Woke up with thunder crashing in my head (as Elvis once sang) with the owner of the backpackers telling me that the representatives from Eimskip where here to get me. Crikey!
I hurriedly slung my clothes on, grabbed my bags and ran downstairs to meet the rather wonderful Samme the Shipping Agent and his assistant Liz. Blurry-eyes and croaking like Toad of Toad Hall, I jumped in the back of his car and he gave me a lift to his office to print out my disclaimer and then we headed to the docks and without too much fuss I embarked on the Reykjafoss, my home for the next week and my one-way ticket to Europe.
The captain is Polish and the crew is (once again) a mix of Ukraine, Russian and Pilipino. Everyone is really friendly and they all seem to know of The Linge Trader (it’s owned by the same company) as well as Captain “Get off my ship!” Van Den Platts. It seems that the world of international shipping is a rather small one and so we had a few funny stories to swap. In the evening, we watched a Metallica video (seriously!) and I, having not cleared my hang-over before getting on board and having used up all my anti-nausea pills on the trip to Cuba, was violently sick in my cabin’s toilet. Whaaaagh…Blurggggh, sorry about that.
Tomorrow, we get in to Argentia, Newfoundland, so with any luck, I’ll find a 24-hour Pharmacy. Although the captain has described the place to me as ‘somewhere after a Nuclear Holocaust’, so I’m not holding my breath.
In the meantime, can I just say a massive SORRY to everyone who is waiting for the next video instalment. During the days in Halifax, I managed to get Weeks 7 and 8 edited, and was planning to have 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 ready for when I got into Iceland next week. HOWEVER, my hard drive got detached unexpectedly from my laptop on Monday while I was saving it and the actual video files got corrupted, which means I have to upload and edit the blighters AGAIN.
I’ll have as many done as I can and fingers crossed I’ll have them online next Wednesday, depending on how things play out in Iceland. Because the Reykjafoss is running two days late, I might not get in to Reykjavik until next Wednesday evening, and if that’s the case I will probably miss my connection to the UK. Please bear this in mind if you’re hoping to join me on the round-UK-and-Ireland trip a week on Monday – don’t book anything yet! This is The Odyssey, and we just have to expect the unexpected.
