Day 1 - Fri 25 Sep: Hippo Farm to Brisbane to Dubai

After a final pack and a shower, we left home at 10:15 am to arrive at the HVB airport at 10:50 am. Greg dropped me off and went home to prepare for his afternoon guests. The QANTAS check-in counter was not yet open, so I stood around waiting, first in the queue. I was checked-in just after 11:15 am.

A little bit of excitement - 2 prisoners were escorted onto the plane with 4 Feds (they looked like Feds). The bad guys were quite large (muscle bulk) so maybe that's why they were escorted by 2 Feds each? They were right at the back of the aircraft when the rest of us boarded. We took off a little late, maybe due to the prisoners, and a guy in a wheelchair so arrived a little late into Brisbane. However, I was not uptight as I knew I had 8 hours to wait before the next leg.


Bug smasher Hervey Bay to Brisbane

I successfully made my way over to the international terminal, and had a short wait in immigration only because I was so early; the flight had not yet been activated on the computer, so the nice man had to have that done before I could proceed. A short walk through duty free, without buying anything and I was in the QANTAS Club. The lady at the front desk was a bit surprised to receive a customer and I was the only one there for about 4 hours! I found the only stand-up table that had a power point, plugged in the laptop and did some "work". A couple of GTs and 7 hours later I was boarding the A380 for Dubai. 

There was a short delay to boarding for reasons not explained, but again, a couple of Feds turned up to talk to a man?!  I was very lucky in that I had a vacant seat next to me and next to that as well; i.e. 2 of us had the 4 seats. It enabled us to both spread out and be comfortable (as comfy as one can be in an acft). I watched 4 movies (Aloha, Spy, San Andreas and Survivor), ate 2 meals, and 14 hours later I was in Dubai.















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