Australia | Diary of an Adventurous Retiree

The day for the trip ‘Down Under’ finally arrived. On FaceBook I posted a bitstrip of myself jumping down a manhole to the land beneath – If only it were that simple! Instead it required a 2-hour flight to Johannesburg, a two hour wait there and a bit of a delay when someone on the plane took ill and had to be taken off in an ambulance!

We had a charming travelling companion in the form of a South African geoligist who lived in Adelaide but worked in Tansania. We were on the left hand side of the plane, over the wing – but there wasn’t much to see anyway as the plane was plunged into darkness fairly early on and we were asked to keep the blinds up. It was actually light outside most of the time. I can’t sleep on a plane at the best of times but managed to get about 2 hours of cat naps. Thank Goodness for my Kindle as the inflight entertainment was not that great! The meals were fair, the seats terribly cramped but still it was exciting just to be going to another continent!

We arrived to beautiful weather and Cousin Wayne and his two youngest at the airport to meet us. Luckily we had his cell number as it was not easy finding him in the large terminal. After a Long Black for me and Cuppuccinos for Earl we got our hire car and made our way to Cardiff.

I managed to get Alexander to look at the camera

Lovely little Adelaide

Aunt wanted us to meet her at a Servo but we managed to get stuck in front of a truck when looking for her so had to carry on and it was impossible to turn back so we phoned and carried on using the GPS to guide us. The house welcomed us with a South African flag in honour of Madiba on the stoep and a flock of lorikeets and then some corellas cried out their greetings too.