Both very tired- Richard's wake up call didn't wake him, so two tired but intrepid aviators up and rearing to go around 0600 hours, meeting up with an international press agency man photographing us trying not to look bleary eyed carting all our flight gear down the hotel corridors; met up with Pushbak and other bank colleagues, and spent from 08.30 hours to, believe it or not, 1315 hours, before we were finally given permission to fly, having even started up our aircraft and began to taxi 75 minutes earlier to find the good old customs man, smiling as ever, suddenly appear in front of us, explaining he needed more signatures and clearances, despite assuring us 3 hours earlier all was finished!
I was feeling a little sick today, partly with a bit of suspected Deli Belly as we affectionately call it, mixed with just plain old exhaustion, not having any time off at all for the last 19 days.
Just before take off my compass and angle of bank began playing up, resulting in me not being able to fly very effectively this leg, with me feeling definitely off-colour as well. We decided to fly high to pick up a favourable tail wind predicted by Met.up there, so we sailed up to around 10,000 feet for the whole flight, with me comparing air speed, ground speed and altitude all the time, and starting to feel very cold, having sweated profusely in my hot flying gear with our hot-tarmac delays, that now left me feeling shivery and cold, plugging in my heated gloves.
We then hit some GREAT turbulence, charging at high altitude into well-developed thermals. We would be thrown violently to one side, hitting the fast moving spiralling turbulence that would shunt our ground speed from 95 mph to 65 mph in a couple of seconds, accompanied by soaring up at over 500 feet a minute effortlessly, with both of us bracing ourselves for the inevitable opposite violent movement as we came out the other side of the thermal, throwing us the other way, jarring the wing bars into us, accompanied by a swooping, gut-wrenching descent just as fast as we came out the other side!
Both of us I noticed repeatedly checked that our little waist safety belts were definitely secure!
As we approached Bhopal Richard described the beautiful lakes that surround the city, infamous for the dreadful chemical disaster some 15 years ago, with a release of a deadly chemical gas cloud that killed over 5,000 people, and has left thousands of others disabled and ill, with many blinded through it.
We were warmly welcomed on landing, and given immediate hangarage, with the head of the SCB here coming to welcome us.
Whilst Richard cleared customs etc, I was encouraged to meet the press conference waiting patiently for us, and walked through, garlanded once again in pungent-perfumed Indian wild roses, into a barrage of camera flashes from some 30 very enthusiastic press people, all demanding I give them an official message from myself to the people of India etc. I felt a bit like Kissinger standing there, and it took a good 30 minutes before the questioning and flashing cameras calmed down, and I was able to give them some photos of the microlight flight from my computer, as they were denied access to the hangar and machine.
After Richard joined me we were whisked off to a beautiful hotel that used to be the palace of the local ruler of the region- beautifully preserved with ornate fountains sparkling in the courtyard outside our rooms.
After a quick shower we were taken back to the airport for a evening flight to Bombay, so we could speak at an event the next evening for the bank, arriving at the Bombay Hilton around 2300 hours, to be met by Jon Cook our Project Manager and our wonderful bank hosts once again.
Another exhausting day, tumbling into bed around 0100 hours, trying to recharge our batteries for the busy day ahead.