Sunday Afternoon Volcano Update

By John on

I never expected to have to use “Volcano Update” as part of a post title.

I have received word that Oliver Townend and William Fox-Pitt are leaving England today with a “mad travel plan” to avoid all of the massive flight delays and cancellations caused by the Icelandic Volcano.  This probably means they will miss the final day of the Belton Park event, a major Badminton prep. Flight bans for the UK have been recently extended to 0600 GMT Monday (1AM EST).  I wonder how high “I have a really important horse show in Kentucky this week” ranks on an Airliner’s list of priorities for delayed passengers.  Check back later this evening for our final (thank God) preview group of Rolex competitors.
Update: lec, who knows her stuff, has commented that “WFP and Ollie are driving to Barcelona,Spain and then hoping to get a flight to the USA.”  buena suerte
  • Anonymous

    Will William and Oliver get eliminated if they can't be there for the jog even if someone else can jog their horses?

  • lec

    WFP and Ollie are driving to Barcelona,Spain and then hoping to get a flight to the USA.

  • http://www.ecogold.ca Patricia Da Silva

    that's a long way to drive...Scotland + Ireland airports are open, why didn't they go there instead?

  • KathyMcD

    I think WFP and Ollie are in the clear based on the updates on WFP's website. What an adventure it's been:

    Travel Update - Monday 19th

    Great news, after a beautiful flight down the French coast Teresa and I have arrived at Madrid airport. We have checked in for our flight to Miami later this afternoon, are all booked into the Miami International Airport Hotel for tonight and Oliver, T and myself will catch the 6.30am connection to Lexington tomorrow morning all being well.
    A million thanks must go to James Gibson-Fleming, Yogi and all the team in the office for getting us this far.

    Travel Update - Sunday 18th

    We rushed home on Saturday night as panic was setting in that I was not going to be able to get to America on my Monday morning flight out of Heathrow due to the volcanic ash cloud. Alice and Hannah had been franticly looking for alternative ways across the Atlantic for myself and Oliver Townend and by Saturday evening we eventually managed to book a flight from Madrid to Miami on Monday afternoon. But then came the drama of trying to work out how to get us to Madrid. We booked ourselves onto the Eurostar from London to Paris on Sunday afternoon, Oliver made it and I managed to miss the train at Basingstoke! But thanks to local hero and hunt master James Gibson-Fleming we commandeered his single piston airplane and he agreed to fly myself and Teresa Stopford-Sackville (Cool Mountain's owner) to Madrid at 4am on Monday morning by visual controls.

    Oliver, once in Paris hit a brick wall with no trains or busses available due to a strike, so he hijacked a taxi, at vast expense, to drive him the 900 miles to Madrid. He has made it to Madrid airport and I will update my progress later on today.