Off to the Old World

Sally and Dick venture to the old world - May-June 2004

Day 0 - Monday 17 May - Mundubbera en route to Toowoomba
The DPI was reorganised the previous Friday so Dick was busy on the phone and went in to see colleagues in Toowoomba while I collected our France Rail Pass and bought a small thermos.
Day 1 - Tuesday 18 May
Next morning we had time to buy some thongs for Dick before heading to the airport. We checked in at the terminal then had a picnic lunch of boiled eggs, salami, cheese, fresh tomatoes, lettuce, vita wheats and the remaining wine from the previous night.

The flight to Singapore left at 2.30 pm took 7.5 hours. We flew over Moura, Blackwater and Clermont, then probably the Cobbold Gorge area near Georgetown. We enjoyed the comfort of business class seats on Qantas and a movie about the Flemish painter - The Girl with the Pearl Earring.

Blackdown Tableland western escarpment in the afternoon

South Blackwater mine

South Blackwater mine and the Blackdown Tableland

evening cloud towards Singapore

We had three hours in Singapore airport. It was a long terminal and a bit empty although there were a number of people. We walked across to the other terminal to check in, tried their Oasis lounge with the fancy seat/beds, then the sky train to terminal one before heading to our departure lounge. 

We were quite tired by the time we boarded Air France at 11 pm [ add 2 hours to Brisbane time]. I was dozing off but decided to have the meal. This must have been about 2.30 am or so. Air France economy was pretty cramped with little reclining on the seats but at least we had a vacant seat between us. A 14 hour overnight flight meant a long sleep - if only we could have! I awoke over Tehran at midnight on France time. We then went over Bratislava and Bucharest.