Kos

John and I had stayed overnight at the Mercure Hotel near Gatwick, a mere £5 taxi ride for something that should have been walkable, but because the airport layout is incredibly pedestrian unfriendly, we had to go by car.

We met Tom and Donald in the security queue, which was a pleasant surprise. I thought they’d flown out the day before so wasn’t expecting to see them. Tom was a little absent, having had a fairly heavy night previously. Rather than take advantage of our paid-for “Speedy Boarding”, John and I expressed our solidarity with the Brothers by boarding with the plebs, which was a hollow gesture as we ended up scattered throughout the plane in whatever seats were left, and none of us sat together.

It was something like 40°C on arrival at Kos airport. I do like a warm climate. Graeme met us, having caught the bus from Kos township 25km away. The bus back into town didn’t seem to be imminent, or had just left, and the queue for taxis was the length of a whole planeload. After a miscommunication and miscalculation which meant we missed a charter bus to town, we paid a little more than the scheduled bus fare and caught the next charter bus, which took us right to the marina for €5.

We met up with Phil who, like Graeme, had arrived in Kos earlier, and the five of us spent a remarkably long time sitting at a table at the marina café not being served.

Phil waiting for beer

Still waiting

We did finally manage to get in some beers and a few plates of chips. Hurray!

Donald - beer and chips arrived!

It seemed an equally interminable time waiting to see if our sixth crew member was going to turn up. With Mike’s arrival, we had the full complement – time to find some Inspiration.