The End Part 3
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2011
1
208
261
Trip End
Dec 20, 2011
Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Day 22 Australia road trip
Kilometres travelled ; well, we've pretty much done all our road trippin' for now, and we got real slack on reading the km's a few days ago, so here it is, we've only got a few km's of poodling left to do - so ;
Start reading - not sure if we didn't even miss out a few days in the beginning -
148693
End reading - 152180
TOTAL AUSTRALIA ROAD TRIP KILOMETRES TRAVELLED ;
3500km !!!
Ummm....
Woke up, got showers, left the park by ten, still raining on and off all morning - 48hrs of near enough constant rain...heavy rain!!
Parked up just outside for a few hours to use up our free internet from outside...shameful...but true!!
After that took a ride to get some money out, parked the van up, cleaned it out, cleaned it up made sure we were all sorted and by then it was time to make our way to the Apollo rental depot, we were a little under a full tank so thought we had put enough in there to pass, but no, had to drive away again and put more in....for the sake of 5litres, which was pretty much exactly what we left the depot in Sydney short of, but oh well you live and learn - should have said something shouldn't we, but we know now.
Other than that all was ok, got our 100 dollar bond back which we were almost certain we had lost after doing the Sydney harbour bridge without arranging a toll fee, do that was a result!!
Taxi to the domestic terminal where we waited it out and got harrased by a narky old long haired toothless dude, wearing a crocodile dundee hat, white oakleys with scratches and paint on them, toothless, his leather jacket from the seventies and a box of mud crabs that he was taking in the plane....?????? As you do... Scary people. Scary scary people...
Tv on flight was'nt expecting that, along with some pretty nasty turbulence, always great when people start panicking, making noises, gripping seats and the blokes voice on the intercom is just that shade less than the normal relaxed monotone, a little flustered maybe. Anyway, so that's always fun too, those oh great this thing is going to fall out of the sky, We're going to die thoughts arguing with the don't be so stupid half of your brain,
. We didn't, so there you go.
Today was the first time we got excited, normally in the run up to leaving, we get miserable and excited, this time its come up on us so quick, that we hadn't got excited until today,
Out of the airport , the taxi queue was ridiculous as was the cost of it. The bus wasn't much better, and after waiting we thought. Well, we've done it once, we'll do it again, we will walk it.
Claire asked some posh bloke in suit and cap by a a posh car which way, he was actually just s normal bloke, and gave us a few 'are you serious' looks and took the mick out of us, but told us which way in the end when he realised we were serious
It wasn't too bad..... 45 minutes later to an hour and we're a bit out of practice after three weeks sat vegetating and driving, 22kgs for me and not much less on Claire, let's just say we were glad when we got there!!
Just mapped it on Google, 4km by walking, felt like it too!!!
Well it just got better from then on, we had walked to save money, thinking we will get to the international airport and grab some food, hadn't eaten since the morning, saving it, looking forward to a proper meal... Well guess what Sydney's 'international' airport closes , everything, barely eleven o clock and it was eerie quiet, what??? Apparently because its only 2km from the city..?? Really???
What a pain. So they rounded us all up, herded us into the far end of some corner somewhere with a few chairs, locked us out from the main part of the airport and we slept, or didn't , on the floor.
Sooooooo cold!
It was weird today, landing in Sydney felt like we were doing it first time round, and not sure if it sounds like we haven't enjoyed it, but felt like we could quite happily go pick up a van and do it all over again, so there you have it...
