Back on dry land.

AJ & I returned from an exciting "Fjordland cruise" on Saturday, on mv Discovery, the ship that G & I travelled on to Mumbai in December 2009. It was an eventful cruise. "A disaster" is how it was described by some. We should have sailed from Avonmouth on 18 April. Due to storms the previous day the ship was unable to get into port, so we were delayed for a day, causing us to miss two ports of call. We had two days at sea, the first had a couple of hours of sunshine before the "ill wind" struck. That lasted for the remainder of the cruise, with little relief. We did have an afternoon in Stavanger, cold but dry - interesting old town. We were walking, but the tour bus, used by many, would not start. Tour abandoned. The most impressive fjord of the tour was traversed overnight! We arrived at Flam in a force 8 gale, unable to dock, lots of manouevering & two hours later, we anchored & lowered 4 tenders. They were eventually loaded & headed for the quay. The first 3 landed & tourists separted on buses for Voss, up in the mountains. Only number 4 heard the recall back to the ship due to worsening weather conditions. We had a brilliant lunch in Voss, a couple of hours shopping (Norwegian traditional sweater at a bargain price - watch this space!)then up on the railway to join the Flamborgen railway - steepest railway in the cosmos, 1:18, 5 independent braking systems on each car. There was a blizzard at the station, several inches of fresh snow since the last train & a wipeout for much of the descent. Waterfalls frozen. Arriving back in flam we stood for 15 minutes, buffeted & soaked, whilst waiting to board the tenders - surely they expected us to return! The pilot said that he had never known such weather before. Eventually we sailed for the ship on tender 2, tender 1 could not dock to the ship due to the force 9 gale, so we circled, returned to the quay for a while, then tried again. There was great relief all round when we were all boarded, especially the lady with a zimmer frame! On to Bergan - amazingly cold & pouring down all day - we walked around for two hours, then returned to the ship with soaking jeans, despite wet weather gear. We cruised home in rough seas for the final two days - sick bags everywhere - the sun was shining at Avonmouth! G returned from Nepal last Wednesday, having succeeded in reaching Base Camp Everest - a tick in another box, so I returned to a nice warm house & dinner on the table. One of those statements is beyond the realms of probability - I warmed some soup before bedtime! A beautiful morning so tennis, hopefully, then to Solihull to collect J & Th. I have lost a couple of stone in the last three months - lightest I've been since I was a teenager, so I may treat myself to a new pair of jeans today. I think I'll wear the new sweater - that should turn heads. Sounds like a good day.