We left Lafayette about 1 for the drive to Avon where Alan's brother took us the last 15 minutes to the airport. As usual, we got to the gate in plenty of time, with probably our quickest trip through security yet. We then had a relatively quick trip to Dallas-Fort Worth, an hour's wait or so by the time we got to the international gate, and a pretty uneventful boarding. We were settled in when the captain gave us the good news that we had a quick flight plan, but the bad news that with that plan we would arrive before the Sydney curfew of 6 am was over. So we waited on the Tarmac and will take it easy getting there.
While we were waiting he told us that this is the longest flight in the world at 14000 km, and that we were carrying 2700 tons of fuel. Not to worry, we should still have 15 tons left when we land.
We left Dallas at dusk on Friday and we are getting to Sydney at dawn on Sunday. We were flying for nearly 17 hours and missed a day and a half on the ground...it's all kind of weird.
A
fter clearing customs, the ETA visa we did over the internet instead of going through the travel agency...saving a decent amount of money...worked without a problem. We collected our luggage, transferred to Quantas Domestic and then had a three hour layover, with free wifi to monitor the Boilermaker vs Minnesota basketball game, though the start of the second half wasn't much fun. We were scheduled to arrive in Cairns around noon local time, but there were some technical difficulties before we left, so our arrival was delayed as well. By the way, Cairns is pronounced 'Cans' over here and that part of Queensland is an hour behind Sydney time, so I think that is 15 hours ahead of Indiana time, for those of you keeping track at home.
fter clearing customs, the ETA visa we did over the internet instead of going through the travel agency...saving a decent amount of money...worked without a problem. We collected our luggage, transferred to Quantas Domestic and then had a three hour layover, with free wifi to monitor the Boilermaker vs Minnesota basketball game, though the start of the second half wasn't much fun. We were scheduled to arrive in Cairns around noon local time, but there were some technical difficulties before we left, so our arrival was delayed as well. By the way, Cairns is pronounced 'Cans' over here and that part of Queensland is an hour behind Sydney time, so I think that is 15 hours ahead of Indiana time, for those of you keeping track at home.
We collected our luggage and then boarded a bus for about an hour's ride up the Captain Cook Highway, a scenic road along the Great Barrier Reef lagoon to our hotel in Port Douglas. It was windy but there were some fantastic views. We were both pretty groady and Alan was feeling the effects of his 'back-of-the-bus' ride, not hearing from the plane descent, and no breathing drugs since Friday, so we got to our studio apartment, took showers and rested while waiting for our luggage. The guide on the way up told us they had just received about 13 inches of rain, which supposedly cut the humidity...though this is clearly a tropical area.
A bit refreshed, we returned to the main area to take care of some business and make some decisions for our later time in Port Douglas. Later we went back for a lovely buffet,with a number of fresh seafood items, like prawns (the size of your hand!), bugs (an Australian cross between a lobster and a crab), oysters, salmon, and beef sirloin.
We have an early day planned for tomorrow, hopefully starting with a sunrise on four-mile Beach, followed by a day at the Great Barrier Reef.
We'll add a few pictures to today's post when we have more convenient Internet access, so check back.
No comments:
Post a Comment