a price for one from a sewing repair shop despite our best efforts to deter him on account of our already significant air luggage problems. This second-hand machine was actually in use and orders for that day were presumably cancelled whilst the shopkeeper acquired another. Something like 200 Yuan was paid and the heavy machine was bagged up in a sack.



Zhanghai wanted to visit his mother for her birthday whilst he was in Hubei province but offered to get a taxi to the airport should we have problems with our baggage weight. We said our goodbyes and jumped into a taxi for Wuhan's airport sited out of town.


View from our room at the guest house in the Geosciences University


Gates to the Geosciences University

Our limit for main baggage was just 20kgs each and after weighing our bags on a unused check-in scales we discovered that we were 12kgs over between us. Some hasty repacking outside the lounge and redistributing our heavier items to hand luggage reduced our weight significantly enough to give us no problems at the check-in.

On arrival at Beijing airport just before midnight, we reclaimed our bags and headed for check-in once again. The flight had been delayed and with a negotiated allowance of 30kgs each we were able to repack our heavy items back to main luggage with the help of a conveniently placed set of scales at the check-in queue. We received our boarding cards for the onward flight and our transfer at Dubai and proceeded to the security checks. Our departure cards were hastily completed and Eddie was pulled up yet again at the xray machines. The officer pulled some disgusted faces as he went through Eddie's bag and uncovered the sewing machine form it's fertilizer bag wrapping.

On the plane, Ed realised that he was missing his travel documents for our transfer flight in Dubai. This was reported to the flight crew who sent somebody back to look for them. Failing this, we were told that it wasn't a big problem and that we would fill out a form in Dubai. The Emirates office would be contacted for us ahead of our arrival.