My long trip home

Priit had ordered me a shuttle transfer from Maroochydore to Brisbane airport as it did not make sense for him to take a full day off work just to send me off to the airport. Due to the shuttle leaving times, I was going to be at the airport 3 hours early. Priit was sure the extra time was necessary, and it turned out he was right.

When I got to the airport, I went straight to the Etihad Airways counter to drop off my luggage as I wanted some extra time in the airport tourist shops to look for some souvenirs. My suitcase was 23 kg, exactly the same weight as it had been on my flight over. I was relieved that it wasn't any heavier until the check-in girl said that although they accept suitcases up to 30 kg with no extra charge, as I had connecting flights with other airlines (Turkish and Air Baltic) which only allowed 20 kg, I would either have to re-pack making the suitcase lighter or I would have to pay for the excess luggage. She added up the different charges by other airlines and it came to $84 AUD per kilo (a total of $252 AUD for the 3 extra kilos). I tried to explain that I had done exactly the same route with the same airlines on my way to Australia with exactly the same weight suitcase with no problems, but she refused to budge. The only thing she could do for me was to check my luggage to Abu Dhabi only, where I would have to go and pick it up and then see if Turkish Airlines would allow me to check in 23 kg without paying the excess. For various reasons, which you know or might guess, the last thing I wanted to do was to leave the transfer zone in Abu Dhabi.

Since the check-in girl also weighed my hand luggage and told me that was 3 kilos overweight as well, she said I could not put the extra 3 kilos into my hand luggage, but had to find another way of redistributing the weight. I felt helpless as I had nobody to leave anything with, and I did not want to throw away any of the things I had in my suitcase, not least the giant jar of Vegemite that Priit had sent to Joel (and Vero and Emily).
When travelling in cold northern climate, I have been able to put on several layers of clothing to try to make the suitcase lighter. However, I had no thick heavy clothing in my suitcase; everything was light summer stuff. I was stumped at how I was going to reduce the weight.

Then I remembered that liquids weigh a lot. There was no way I was going to leave any of my bottles of wine that I had packed, but I could empty the shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and nail polish remover bottles. Then I changed into a long dress that I had bought, and put leggings and shorts under it, two layers of short sleeved cardigans on top, tights, socks, trainers, my light winter coat, the pockets of which I filled with laptop cables, the bag of carry-on liquids, and some other heavier things from my carry-on bag. In the end, I thought that I had taken enough things out of my suitcase for it to pass.

After queueing up again, I was directed to another check-in girl, who allowed the 21 kg of my suitcase to pass. The hold luggage was ticketed all the way to Tallinn. I was relieved that I could finally go through security, as I wanted to go and change out of my many layers of clothes. My carry-on bag was going to weigh a ton with all the extra clothes there, but that did not matter once I got to the plane.

Going through the security, I was pulled aside for explosives tests. I guess it was due to my multiple layers of clothes that looked really unnatural. They checked my bag and clothing for traces of explosives and patted me down to make sure I did not have a bomb belt on me.

When I was done with security and border, I barely had time to use the facilities to take off the excess clothes and pack them into my carry-on. The flight to Abu Dhabi was called and I had no time to go round any shops. I was glad then that I had taken the early shuttle, as the full 3 hours had been used up.

On the way from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne, the plane did not have to make any extra stops anywhere, as we were flying against the way the Earth turns. This made the distance the plane had to cover shorter. On the way back, we were flying the same direction the Earth turns making the distance the plane has to cover longer. As I understand, the amount of fuel a plane could carry would have been just about enough for a direct flight, but it would not have left any room for any unforeseen circumstances. So, just to be safe, on the way out of Australia, there is usually a short re-fuelling stop somwhere in Asia. This flight took us to Singapore for an hour.

During the whole trip, I was lucky with the people I sat next to on the plane. They were all really pleasant people who made the flights pass quicker. On my way over, I had sat next to a Greek girl, now there was a middle-aged Englishman next to me for the Brisbane-Singapore-Abu Dhabi part of my travel. He had been to Australia for two months, visiting his daughter. Time te passed quickly when we chatted now and again between sleeping and watching films. We also had a coffee together in Singapore. It was actually good to break up the 15-hour-long journey into two seven-and-a-half hour parts with a chance to get out of the plane and stretch your legs in between.

The Etihad Airways in-flight entertainment is really good. There were about 80 full-length feature films to choose from and 116 short programs from episodes of famous TV series to promotional travel programs about the Middle East and Asia. There were also quite a few computer games to keep you busy. It would have been easy flying with kids as there was enough for them to do for the entire journey.

In Abu Dhabi, I looked for my next connection and it meant walking 10 minutes to a different part of the terminal to find a transfer desk to get a boarding pass for the next flight. As I was looking for the correct transfer desk, I overheard another girl ask for the transfer desk for Turkish Airlines. I asked her if she was also flying to Istanbul and she was. We got talking and by the time we asked for new boarding passes, we also asked if we could get seats next to each other. She was an Australian going to Istanbul for a month to visit her Turkish boyfriend before returning to her au pair job in England.

The 5-hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Istanbul would not have been too bad if the air in the plane had not been too hot. Jodie and I kept taking turns to go back to the stewardesses and asking for some water to drink. One of the stewardesses took a disliking to us because of that and kept ignoring us when she walked past us. That was funny, as it meant that we had to go to the back more often to bother them to get water. But finally, that flight, too, was over.

I had a 9-hour wait planned at Istanbul airport. I sat and worked on my computer for a couple of those hours and read a book for another couple. I got to the gate to go to Riga on time, but we were not allowed on the plane until about 10 minutes before it was due to leave. I knew the flight was going to be late, but since I had an hour and a half between flights in Riga, I was not worried. I was rather tired and fell asleep as soon as I was on the plane. I woke up an hour later to discover that we were still standing at the departure gate. But as the plane started to move at that point, I was not worried. I knew that Riga airport was really small and that I would be able to run to any gate within a couple of minutes.

However, the plane did not take off. Looking out of the window I realised that we were waiting in a long queue of planes. Apparently, there was fog in Istanbul and all bar one of the runways were closed. The air traffic control used the same runway for landing and take off, which meant that once a plane had taken off, it had to be clear for some time before they allowed a plane to land there. This in turn had to turn off the runway before they allowed a departing plane to turn onto the runway to take off. So, we waited another hour there before we could take off. At that point it was clear that I was not going to make my connection to Tallinn.

I hoped that there was another flight the same evening that had free seats as I had no winter clothes with me. My Dad had taken me to the airport, and would come to pick me up, in order to reduce the amount of pointless kilos in terms of clothes I could not use while in Australia. I had already understood that I was not the only one who had missed the connecting flight to Tallinn coming from Istanbul. So, I rushed to the transfer desk when we landed. I met another Estonian girl, Jaana, there, and we both got our tickets for the same evening. We had a 4 hour wait, but that was made so much more pleasant by having somebody to talk to. As it turned out, the plane flying to Tallinn in the evening was the small Fokker 50 with 46 seats. We sat in the last two seats of the plane. I felt really lucky. :)

When we landed, the outside temperature was -20C (-4F), and as I was wearing shorts, I got some strange looks from the airport staff. My Dad was there to meet me and told me he had tried to heat my apartment, but that it would still be quite cold. He was right; the temperature in my flat was +12C (53.6F).

Can't wait to go back to Australia...

Last days in Oz

Following our busy weekend, I did not feel like doing much on Monday. But, since I don't get to be in Australia very often, I made sure I went to the beach in the morning. This was the first time I noticed a warning sign, which did not stop me from going swimming.

I met Priit for lunch and had my traditional sushi while he had donuts. Then I spent some time in the Sunshine Plaza soaking in the atmosphere and trying to find things that I might want to buy to take with me.

Shops were full of clothes and other items with Australian flags and patriotic sayings on them as it is Australia Day next week. Also, since school is starting up soon, there were tables with maths books and notebooks for kids in the middle of the shopping centre.

Henri and Eneken sent a message that they would have two free days. We decided to make bread on Tuesday and go to the local beach in Maroochydore and to take the car to Noosa National Park on Wednesday. So, Monday evening, I showed them how to take the leaven and add water and flour to it - not a difficult task in itself.

On Tuesday morning, we mixed the bread dough and left it to rise at home while we went to the beach. We had to be back around lunchtime to make the bread as Priit and I had plans for the evening. We were supposed to go and see Pille-Triin, the sister of our good friend, Pets. However, she sent a message to Priit letting him know that she was expecting a baby and was not feeling well, so we could not go there.

We went to see Priit's good friends Roland and Maret again. Priit got off work early and we took the scenic route to Brisbane.

There is a stretch of road that goes up a hill like a never-ending snake and later comes down hill the same way. It was a fun road to take and we stopped at the top to take some photos.

I just had to get a photo of the sign for Bruce Highway! :)

At Roland's place we helped to put cover paper on their daughter Kai's school notebooks, as she was getting ready to start school in a week's time and was really excited. I looked at her last year's notebooks and was amazed to find a subject called Social Skills. Kids in Australia are taught to express themselves, how they feel. The different feelings and faces are explained, what is and is not appropriate behaviour is explained, not just expected of the. And in year 3 at school, she has only one hour of homework per week. Most of her books and notebooks stay at school; she only has one homework notebook that she has to carry with her.

Kai reading a dictionary. :)

Priit and Robin - you can almost learn to fly when 

I didn't realise how difficult it was for foreigners without a permanent visa to have their kids attend school. Apparently, even though they work, and pay taxes, they still have to pay for their children's education, even though they attend state school. And it is not cheap. Only once they have permanent residency, are they eligible for education free of charge.

On Wednesday morning, after Priit had gone to work, Henri, Eneken and I drove up to Noosa National Park.

We were keen to see koalas in their natural habitat and we were not disappointed. The views on the coastal walk we took were spectacular and we saw two koalas during our walk. Some photos of the national park are below:

On our way back to Maroochydore, we stopped at a beach we had noticed on our way up to Noosa Heads. It had the most spectacular waves I have ever seen. These were also the most powerful waves I have ever experienced.

As I got home, I noticed that I had received a text message from my brother, Joel, advising me that he had taken his wife to the hospital and that he would let me know when my little niece was born. So, while out shopping, I got a little bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate me and Priit becoming aunt and uncle respectively. When Priit got home, he said that he was sure that the baby would not be born before midnight our time in Australia, and that he would celebrate the 21st of January as her birthday, not the 20th. We did get the message at 2am on Jan 21 (6pm Jan 20th in Estonia).


So, when I had finished packing in the morning, we had our half a glass of bubbly.

 Oh, and just in case you cannot see the name tag clearly, here is a zoomed shot of it:

Apparently, Priit is too difficult of a name for the locals to pronounce, so my brother is known here as Bruce. I can't wait to tell my little niece, Emily, that she has an uncle Bruce :) in Australia (who sent a giant jar of Vegemite as a present...).

GBR - Great Barrier Reef

Just as I had finished the last couple of lines of my last blog entry, we took off towards Rosslyn Bay. We had found a day cruise to Great Keppel Island on the internet that included snorkeling and boomnetting and that meant having to be 600 km further north in 8 hours' time. We knew we had to drive through the night in order to make it there on time. There was just the one tour operator, Freedom Fast Cats, that operated to Great Keppel and we wanted to make sure we did not miss the ferry.

Priit entered the coordinates into his GPS device and off we went. An interesting fact, that I have not yet mentioned, is that highways don't just have numbers here, they also have names. And it is only in Australia, that you would encounter a highway called Bruce. Bruce Highway runs from just north of Brisbane to Cairns - a distance of about 1700 km. From Brisbane to the northern part of Sunshine Coast, it is a dual carriageway and from there on, it is a single carriageway with overtaking lanes every so often. So, our GPS route showed us driving up the Bruce, but then taking a shortcut that would cut off about 100 km of the journey. We figured, since it showed as a major road on the map, it would be just another highway going more inland than the Bruce. But we had no idea how wrong we were...

We had agreed, that I would stay awake at home, to ensure we did not sleep in so Priit could get a couple of hours' sleep before the drive up. Then I would sleep in the car, but when he got too tired, he could wake me and I could keep driving. So, there I was, peacefully napping in my seat, when I was suddenly woken by a lot of shaking. We had hit a dirt road - that was our shortcut. It took us through several ranches - evidenced by the cattle grids on the ground and constant warning signs to mind the livestock. Fortunately, the road was quite good, but there were signposts next to the road indicating water levels. We were lucky it had not rained (summer in the tropics can be quite wet). You can see 4-wheel-drive cars everywhere with exhaust pipes up in the air on the driver's side. These are especially designed to help drive through flooded areas. Well, we did not have a car like that. So, finally, we were through that stretch of road and agreed to take the longer route back.


A little while longer and it started to get light. And then it suddenly a beautiful sunrise!

  Some of the roadside adverts here are good fun:

 Around 7am we got to Rockhampton.

It looked like a nice town. It has a zoo and a botanical garden. Also, the CQU (Central Queensland University) campus there is the biggest one. CQU has several campuses in different big cities in Queensland, but this one is like a small town itself. We drove past it to Rosslyn Bay to the marina our cruise was supposed to start from.

There are all kinds of traffic signs here. :)

When we got to Rosslyn Bay, we paid for our day cruise and then went to find some breakfast.

We ended up waiting for quite a while as they forgot about us and in the end we could only drink our coffees there and take the food with us.

That's the marina. We kept looking at the boats and dreaming of having one of these ourselves one day to sail around Australia. In my dreams..... :P

And yes, you heard it right... Priit does drink coffee now. He never used to in Estonia, but here is the proof - Priit with his morning latte.

That was just couple of moments after we had spotted a shark swimming in the water. The guides told us later that the waters between the mainland and the islands were quite shark infested. Not that encouraging considering what we did later... but you will see some photos of it below.

When we got closer to the island, we could not see a harbour and we were wondering how the people who were staying on the island would get off the boat. But, it just drove onto the beach and lowered the walkway to allow people to get on shore with their suitcases.

As we had an hour to spend before the next activities, we decided to take a walk on the beach. This enclosed area has a sign that said there was a turtle's nest there. We could not see anything, but I think the sand was a bit higher, so there could have been turtles' eggs there.

We also made our way to the local tourist trap where there were lots of fun T-shirts. Priit took a special liking to this one, but since there wasn't his size there, he didn't get it.

Before going back on the boat, we went to swim in the sea. I figured that the best way not to get burnt being out all day was to wear board shorts and a surf T-shirt. There was a 1-litre bottle of 30 SPF suncream on the counter on the boat for anybody to use as well.

The first activity was to take a glass-bottomed boat out to another nearby island and to see the corals there. Our guide also fed the fish, so I tried to get some photos, but overall, I think these do not do justice to the actual sights we saw.

 

This was the glass-bottomed boat. As you can see, that too drove to the shore to allow easy embarkation and disembarkation.

After our hour out with the glass-bottomed boat, we had lunch on the big boat. It was a decent lunch. There were lots of salads and fruit and they had a BBQ grill on the boat, which the one member of the crew had been using to grill meat and sausages on while the other two took us out to sea.

That was my lovely plateful of food.

... and this is Priit with his.

There was plenty of food for everybody and we ate enough to give us energy for the next activity. This was snorkeling. The snorkeling equipment was provided by the cruise. We spent an hour or more off the coast looking at corals and fish. There was a wide variety of fish out there. We also saw the clown fish made famous in Finding Nemo.

When we bought our tickets for the cruise, I also bought a disposable waterproof camera. I had never used one before, so I didn't know what to expect. I am not sure whether it was the quality of the film or my inability to take photos under, water, but a selection of the results of that hour's activities is below:

That's me under water. :)

.....and that is Priit. For some reason, the colours are a bit dull. There were way more colours in the corals.

After snorkeling, the next activity was boomnetting. I had never heard of that, but I quickly understood it once the boat started moving and the guide released the net that had been on deck at the back of the boat into the water.

All you had to do was to climb down the net and hold on to it while the boat was moving. We were going to be "shark bait". :D

 There were also two ropes on each side of the net that you could hold on to. Priit was the first to try it. He just held on to the rope and jumped it. It did not look too difficult. But soon I could see that the man on the left got tired and tried to hold on to the net instead.  One of our guides drove a small boat a short distance behind us as when some people, especially young girls, got tired of holding on to the net and could not pull themselves back up, they just let go and the boat picked them up and brought back to the big boat.

Here are just a couple of more photos of Priit enjoying boomnetting:

You can also see the small boat following in the distance.

It turns out that Priit is not only just like a bird in the sky, but also like a fish in the water. I wonder what that makes him? Semiaquatic?

Since, all the kids on the cruise were taking turns occupying the nets, I thought that it would not be too difficult to use the rope, like Priit had done. The instructor warned me that as the boat was moving, I had to hold on really tight, as when I jumped in, I would feel the rope pull really hard.

Boy, was he right! I was holding on for my dear life, but I could not let go and allow the small boat to pick me up. It would just not have been right.

So, I finally managed to get hold of the net and enjoy the ride.

After that we were given tea and cookies and we returned to the island to pick up those who just wanted the ferry service back to the mainland.

Overall, we felt that the day trip had been worth driving there all night and definitely worth its cost.

We got back to the mainland around 4.30 pm and drove to Rockhampton to see if we could use the remaining hours of sunlight to see something else before starting our long drive back.

The zoo and botanical gardens were next to each other, somewhat overlapping each other. The zoo was closed, so we took a walk in the botanical gardens. We could see some animals through the fence.

 These dingos were playing with each other. Watching them you could not tell they were not dogs.

There were kangaroos, of course...

... and some very lively bird activities going on.

I found a family of geese to bother. They were quite patient with the photo session. :)

I could not believe the size of these bamboos.

All swans used to be presumed to be white until black swans were discovered in Australia in the 18th century.

On our way back to the car we noticed lots of little noses sticking out of the water. We thought they might be small alligators, so we went closer to investigate. They turned out to be turtles. There were more than fifty of them around. Priit was very tempted to take one home. :P

We spent the rest of the evening driving Rockhampton looking at houses and finding a place to eat.

These are called Queenslanders. These houses are built on stumps, raised above ground to allow air to circulate. This was an early version of air conditioning. However, the lower the stumps, the more difficult it is to keep pests away from under the house. All kinds of bugs make their home there. I would be constantly worrying about cockroaches and other bugs with a house like that. They do look beautiful, though.

After dinner, we drove back taking turns to drive.

We spent Sunday recovering from the trip. I was not surprised, that my arms and shoulders were aching really badly from the boomnetting experience. :)