Day 31 & 32 – Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 January 2018

Awake at 5am & away at 6.30am, Charles & family drive us the 15 minutes to Dubai Airport where we hug & kiss & say our farewells.  We queue for a fair while at check-in, then through passports & security then the short train trip over to our departure terminal & then the long walk to our departure gate.  Fortunately there are some café’s nearby so we have time for coffee & breakfast while waiting for boarding, as we finish breakfast the boarding commences.  The plane is an A380 & is full so it takes a fair while for everyone to queue & find their seats on the plane.  Our departure is delayed a bit waiting for some passengers so we take off around 15 minutes behind schedule.

Our flight to Bangkok is uneventful, around 7 hours, we watched some movies, however, in Bangkok everyone has to get off the plane, taking all personal belongings, walk through a full security check.  A lot of people are unhappy, especially the ones that bought alcohol in the Dubai Duty Free & continuing to Sydney as it is all confiscated from them.  A long walk through the terminal & back through the transit part, then another bag check before the gate lounge.  We have to wait a long time in the lounge area, a lot of people standing.  Our flight departs around an hour later than scheduled.  This could have been done a whole lot better.

Our flight to Sydney is uneventful, around 8 & a half hours, we watch some more movies & sleep a little before landing at 9.30am Sunday morning, an hour behind schedule.  Our landing is eventful, because there was a strong wind.  The plane has cameras on the top of the tail & below the cockpit.  We approached the landing sideways to the runway, the pilot did a great job keeping the runway lined up.  The left set of wheels touched down first, followed by the right, then a bounce, then a straighten up before the nose wheel touched & a little shimmy before braking hard, lots of people applauded the pilot for being so skilful & getting us down safely.  We passed though Passports fairly quickly, however our bags took about half an hour before appearing & then it was a rush to try to get to the bus stop.  I did not think we would make it, the bus was due to depart at 10.25am.  We arrived at the bus at 10.27am & the driver was just about to shut the luggage compartment.  As we sat down, the driver closed the front door – we were just in time & the bus departed at 10.30am.

Our bus trip to Canberra was uneventful, we slept on & off most of the way.  It was great to see our son James who was waiting to pick us up at 1.30pm.  We were home at 2pm, then chatted with James for another hour.  Great to be away, but great to be home.