The old proverb ‘a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step’ has a qualification if you live in Canberra: ‘any overseas journey begins with a trip through Sydney or Melbourne’. And so it was for Ness and Mark on Tuesday. We decided to forsake a 0400 start on Wednesday and the risk of fog for a civilised drive on Tuesday afternoon to Sydney. An added bonus was the opportunity to catch up with Jackie, Luke, Ava and Leo for dinner on the way through.
After an ok stay at an Airport hotel it was a smooth run dropping off the hire car, through check in and into the lounge . Departure was 30 minutes late, but the flight was good, albeit longish, arriving exactly 30 minutes late, matching the departure. The route took us way south, crossing Bass Strait and the north west corner of Tasmania. I think we flew directly over my colleague Hugh’s farm south-ish of Burnie! The flight went as far as 57 degrees south, we saw an iceberg out the port side of the aircraft about halfway through the flight.
We flew straight over Kergulen Island, but could not see a thing because of 8 octas of cloud coverage. Mark was disappointed as he had read a lot about the place in various accounts of 18th and 19th Century ‘derring do’ in and on the Southern Seas.
The flight tracked over the South African coast between Durban and Richard’s Bay, then straight into Johannesburg.
After a record breaking smooth and quick transit through O.R Tambo it was into the shuttle bus and off to another Airport hotel for an overnight stay. Up early ( went to bed at 7:30 pm due to 8 hour time shift) we were into breakfast, a brief watch of the sun by the (cool) pool garden and back to the I airport. Today we head to Zanzibar for a couple of nights in Stone Town prior Arusha via a bug smasher on Saturday. Flight via Nairobi on Kenya Airways.
Good news is jet lag appears (kinda) under control …and predicted max temp in Stone Town today is 29 Celsius! The cunning plan to avoid Canberra winter is starting to be realised!
Ness’ and Mark’s Wandering 