The Adventure Begins

Chuck some more snags[1] on the barbie Bruce. I’m on the way.

Work colleagues might not believe it’s me saying this, but today T2 is my favourite terminal!

Because, finally, after several years waiting, and almost eleven months since booking the flights, my car’s parked up, my hold baggage checked in, and after an amble through Duty Free I’m now enjoying the hospitality of the Escape Lounge at Manchester Airport Terminal Two

Duty Free didn’t go quite as expected. I sampled a very nice dark rum, but then in conversation was told that they wouldn’t sell me any alcohol due to people having issues trying to take liquids over 100ml into Australia. According to the Australian Border Force website you can take in up to 2.25 litres of duty-free alcohol, although it then says that aviation security regulations may restrict the volume of liquids you can take into Australia as hand luggage. So you can, but you can’t. Glad that’s cleared that up! Luckily there are airport duty free shops available on entry into Australia that you can buy from. Fancy them thinking of that! I’ll be having a look and reporting back once I’m there.

The weather outside is, as expected, autumnal, although the rain clouds have at least raised the temperature from what it was a few days ago. On an even brighter note I’m going to be leaving it behind me. The temperature in Doha – my first stop – is forecast to be thirty-one degrees at midnight around the time I land. During the day it’s set to peak at thirty-nine degrees, which is probably a bit extreme and best avoided.

In the meantime though, sufficiently fed and watered, it’s time to head to the gate for boarding. I’m writing this post on the fly, in real time, so there will be timeshifts and situation changes throughout, but hopefully the end result will make sense. Back soon – in the next paragraph in fact.

Virtual commercial break over. I’m back.

Thanks to the lovely Qatar Airways staff at Manchester I got comfortably installed in an extra legroom seat next to the aisle. My neighbour plays rugby professionally for Doncaster, and was on his way home to visit family and friends in Papua New Guinea. A very well-built guy as you’d imagine, which came in useful when the top refused to come off my bottle of water!

Had a drink, fell asleep watching The Simpsons, got woken up by a young lady with a curry, and currently just updating this at thirty thousand feet and six hundred odd miles an hour while listening to Simon and Garfunkel.

A tip I was given by a Qatar Airways crew member was to book my meals before flying. There’s a decent choice but only limited amounts of each, so a bit of pre-planning means you’ll end up with your first choice. It also meant that I got mine first! Might also work for other airlines so worth a look as a no-cost perk.

We’ve just had a passenger announcement. Iraqi airspace is closed due to the ongoing situation in that area so we’re going to divert and land at Istanbul in about forty minutes. From there we should find out more about continuing to Doha. Didn’t get this going to Benidorm!

A few minutes later another announcement. Istanbul is full of aircraft so we’re off to Ankara instead. I spoke to other people later who’d flown from Germany, and diverted to different airports again.

We spent two hours sat on the tarmac in Ankara, during which time the plane was refuelled. Then we set off for Doha once again, but by a different route which would avoid the missiles, finally arriving five hours later than planned and well after the connecting flight was scheduled to leave.

The arrivals hall at Doha was in  chaos, with crowds of people coming in from numerous flights and no immediate help available. Fortunately, I had the Qatar Airways app, which advised me my connecting flight had been held back. I had forty-five minutes to clear security and get to the gate for boarding. A mad dash which included collapsing breathless at the shuttle station, a ride across the terminal on the shuttle, and breaking into a run for the last part ensured I collapsed into another extra legroom seat just in time. Then we had a further two-hour delay while we waited for passengers from other affected flights to catch up!

Doha airport passed me by in a blur, but if you’re ever here it looks massive, and the sort of place you could spend a few hours looking around. You could also spend a lot of money looking at some of the luxury brands on sale, and anywhere that has its own electric passenger train running inside the terminal isn’t designed to be budget!

Once we finally set off for Denpasar I knew it was going to be tight to get the connecting flight the for the last leg. Six hours stop had reduced to ninety minutes in which to exit the aircraft, recover hold baggage, find the transfer desk and clear security. Fortunately, three of us who were going on to Cairns were met off the aircraft and escorted through, where they also scanned our luggage receipts and sorted that for us. Security was quickly dealt with once the two security officers found out that I do a similar job at Manchester!

And then onto the Airbus A320 for the last lap. This is operated by Jetstar who are the budget arm of Qantas, so smaller seats and no extra legroom here. The plane was nice and cool after the heat outside though, and as I’d been given a window seat with no-one next to me I was comfortable enough for the four hour flight which was largely across Australia. Pity it was dark! On the plus side I’d been given a ten-dollar credit to spend on board, so tucked into a bacon and egg ciabatta and a coffee.

The trip hadn’t exactly gone to plan, but the Qatar and Qantas staff were great throughout so despite all the delays, curveballs, moments of panic, gasping for breath and phone battery dying I made the final destination at the predicted time.

I didn’t wash and change on the way due to having no time at the airports, so I didn’t need the cabin bag. Maybe I’ll just take the laptop bag as hand luggage on the way back. But there’s plenty of time yet to decide.

In the meantime, I made it…

I’m in Oz!!!

[1] Snags are sausages. Unless you’re Keir Starmer in which case they could be people being held against their will. Hopefully he’d hold back from throwing people on a barbeque though. Unless it’s his latest initiative to keep pensioners warm this winter.