Journey

Friday March 6th - Saturday 7th
Terminal 2 Heathrow - Paris - Air France AF1681
Dep. 1800 Arrive 2010 (+1 hour GMT)
Paris - Rio de Janeiro - AF442
Dep. 2315 Arrive 0625 (0925 in the UK) 0n Sat March 6
As always, early arrival at Purple Parking, Heathrow, via Tesco for the forgotten anti-DVT aspirin. Terminal 2 was new to us and we were not very impressed with the facilities on offer. Despite checking in and printing off our boarding cards online yesterday, this airline still made us stand in the same queue as those who hadn't. The latter were expected to use terminals to check in before joining the line. We then had a trek to 'Station X' to check in the tripod bag seperately.
Only 45 minutes in the air before landing at Charles de Gaulle where we walked about a mile before taking a small train to the departure area, all at the same terminal. A microwaved - by us - ham and cheese toastie helped spend the three hour wait for the Jumbo to Rio. Again window and centre of three seats which we were allocated for every flight on this trip. The ten hour flight seemed interminable. I had a period of white-faced, clammy bodied faintness before dozing fitfully in a rather restricting seat. The three in front of us had their seats fully reclined for the whole of the flight - as usual! No water/drinks/hot towels etc service during the long night so, as we are not allowed to take bottles of water on board, it was rather dehydrating. Not impressed with Air France.
All the baggage arriving is always a relief as is emerging to find someone waiting to greet us. Peter, our birding guide was waiting in the very warm foyer where everyone introduced themselves. Three couples and four unaccompanied men made up the party. The luggage was loaded into a car and us into a cramped minibus for the nearly two hour drive to the Lodge.