Every journey has an ending. The two pilots of the Boeing cargo plane did not anticipate there’s would be the Mediterranean. It overshot the runway in Montpellier, and ended with it’s nose in the sea. To retrieve it took two gigantic mobile cranes. Hopefully an army of technicians will ensure that it is fit to return to base . An ignominious ending for both plane and crew.
We can only guess why. Was it pilot error, no doubt on their past record what Boeing will claim ; brake failure , then should we worry about the same problem with other Boeings? Or a freak tail wind , it was windy that night . We will probably never find out.
For us , we decided not to enter the Mediterranean but sit by the beach with a glass of wine watching the Sun set over the hills next to the last British outpost in Europe : the rock of Gibraltar. The sky turned vermilion whilst the sea seem to glow with reflecting light. All was peaceful after 13 hours of driving, almost entirely motorway. They are such a boon to long distance driving , especially across Spain and France , where for us Brits the distances are huge and roads normally half empty .
Things are even better in Spain now where tolls have been abolished . So it was a shock to find as we approach Malaga , toll booths ; and expensive ones at that . Here there are two parallel motorways , one free ; the other not . Google maps having the option selected of the fastest route , caused us to pay . The road was very quiet and the scenery magnificent . Some days later we decided to take the other , older route . Now the definition of a motorway is somewhat flexible in this part of the world . This route had bus stops and no acceleration lanes for joining traffic . We will pay next time, worth the extension to life expectancy !
Yes motorways can be a joy , but when things go wrong, then it can be spectacularly awful . On one journey we had passed a car literally half way up in a tree ; no indication how that astounding feat was achieved .The police had closed the M40 on a bank holiday Monday morning to traffic leaving London. The resulting jam stretched back passed two exits ; we sailed on in the other direction, mightily relieved . The next time , we were in Spain heading south , and the jam continued forever ; luckily for us heading north . What appeared to be a lorry fire had closed the Autopista approaching Valencia . Lesson : always carry spare food , water and cloths ..and listen to options from Google Maps .
Now we can forget all that unpleasantness , and concentrate on enjoying Estapona , and for a few short weeks , a Spanish lifestyle . But that’s another story .
Ah , we have reached the end of the runway
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