Day 26 - Belgium to Paris

Written by Stephen Hall with Glenn Harris, Matt Irvine & Brad Robson

When the game of car Tetris finally concluded and all our bags, boxes and bodies were squished into the team van we said our goodbyes and thank you's to Martijn and set out for Paris. It was just after 3am and following the basic instructions we made our way through the abandoned streets to the main highway. We all fell asleep during the drive and after 3-4 hours we arrived at the airport, parked up and went back to sleep in the parking lot. Brad was first awake and managed to get Matt and I up to go find some food within the airport and left Glenn to catch up on the sleep he'd lost during the long drive. We searched aimlessly for a food court but we were disorientated and in a different part of the airport than 4 weeks ago so we eventually settled for some overpriced-average-tasting cafe. Our plane was leaving for Hong Kong at 2pm from 'A6' so we put our heads together and tried to decipher the map of the airport.

Back at the team van we collected some trolleys and unpacked all the bags and bike boxes. Glenn was still exhausted so we told him to have another hour and we'd meet him at the terminal once he checked the van in. It was a long walk to A6 but we made it in the end and began to recognize this side of the airport. By the time we made it through customs the plane was beginning to board so we met up with Glenn and joined the line. We must have done a good job cleaning the van as there wasn't any issues with the rental company. The 10+ hour flight to Hong Kong in theory was actually 16 hours (due to +6 hour time zone difference) and we would arrive at approximately 7am. To give us the best chance of limiting jet lag we planned to sleep the majority of the flight, then stay awake for as long as possible in Hong Kong (including the 8 hour trip to Perth) and then finally sleep in our own beds once we were home late Tuesday night. We stayed awake for the first meal and then it was lights out for all of us, I personally didn't move for an entire 8 hours and only woke because I could smell food! With just over 2 hours remaining in the flight we played a few games and watched half a movie until we began our descent into Hong Kong.