We had a leisurely start to the day as our flight to Sydney wasn’t until 15.10. This gave us the morning to do final preparations in packing and organising such mundane things as watering indoor plants, emptying perishables from the fridge, checking the security system and organising mail collection.
Ian Hay very kindly offered to take us to the airport where we met up with our travelling partners for three weeks, namely Malcolm and Rae Wells. Malcolm and Rae had been transported to the airport by their son Martyn who was accompanied by his delightful twins, Lachlan and Imogen.
The Qantaslink Boeing 717 departed Hobart pretty much on time and the 100 minute flight had us arriving in Sydney close to 17.00. The approach into Sydney’s Kingsford–Smith Airport was picturesque in the autumn sun-set with the ‘’coat-hanger” bridge and the city’s CBD basked in a soft evening light.
We duly collected baggage and caught a taxi to our overnight Quality Hotel. Our overnight accommodation is modern and spacious and conveniently located quite close to Sydney’s International Terminal where at 10.50 tomorrow we will be commencing our westward travel to Africa.
As tomorrow’s travel itinerary entails just over 14 hours of flight time to Johannesburg we decided the best plan was to have our evening meal in the hotel’s restaurant and then to have quiet and relaxing night.
Of course, everything seemingly going to plan was too much to expect! We found ourselves in the hotel dining room enjoying some nice wines and pondering the menu when suddenly the power went out. Apparently a semi-trailer travelling down an adjacent street had collided with a power pole causing a clashing tangle of power lines and it would be two hours before order was restored.
After waiting expectantly but unsuccessfully for an hour for the power’s return, we decided to seek out another hotel on the other side of the road, unaffected by this outage. The local Mercure Hotel provided a pleasant and well lit alternative to the darkened and powerless dining venue at our hotel.
The anticipation of African travels and the exciting thoughts of the savannahs and wildlife of Botswana provide an ideal preparation for the start of our African holiday tomorrow!
Rae, Malcolm, Jak & Corinne in candle lit dining room at the Quality Hotel in Sydney
Dinner at the Mercure Hotel