A Day in Transition

Day 3: Keflavik, to London, to Winchester

by Eric Chastain

The last Icelandic sunrise of our two-week expedition occurred several hours before our departure time of 6am, but most travelers slept as late as possible to prepare for the heavy day of travel.  Our plans for this, our third day overseas, were to fly to Heathrow, England to unite with Dr. Jonathan Matthews and continue feeding our thirst for energy knowledge.  Upon landing, Jonathan greeted us with smiles and led us to what would become the closest thing to home we would see for another two weeks:  two white, 15-passenger vans that drank diesel fuel and dwarfed most cars on the English highway.

We headed out of Heathrow and filled our diesel tanks for about 80 pence per litre (over $5.00 per gallon), then proceeded to Farnborough to the home of Mr. Fred Treble.

One of the countless benefits of traveling with Derek and Jonathan (both born in the U.K.) is that myriad personal knowledge is shared and each accompanying traveler gains a unique appreciation for the area – something few bus tours can offer.  Mr. Treble, or Fred (as he requested we address him), is one such local interaction.

Fred has seen his share of developments in energy, himself being a retired energy consultant for the United Kingdom, as the entire class learned after being warmly welcomed into his home.  He spent considerable time developing solar panels since the cold war began and now owns one of the few residences in England with rooftop solar panels.  Fred’s residential solar panels were erected, not to provide all of his electricity, but to decrease the amount purchased from the grid.  He explained that if the 24 panels in two parallel arrays on his roof were producing more than he was using (which was indeed occurring during our visit), the power company uses the excess energy in the grid and credits Fred on his monthly bill.  While not looking to make money (or break even), Fred described his own solar panels as part of his passion for protecting the environment. 

The class then exited his living room and was led to his beautifully maintained garden behind the house to see the solar panels on the roof.  Following another lengthy discussion about the panels, we thanked our gracious host and traveled several hours to Winchester.  After looking around town for some time for the first of several poorly marked hostels, we parked to discuss our next course of action.  A much-needed break from the vans was needed, and we returned to our white chariots a few hours later relieved and refreshed.   Our hostel turned out to be only a block away from where we were parked, so we walked to it and found our night’s lodgings to be an old mill, built over the Winchester canal and still partly open to tourists.

This mill had a large meeting room and a few other lodging rooms in which the sexes were separated.  After receiving a brief lesson from the wily innkeeper on how to use the sleeping-bag-like hostel sheets, we all met in the eating/meeting room and had a discussion on how we could create a more amicable environment throughout our daily travels.  After deciding to make more time for groceries and bathroom breaks as a group, a few of us talked with a young English guy from Nottingham about the differences & similarities between the U.S. and U.K.  Staying in hostels allows us to meet a multitude of people, and this traveler was only the first of many we would encounter along our journey.

Eric Chastain is a Senior in Environmental Systems Engineering.

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Last updated: Wednesday December 03, 2003