A two-and-a-half hour drive? Great...

We landed in Hanover about 2 hours later than scheduled. We were met by one of the soldiers from the base, Sergeant Turner - apparently nicknamed Tina! We trailed our kit and luggage through the airport and were preparing ourselves for the 90 minute drive to the barracks near

Münster when the news was broken to us that it was in fact a two and a half our drive. Yikes. We all headed for the toilets and decided the drive would be a good chance to sleep - again! Unfortuantely the van we were to be driven in was parked at the opposite end of the airport, where the troop planes would usually land, so we had to haul our stuff a fair distance, and we were all shattered by the time we got to the mini-bus because it was pretty warm outside and we all had heavy kit with us.

We sped along the Autobahn out of Hannover and watched the German countryside whiz by at about 90mph, listening to the British Forces Broadcasting Service news. I have to say it wasn't the most comfortable of journeys - the suspension on the mini-bus was a bit suspicious, and I felt like my head was vibrating inside because I'd dozed off with my head up against the rattling window.

Soon enough, we came closer to the base, which was well defined by double rows of razor wire fences.

At last, we were there!