I love to travel. I love going to new places, experiencing new things, and being out of my normal zone. The being there is great, but the getting there can be sometimes quite tiresome, especially if you are travelling with more than just a manageable set of luggage.

Flying with bikes can be a challenge. You are all set once they are checked in and sent off on their way through the oversized luggage x-ray machine, but trying to haul them around with your other luggage can cause stress and sweat, and shorten even the sweetest of tempers.

The CyclePower group takes this up several notches.We are a group of twelve, all with associated personal luggage. Add to that five handcycles, wheelchairs, a toilet/shower chair, sporting equipment and extra paraphernalia, and you wind up with a mountain of luggage that all has to be wrangled, checked in, labelled and sent by various means to the plane.

We are lucky to check in as a group, so there is no waiting in long queues, but there is still a lot of fussing around, including delivering the handcycles and other large items to the oversize baggage area before we can head through the departure doors.

There are an inordinate number of people in wheelchairs lined up to join our flight. We account for three of those, but there are many, I would say a dozen, other people needing assistance to board the flight.

It’s a 10.5 hour flight to Columbo. It isn’t a very comfortable flight. The seats have brick-like head rests that push my head forward to an unnatural position. I try to prop my shoulders with a pillow, but every time I nod off my head lolls and my neck and shoulders get gradually sorer as the long flight goes on. I’m not the only one in our group with this challenge, but we all make it through.

At the other end, we wait for all other passengers to disembark, then try to figure out what the process is to get our wheelchair companions off. It seems we are to disembark and the chairs will be waiting. This works out fine for Ray, who jumps in his chair and speeds off along the jetway. We wait with Alex and Rosie, but their chairs don’t come, and eventually, after some to-ing and fro-ing it turns out they need to wait on the plane to be lifted off.

We all head to the designated meeting spot. Alex and Rosie are eventually delivered to us in airport wheelchairs, and we head off to reclaim our luggage.

I take the processes of travelling as an able-bodied person for granted. I get cranky in long lines and when things don’t go the way I want, but I can board and unboard and move around a plane – even in the cramped conditions – just fine. I watch my travel companions who have disabilities and marvel at not only their patience, but their ability to cope with just being that little bit out of control of their own movements.

With luggage in hand, we make our slow procession out of the customs area and meet up with our travel guide. He is obviously challenged by the amount of luggage we have, and is most disconcerted by the handcycles. No, they don’t fold up. He asks not once, but several times, and when he doesn’t get the answer he wants he’s on the phone. Somebody out there is getting woken surely to help deal with this unexpected situation. It is after midnight.

Eventually he has a solution, and we follow him out of the airport to where a bus and a mini-van await. Passengers and luggage in the bus, handcycles in the min-van. Just like regular cyclists, handcyclists are very proud and possessive of their rather expensive machines. It is obvious to all of us that five handcycles into one mini-van do not go, but it takes a bit more persuasion until eventually two more mini-vans show up.

We arrive at our hotel around 1pm, and there is still a little fluffing around with rooms. Annette and I are shown into a room that has one giant bed, and we object immediately. Our porter gets on the phone and comes back telling us the hotel is “very full” and he is sorry there are no other rooms. We press our case and he admits there is a room “but it is very far”. Undeterred, we traipse out into the night again, dragging our bags.

We finally reach our room just before 1:30. There is not much time for sleeping, so I set about it almost immediately.