Well, it's finally begun. I'm typing this at Melbourne Airport having snaffled one of the few power points. The airport has several good, strong wireless networks but they all want money. Cheapskates.
I didn't have to stress about my tour pack from Contours. The earliest I thought I could reasonably expect it to arrive was the Friday after Easter. Privately, I thought it was far more realistic that it wouldn't show up until the end of the week after that. Instead, it showed up on the Wednesday!
It wasn't as good a pack as the ones ATG puts together but it still has plenty of info. One small drawback is that the hotel/B&B for one night near Leckhampton is a good 2.5km off the trail - and down hill. Fine getting there but will be a bugger the next day. I might cheat. I've discovered that if I follow the road a little longer I can rejoin the path without having to climb back up one of the steepest parts of the escarpment. The route notes mentioned going off path but not by how far. They also didn't include the extra mileage in the daily total, just the amount along the path. Thank doG for Google Maps, otherwise it might have been a nasty surprise.
My other complaint is more of a quibble. They included about 20 notifications of changes to the path since it was first gazetted as a National Trail. Much tedious reading and inspecting of the map and guide book supplied showed that they were both sufficiently recent that they included all the changes so no need to worry. In Contours defence, the National Trail website doesn't date stamp any of the notices so there is no easy way of working out which ones were necessary. Better safe than sorry I guess.
I went berserk buying little travel sized bottles of toiletries, including for products I never use. I ended up having to leave a bunch behind because I just didn't have room. The little plastic baggie for your allowable liquids is very little. The official limits are no more than 20cm x 20cm. Do you think you can buy a bag that size? Of course not. They are all either smaller or larger. I opted to play it safe a took the smaller one.
Got to the airport at 9:12pm. Only 2 agents doing bag drops for internet check-in customers but the queue was short and moved quickly. The man who handled my bag asked me several times if I had a return ticket. Also wanted to know how long I was staying. Don't know if it was standard or if I just looked suspicious.
Didn't get any special screening going though the metal detectors and didn't have to take off my shoes, which is handy since I'm wearing my hiking books. Got through the whole process in 30 minutes. Needed haven't rushed. Wish I hadn't as I planned to buy chocolate coated coffee beans but they aren't to be had on this side of the barriers. Know I could have got them on the outside. Oh well, have to find some in London. Should be do-able.
Got up at 4am on Saturday to do Internet check-in. Had thought about staying up until midnight Friday and doing it 47 hours and 55 minutes before departure but told myself not to be silly and go to bed. Did so but tossed and turned (partly due to excitement, partly due to overheating from the cats) and ended up gettig up at the aforementioned 4am. Think I got good seats. I certainly hope so. Both legs I got aisle sets in G - no underseat entertainment box. The MEL-SIN leg (at the time I checked in) there was someone else in seat D in my row but no-one between us (it is 3-3-3 seating). I know this leg is not very heavily loaded so I'm think I can safely expect the middle seat in the middle of the plane to remain vacant. Didn't get quite such a sweet set-up for the SIN-LHR leg. Found a row down the back where all 3 seats in the middle were vacant. If I'm lucky only the other aisle will go, if I'm really lucky the whole row will stay empty. Could also be unlucky and get a couple next to me and no gap. Most of the seats on this leg were sold so can't count on luck, however it is way down the back.
I'm tired and bored and thirsty and there is at least half an hour before anything might happen. This is what long-haul travel is like.
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