Flight To Oz

Sunday 29 October

Today is quite a milestone – leaving Asia after three months and reaching Australia – the real other side of the world. We were up at 05.00 and at breakfast before it officially opened to ensure we met the taxi, arranged by a very helpful concierge, for 07.00.

The taxi driver chatted all the way, and wanted to know all about our tour – he couldn’t comprehend traveling all that way – even though he drives miles every day for a living. The road approaching the airport is very long and very straight, with every colour of bougainvillea flowers in large wooden tubs along the centre – some flowers were even multi-coloured, as they had been cross-bred. The driver explained that this road had been built as an emergency runway for the airport, and should it be needed the tubs could be quickly removed – what a good idea. We arrived at Terminal 2 at Changi Airport just before 07.30, nly to find our plane was due to leave from Terminal 1! (we didn’t even appreciate that there were two terminals), so we had to get the Skytrain for the short journey to the correct terminal. Once there, everything was well signposted and we soon found the Quantas desk and booked in. We were traveling in a 747, which has half a dozen rows at the back of the aircraft that have only two seats on the side, instead of three, and we were allocated one set of these 72 A and B. As the flight is over seven hours, we will need to be able to get up and down.

We made our way to Gate 23 and settled down to wait. While in the loo, I found a passport and boarding pass, and had to explore the terminal to find the information desk to hand it in. I later saw the lady frantically looking all round for her documents and was able to tell her where to find them – earned me my brownie points for the day. I spent the rest of the waiting time, blogging, frantically trying to catch up with the last day or so. Most of the seventy five rows of seats will be taken, as three flights have been amalgamated – British Airways, Singapore Airlines and Quantas. Boarding was called promptly at 09.00 after going through yet another security check to get into the waiting area. We were called to board by row numbers and as we made our way forward, an older man and I collided as two lines joined and he made some deprecating comment, as if it was all my fault! We found our seats, and the plane took off only a few minutes after the due time of 09.30.

Of course, we hadn’t been in the air long before the obligatory meals arrived – pasta with aubergine and mushrooms, with a roll and butter, and a fun size bar of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk (Ray would have been swapping his meal for everyone else’s chocolate!), served with red wine and a cup of tea. Later they brought round choc-ices, bottles of water and bananas, which were all very much appreciated. Colin and I both watched a Bruce Willis film – “16 Blocks” – which was a quite exciting, predictable, good cop/bad cop story. We had the choice of eight films, some Australian television programmes, a news channel, and about twenty radio stations – at least they keep you entertained on the long flight. I then blogged till the batteries ran out, while Colin watched another film with Jack Nicholson. About 15.00 Singapore time round came the trolley dollies again with more food – this time cheese and ham toasted ciabatta rolls, with orange juice, fresh fruit salad and lemon shortbread biscuits and tea to drink. The food has been quite tasty and some of the best airplane food we have eaten. It was then the captain informed us that Sydney had changed to “daylight saving time” yesterday and was now three hours ahead of Singapore – so it was now 18.00, with just two more hours of flying, and we are now ten hours ahead of England. The skies had been clear ever since we flew over the shoreline into Australia at the north west corner of the country. The land appeared at first to be very flat red rock, broken in places by a few dried river courses but hardly any roads. It went on and on eventually becoming more hilly (they may be mountains but at 35, 000 feet they looked quite small) scarred with deeply defined ravines – it was just like looking at an aerial photograph in sepia tints. We appeared to be somewhere near Ayers Rock on the flight plan, but I couldn’t see any signs of life. We then flew over a huge salt bed – an oval shape of what looked like white sand in a very shallow bowl. There were two teardrops of other rocks protruding through to one side, which just accentuated the whiteness of the salt. It was then back to red desert, this time dissected by a larger meandering river bed, which could have been the Darling River, and outcrops of more hills. Everywhere appeared to be bare and barren. We approached Broken Hill on the plan, where the Flying Doctors operate from, and the scenery began to change – some large areas (fields the size of about ten football pitches?) were marked out – could these be ranches? – you couldn’t tell from our distance. It wasn’t until we neared landing time, that the scenery changed to become more green with scrub and then trees – we had been flying for about four hours over dessert landscape – it makes you appreciate just how large this country is.

The rest of the flight was uneventful and we landed just as twilight was fading over the city and the street lights were coming on. We did manage to see the Sydney harbour bridge with the Opera House behind, as we wheeled in towards the airport – they looked quite small from the air – but I don’t think the bridge will be any bigger than the ‘Spender’ Bridge in Newcastle. We could also see the the harbour and the coastline, just beyond. As we landed we seemed to pass very low over a main road, but the cars just kept on driving, obviously not at all worried by “low flying aircraft”.

We disembarked quite quickly, especially seeing we were at the back of the plane, and the only exit was through business class near the front. Our luggage went round the carousel twice, as a man blocked Colin’s path to it, by elbowing him in the ear. But the wait wasn’t long. There are some very strict regulations about entering Australia – no food including crisps and sweets as well as the usual fresh fruit, vegetables and plants ban, and no dirt on your shoes. Having got through passport control quite easily, we were then channeled through the quarantine area, where about twenty check out desks were “manned” by at least two staff at each point. At the first ones, the staff were opening and inspecting all items in the luggage, but we were directed further down the line (perhaps because when they looked at our arrival cards they saw “tourists”) and our cases were carefully scrutinized once again on the screen. The personnel questioned us about what was in our bags and cases and asked us to identify some shapes – including my box of Pringles (no food- oh dear) but when I said they had been unopened, they let us through – they were quite bemused by our coloured cases, and probably thought us harmless. We carried on through to the Arrivals hall, where we easily spotted the man taking us to the Hotel – as the dossier said: “he will be wearing a red hat” – yes a bright pillar box red cowboy style hat. He also had to pick up two other people, and we waited and waited for about three quarters of an hour for them to come off the train – they were the very last passengers through - and sod’s law, it was the man who had collided with me on boarding and his wife. She had had food in her bag which they confiscated – which meant more form filling I presume, and their English was poor. The man didn’t speak to us at all, but the driver was quite fed up with them because he was waiting to go home. They didn’t know the address of their hotel either, (there are three hotels called Pacific Continental in Sydney apparently) so he had to search their paperwork for the information, causing even more delays.

We eventually arrived at the guest house we are staying in for tonight, and when we return to Sydney in four weeks time. It is a very old fashioned terrace house – Victorian in style – and we have a room on the ground floor, which was helpful as it meant we didn’t have to carry our cases upstairs – its too old for a lift. We settled in – the room still has the original wrought iron fireplace and marble surround, but a small en-suite shower room has bee added. The whole thing reminds me of Elton Parade needing some attention. But the bed is soft – we are not used to that, and we have to be up early again tomorrow to join the tour on the other side of town by 07.30. We tried to find something of interest on the television, but it was all soaps, award ceremonies, CSI (which I left on) and adverts – Aussies probably live outdoors too much to have any decent programmes to watch. The driver told us it should be about 23 degrees tomorrow – hope so as I haven’t too many clothes for cold weather.

Time now to finish blogging and try to post the last three days accounts.

PS: Amazingly I cannot get connected tonight – perhaps they have all gone to bed as it is well after midnight!