A Kingston businessman has triumphed over hordes of stranded tourists, a French rail strike and profiteering Calais dock workers during a two-day journey home from Dubai.

And Russell Lawley-Gibbs, 41, had the last laugh when the Icelandic ash cloud gave him a congestion-free commute past Heathrow on Monday morning.

Mr Lawley-Gibbs first realised there might be problems when Emirates Airlines told him his 8am Friday flight would leave as scheduled, but advised him not to check out of his hotel room “just in case”.

He was then told a cancelled flight would leave him stranded until the end of April, so he hastily booked a flight to Nice and found the bus terminal there “absolutely rammed”, with men in tears and a French rail strike in full swing.

Appointed unofficial leader of a party of non-French speaking Australians and Japanese, Mr Lawley-Gibbs led his flock to the train station and discovered an unadvertised train to Paris, where he helped everyone find hotels.

His own credit card not working, he was stuck in Paris at midnight, with four bags of luggage, searching for a hotel cheap enough for the cash in his wallet.

Updating friends via Facebook, he said: “It was awful. Because I usually stay in quite nice hotels my friends were revelling in the fact I was stuck in Paris having a terrible time. I knew a lot of people were having a laugh at my expense so I was on a mission to get home.”

On Saturday morning he found the coach station packed “like a disco”, but he got on a train to Flanders, changed at Lille and got an 11am train to Calais.

With only one of six ticket offices open, he said: “It was like the films you see of refugees. My first thought was the refugees at the Statue of Liberty waiting to be processed.

“I just thought I have to keep moving. As long as I’m moving towards England I’m better off than the thousands of people who are procrastinating.”

Calais dockworkers told him he could hitch a lift on a freight ferry for 100 euros, or for free if he brought a party with him.

Safely back in England, Mr Lawley-Gibbs said the worst part of his journey was the six hour trek from Dover to Kingston, blighted by slow trains and weekend engineering work. He finally arrived, to a welcome party of friends and family, at 8pm.

Back at work in Maidenhead on Monday, he said the ash cloud had a silver lining. He said: “It was beautiful driving in today. It was a spring day and the roads were empty.”