After a four-hour rest, she resumed her flight, proceeding to Basra, then Damascus and onto Athens. As she crossed the Mediterranean, a major storm was encountered and, according to her autobiography, she also experienced the St. Elmo's Fire phenomenon about the hub of her propeller. The next leg was scheduled to be to Rome but low cloud cover over the city forced her to land at Naples instead, where she spent the night. Exhausted, on landing she had to be bodily lifted from the cockpit of the Gull and given stimulants. The weather prognosis for the next day, 24 October, was not favourable, particularly over the Mediterranean. Regardless, encouraged by many cables of support received overnight, she departed that morning for Marseilles. She skirted some storm systems to land at Marseilles and then carried onto England, where she landed at Lympne Aerodrome in the mid-afternoon. A small enthusiastic crowd was present to cheer her on arrival. Batten had completed the flight in 5 days, 19 hours and 15 minutes. As well as lowering Broadbent's record by just over half a day, she also became the first person to hold the solo record for both the outward and inward flights. Broadbent's attempt on her England to Australia record had ended in Iraq, where he ran out of fuel. She also was within four hours of the all-time record for the fastest flight time from Australia to England, this being held by Owen Cathcart Jones and Ken Waller who had flown the trip in the multi-engined de Havilland DH.88 Comet in 1934. After 20 minutes clearing customs at Lympne Aerodrome, Batten took off again for Croydon, at the time London's international airport. A large crowd of 10,000 was present to greet her, Ellen Batten among them. Broadbent had sent a cable of congratulations which was also awaiting her. Batten was moved by the reception at Croydon, noting that it felt "more like a homecoming than just the final landing of a record flight". Her exploit was front page news the next day; one major newspaper headlined its first page as "The Girl Who Has Beaten All The Men". It would be the last long-distance flight Batten was to undertake. European tour With her latest record flight completed, Batten was hosted at Grosvenor Hotel in London and gave a press conference. Many questions were regarding her plans for marriage but she refused to