Cossie
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2006
- Posts
- 2,118
Hours or distance? A long time ago, Gatwick to Canberra, 1983, I think. Got to Gatwick in the morning and it was snowing. Garuda plane couldn’t land there, so was sent to Manchester, we were put on a bus and sent up to Manchester, arrived late that evening, onto the plane, de-icing happening, the de-icer’s shift was over before he completed the plane, so he clocked off. By the time he was called back and completed the job, the crew were out of hours.
Off to hotel, early next morning it was a s….. fight to get on other flights, so a few got away earlier on various flights and the remainder were put onto the original Garuda plane, which left in the late afternoon, honestly can’t remember where we stopped for refuel.
Into Jakarta, of course by this time I had missed my connection to Sydney along with many others, off to hotel for the night. Next morning it was another s…. fight trying to get a seat. All day in Jakarta, then Garuda to Singapore and put on a Qantas flight to Sydney arriving the next morning, then on to Canberra.
I was by myself, no-one at home (CBR) was expecting me, so it wasn’t such a big deal.
However as it was the week before Christmas there were many people who did have plans and needed to be in Australia by a certain date.
All in all, it was fun, hotels, meals provided, I was in Y, I was young. Would I want to do it again? Probably, actually, definitely not.
One regret is that I didn’t keep a diary, but I should have the tickets somewhere, I have to find them. No recollection of the flight back to Gatwick, so it must have been ok.
Off to hotel, early next morning it was a s….. fight to get on other flights, so a few got away earlier on various flights and the remainder were put onto the original Garuda plane, which left in the late afternoon, honestly can’t remember where we stopped for refuel.
Into Jakarta, of course by this time I had missed my connection to Sydney along with many others, off to hotel for the night. Next morning it was another s…. fight trying to get a seat. All day in Jakarta, then Garuda to Singapore and put on a Qantas flight to Sydney arriving the next morning, then on to Canberra.
I was by myself, no-one at home (CBR) was expecting me, so it wasn’t such a big deal.
However as it was the week before Christmas there were many people who did have plans and needed to be in Australia by a certain date.
All in all, it was fun, hotels, meals provided, I was in Y, I was young. Would I want to do it again? Probably, actually, definitely not.
One regret is that I didn’t keep a diary, but I should have the tickets somewhere, I have to find them. No recollection of the flight back to Gatwick, so it must have been ok.
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