Well, as expected Easyjet did their best to upset my plans. Only two planes were delayed – one to Alicante (15 mins) and mine (they claimed 25 minutes…which in airline terms means an hour).

It was an hour. And then just before pushback the captain comes on. We are having difficulty arming one of the emergency exit slides so can’t leave until it is fixed. Here we go I thought.

But I couldn’t fault them. The engineer arrived within 5 mins and had fixed it within another 5 (I suspect it was a case of turn it off and on again!). So departed 1hr10 late. My plans to get to Decathlon for camping gas looked in jeopardy. Thankfully the flight made up 10 mins on the way and Faro airport are pretty efficient. Through border control in 10 mins, and bag turned up in another 5. Was out of the airport and in a taxi 20 mins after wheels down. Made it to Decathlon with 45 mins to spare. They (obviously) didn’t have the gas I wanted, but managed to find me 2 smaller canisters than the one I wanted. So have 350g of gas rather than the 450g I expected. Will have to economise …. or eat out more. Option b) is preferred.

Temperaure 17degC at 9.30pm. Taxi driver told me it was 22degC during the day. Definitely made the right decision.

Hotel isn’t exactly the Ritz, but will do the job for tonight. Will need some serious repacking tonight ready for the 9.00am train to Lagos tomorrow morning.

And found a local store down from the hotel that sold cigarette lighters. So as well as gas I now have something to light it.

Am now in a bar in the centre of town sampling the local ale. It passes the Grumpy Test.

All in all, today could have gone a lot worse.