Jon WelchThe Bates family of Attleborough were last night due to embark on a marathon coach journey back home after becoming stranded in Portugal.Michael, 52, his wife Julie, 49, and their children Laura, 21, and Calum, 19, were due to fly home from the Algarve resort of Albufeira on Sunday after a week's holiday.Jon Welch

By JON WELCH

The Bates family, of Attleborough, were last night due to embark on a marathon coach journey back home after becoming stranded in Portugal.

Michael, 52, his wife Julie, 49, and their children Laura, 21, and Calum, 19, were due to fly home from the Algarve resort of Albufeira on Sunday after a week's holiday.

However, their airline Monarch was unable to offer them a flight home until Thursday next week. They investigated hiring a car but one rental company quoted a E3,000 (�2,638) surcharge for them to leave the vehicle at Calais on top of hire charges.

They have, however, been able to remain in their hotel on a night-by-night basis. "They have been absolutely brilliant," said Mr Bates.

Attempts to club together with other stranded Britons to hire a coach failed, but the family managed to book seats on a coach due to leave at 11pm last night, paying E390 (�342) for tickets, including ferry travel.

It is due to travel through Portugal, Spain and France to the port of Roscoff in Brittany, from where passengers will catch a ferry at 3pm tomorrow and sail to Plymouth.

From there, the family will be met by Mr Bates' brother-in-law, Roy Wilson, who has offered to drive the family back to Luton Airport, where their car is parked. They expect to arrive home some time on Thursday.

"It will not be a particularly pleasant journey but we've got to do something; we can't sit around and wait for the people in authority to act," said Mr Bates, a printer for Attleborough-based Breckland Print.

He was due to be back at work yesterday, as was Mrs Bates, a civil celebrant, who had been due to officiate at a funeral. Laura, who works at a Lloyds Pharmacist in Attleborough, and Calum, a kitchen assistant at Wymondham College, were also due back at work.

Mr Bates estimates the flight chaos will end up costing the family an extra 1,800 Euro (�1,582). He said he had been unable to contact his insurance company to find out whether he will be able to make a claim on their policy.

UEA academic Dr Sarah Churchwell is stranded in the United States, where she has been for a conference and research trip.

Dr Churchwell, senior lecturer in American literature and culture, said she had been due to fly home with British Airways last Friday night, but changed her flight to Sunday after seeing the problems starting and realising she needed more time.

Her flight was cancelled and she has been told that the soonest it could be rescheduled for is Friday, and that even that might be optimistic.

"So at present I'm in Princeton, staying with friends, which is very lucky or it would be costing me a fortune in hotel bills. I am, however, about to run out of some medicine I need - it's not life-threatening, but I don't do well without it."

Dr Churchwell said her husband was in a different part of the USA on a business trip. His flight home on Thursday with Delta was changed to Sunday before being cancelled. He has now been scheduled to fly home next Monday.

A group of A Level geography students from Paston College in North Walsham and Sewell Park College in Norwich arrived home yesterday from a trip to Italy which, ironically, included seeing Mount Vesuvius and the city of Pompeii, frozen in time by its cloud of volcanic ash 1,900 years ago.

They should have flown home from Naples to Stansted at the weekend, but had to find other ways back to the UK - and arrived home yesterday afternoon after a coach and ferry journey.

Meanwhile, two Lowestoft brothers who have spent the past two years making a film about an epic round-the-world adventure look likely to miss the world premiere of their movie because they cannot fly to America.

Ben Wylson recently cycled in every continent, including Antarctica, as part of a madcap adventure with his cousin, Jamie Mackenzie.

Now Mr Wylson and his brother Jack face missing the screening of the film they have made about the trip. They had planned to fly to America tomorrow for the premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival, in California, later this week.

Ben Wylson said: "It's just such an ironic situation that after getting across every continent using just bikes and never planes, the one plane we actually wanted to catch won't be going anywhere. We're gutted but there's nothing anyone can do."

Elsewhere, an event being held to mark the memory of ten US airmen shot down over Kessingland, near Lowestoft, in the second world war will go ahead despite problems with flights. Thirteen relatives of the men who died when the Repulser was shot down in April 1944 were due to travel to Suffolk for the dedication and service on Thursday but now only one of the family members, who is already in Europe, can make it.

Liam Marint, Kessingland parish council chairman, said: "It's a real shame. When we first heard about the dust we thought it would only last 24 hours, so it's a bit unbelievable that it has caused so much chaos."

A film crew from RAF Mildenhall will record the service so that it can be sent to the relatives in America who have not been able to travel.