Year Four

This week marks the third anniversary of our departure from Australia. This time three years ago Garry and I were on our way to Washington DC, kicking off an amazing two-month journey through the USA, Canada, South America and the Middle East. Our leisurely route to London feels like a distant memory.

To celebrate the start of our fourth year we're off to Gibraltar tomorrow. I last visited The Rock in October 1990. I'll be returning almost 18 years to the day since I last left. I don't think I imagined I'd ever have an opportunity to come back. That's me you can see near the summit of the rock all those years ago. It's a long narrow slab of limestone that rises dramatically from a flat, sandy peninsular. It's highest point is 426 metres.

To reach The Rock you must fly into a small airport that straddles a narrow sand spit connecting Gibraltar to Spain. Each end of the runway extends onto reclaimed land that juts into the ocean. This means that the only road into the territory must also cross over the airport runway. As your plane approach, boom gates descend, blocking the road much like those those you see at level rail crossings.

Getting tickets to Gibraltar has been an adventure in itself. Our original tickets were purchased in December last year. British Airways had an unusually cheap deal for one particular weekend. We later found out why. This was the weekend was the closing date for the sale of BA's franchise airline to EasyJet, one of Europe's largest budget airlines. Our flight to The Rock was with BA, whiled our return flight marked the first day of EasyJet ownership.

EasyJet was immortalised on television in the reality program, Airline. Each week viewers would watch passengers get stranded by delayed flights, poor weather and so on. Nothing put me off budget airlines more than this program. Soon after booking our ticket, our experience quickly began to resemble that of passengers on television.

First, BA contacted us and asked if we wanted to transfer our return flight to the new EasyJet owned route home. The alternative was to fly with BA, but depart early on Sunday effectively giving us half a day in Gibraltar. We elected to switch our return flight. It was at this point that the fun began. In March the ticket was changed as my father had taken ill and I wanted to travel to New Zealand at short notice. However, BA failed to update the change correctly. We discovered the problem when our booking suddenly vanished from its website months later.

When I called BA they claimed we'd failed to show for our flight and as a result we'd forfeited our ticket. Numerous angry calls later, BA finally admitted that it had made some errors. It generously offered to refund our tickets and pay compensation. We accepted the offer, rebooked our flight and pocketed the change. Our weekend away is now cheaper than ever. I'll also use the £40 I made from my focus group adventure to buy us dinner. Hopefully our first EasyJet experience won't leave us stranded on Sunday evening.