Our travel plan was to fly to Sydney on Tuesday evening to be assured of sufficient time to catch our international flight on Wednesday at 11:00.
Having now met up with Frances, one of our travelling partners, at around 18:00 we boarded the Qantaslink plane and were about to commence our journey to Sydney when the captain announced that the flight was being cancelled due, we heard later to the curfew limitations for this plane to return from Sydney in time for the next morning’s flight.
Somewhat distressed we disembarked and contacted our travel agent Jean and then spent a gruelling two hours in a queue to eventually be told that we could not be accommodated on the Wednesday morning 06:05 Sydney flight.
At this point of anxiety we heard back from Jean that she had managed to get us onto the 06:05 flight and so the three of us headed home; thanks to our neighbour Tim’s generosity in providing transport.
We had a quick meal supplemented by some nerve quelling wine and set our alarms for a 04:00 trip back to Hobart airport, once again thanks to Tim’s “Uber” service!
Frances, Corinne & Jak back home after flight was cancelled
The Qantas desk assistant duly checked us in but only for a later flight to Sydney via Melbourne arriving at mid-day!
After much protesting and derision we were placed in hands of a highly competent Qantas person who found Jean’s booking reference and our blood pressures gradually returned to a degree of normality. A positive aspect of this issue was that now our luggage could be checked right through to Kathmandu which would not have been possible the previous evening. We are deeply indebted to Jean for the amazing assistance she provided us under what can best be described as very troublesome circumstances.
On arrival in a very wet Sydney we transferred from the domestic to the international terminal and subsequently passed through customs and security with minimal delay. At this point we met up with Diana, Chris and Sue who will be our fellow travellers for the next four weeks.
Corinne, Frances, Diana, Chris, Sue & Jak, Sydney International Terminal
Our flight path, SIngapore AIrlines, Melbourne to Singapore
The Singapore Airlines flight from Sydney to Singapore was in a A380 800 plane travelling a distance of 6476 km in just under eight hours. The comfort, hospitality and meal service for the Singapore flight were excellent.
A further travel concern we faced was the limited time we had in Singapore before our flight to Kathmandu with under one hour to transfer by train from terminal three to terminal two. However, despite the large distances we had to walk to get to gate E24 it all worked our miraculously well and we headed off to Nepal in a fairly old Singapore Airline’s 737 800.
We tried to get a modicum of sleep during the five hour flight to Kathmandu as it was approaching 24 hours since we’d left Hobart. Timewise, Nepal is four and a quarter hours behind Eastern Australia.
We landed at Kathmandu’s Tibhuvan International Airport at 22.20 local time and having acquired our US $30 visas, headed expectantly to the baggage collection area to have the joy of being re-united with our luggage after an eventful day!
We were then met by our very friendly Nepalese guide Gaurab who transferred us by mini-bus to the Kathmandu Airport Hotel where a good night’s sleep was the order of the long day. It was now after midnight and the 1st of May and we headed for bed with a sense of relief and anticipation for the new adventure ahead that will commence tomorrow.