Tuesday 10th April: Weather 10°C to 12°C cold damp and misty
Taunton: Arrive Paris, 1hr 30m Flybe to Exeter, 20 min bus to Exeter Station, 21 mins train to Taunton
Accommodation: Lowden’s Guest House Taunton
Business Class Etihad
Etihad foam amenity bags
Exeter international airport
Flybe twin prop bombadier
Somerset County Cricket Taunton
A long day after arriving in Paris at 7.30am - well relaxed after another lucky Business Class flight from Abu Dhabi - thanks Bonnie, followed by a 1hr 30min flight in Flybe to Exeter in Somerset UK, a 20 min bus ride into St Davids train station, and finally a 21 minute train trip into Taunton, home of Somerset cricket.
It’s 10°C outside when we arrive in Paris at 7.30am and Yeh! our solitary bag with much of our hiking stuff has arrived. We took the precaution of taking our hiking back pack with the important hiking gear as carry on luggage - just in case there was any hiccup with luggage transfers. We have 5 hrs to kill. Lucky we can get on to the internet, so time to make a few booking.com bookings for BnB’s for 3 days ahead and sort our gear. Time for a Starbucks before battling the crowds through customs and security to Gate K21 for our flight at 1.30pm. Paris CDG is crawling with the gendarmerie, a collection of 10 gun toting policemen at every turn - an rightly so, Paris being the target of many recent terrorist attacks. We
At 1pm we’re loaded into a standing-room-only bus for a 25 minute ride to the outskirts of CDG where our purple-painted Bombadier twin prop Flybe is waiting. There’s no seats left and the plane is full of skinny runners who have just completed the Paris marathon held two days ago. Clouds shroud the English Chanel and it’s grey, misty and damp when we arrive at the Exeter International Airport - about as big as the Caboolture flying school shed. But Exeter is home to Flybe, the largest independent regional airline in Europe. Flybe started operations on 1 November 1979 as Jersey European Airways as a result of a merger of Jersey-based Intra Airways and Bournemouth based Express Air Services, and in 200 became British European, shortened to BE, hence the name Flybe.
It’s a cold but the Stagecoach bus arrives on time at 2.38, and after 30 minutes we’re at Exeter St Davids train station for another cold wait for the Edinburgh train that drops us two stops later at Taunton. It’s a damp cold evening when we arrive and struggle down the High Street loaded with our resorted backpacks and large duffel bag. First stop is the Post Office to check out parcel post for our surplus dressy plane clothes, then to EE, the UK phone company that Ian decided would be good for his £30 sim card with 16g of data. I duck across the road for a 230g isopropane/butane gas can for our all important coffee stops with our JetBoil.
Our home for tonight is Lowdens House, just another 10 minute walk through the town. It’s one of a string of BnB’s and handy to Tesco’s Supermarket, where we visit soon after dumping our gear in our cosy room. After buying honey, powdered milk and a few other essentials and dropping them off in a room, it’s time for a shower and a short walk up the road to the Corner House Hotel for a real English pale ale. Two pints later when we attempt o order dinner - it’s steak night at this pub - we’re told there’s be a 20 minute wait in ordering as they’re “busy” tonight. One hour later when there’s no sign of us getting to order, let along get a meal, we leave and walk back to Tesco’s for bread and cheese to make a ploughman’s dinner in our room. Not a good start o dinner at an English pub. They probably detected the Aussies are coming.