There were a couple of spanners in the works, but I made it to Adelaide OK.
The first spanner was getting my bike through the baggage check-in. After pestering Virgin for dimension limits, and trussing the bike up with wrapping and padding for Africa, airport check-in staff greeted me with hems and haws;
It would need a protective box. Which would cost extra. But it’s within your size guidelines. OK, we’ll provide it free. The box isn’t big enough. We don’t have a larger one … We’ll need to see the contents. You want me to unwrap three hours’ work? OK, just a peek then. Righto, it’ll have to go in Oversize. And just like that – an hour later – my bags were checked in.
I made the dubious decision to cart the cheap bike I bought in Cairns because;
- I didn’t want to add to the flotsam at Roger T’s place
- no-one on Facebook wanted to buy it
- I used credit from shysters Kiwi.com ( Ukranian ) to pay for the trip. The few dollars leftovers dollars of credit for a standard fare would have either been wasted, or meant dealing with them again.
As a reward, I had a rare second coffee, and settled in to listen to audiobooks for three hours before the flight.
Delayed
Because I was on board, there was an obscure “technical hitch” to delay take-off, and add further grist to my persecution complex.
Within a jiffy hour, we were airborne. The flight was uneventful, and took about 10 games of phone sudoku.
Moana Sands
The owner of the shared house where I’m staying was good enough to pick me up at the airport, and a 30-minute drive later we were at the seaside village of Moana Sands.
The house I’m sharing is older in the sense that it’s mainly wooden, with high ceilings. I’m on the bottom floor, near a quiet road. The view from the top balcony alone, overlooking the sea to the East, is worth the price.
I think I’ll like it here.