FriendBurst Blog

Preflight – Wednesday – September 15

After months of planning, tomorrow we leave.  I’m excited, scared, apprehensive, giddy, worried, and on pins and needles, all at the same time.  I know I’m not going to be able to sleep tonight.  Maybe I should have a beer.  I just hope we have everything covered.  I hate surprises, especially when you’re thousands of miles from home and it’s a long swim back.

We have all of our papers in order, passports, e-visas, our medical insurance, and the road maps.  The bags are packed with just enough clothes to get us through a week at a time, for both the cold and the hot.  We have the cameras, the laptops, a movie player, an electrical converter, binoculars and our music.  Can’t go on a road trip without our favorite road music, I don’t care how far away it is.  I broke down and bought a travel vest so I won’t have to lug a purse around and I’ve solved my smoking dilemma with electronic cigarettes.  No smoking is allowed on the plane or in the motorhome and there’s no way I’ll be able to get through a 14 hour flight and 29 days on the road without something.  Yeah, I’m addicted.

We have our flights booked with Qantas.  I have always wanted to fly on Qantas, basically to find out if the hype matches the reality.  It rarely does in anything else, but we’ll see tomorrow.  We’ll be flying on their Airbus 380 which is supposed to be their latest and greatest plane with two levels of seating.  It looks awfully cool on their website.  I certainly hope the economy seating is as nice as it looks online.  Fourteen hours in a plane is a very long time.

We’ve rented a 3-berth motorhome with Cheapa Campa which should be ready and waiting for us on Saturday.  I just hope we can find our way over to the rental office from the Sydney airport.  On Google it looks like it is right across the street, but we’ll hail a taxi anyway.  We’ve got a few bags, all pushed to the packing limits, and I’m not built like a mule.  A small pony, maybe, but definitely not a mule.

Once we get the motorhome, we’ll hit the road.  Our general trip plan and direction of travel will be:

 1.  Sydney to Canberra

 2.  Canberra to Melbourne

 3.  Melbourne to Adelaide

 4.  Adelaide to Coober Pedy

 5.  Coober Pedy to Ayers Rock

 6.  Ayers Rock to Alice Springs

 7.  Alice Springs to Katherine

 8.  Katherine to Darwin

 9.  Darwin to Townsville

10.  Townsville to Brisbane

11.  Brisbane to Coff’s Harbour

12.  Coff’s Harbour to Sydney

Nothing on this trip is a definite, except our flight and rental vehicle.  We have lots of ideas, but no hard schedule of events.  Everything is subject to whatever will be, since all we have to follow is a general timeline.

Australia!  I can’t believe we’re actually going.  Now for that beer.