Ritalin-less Bunny

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Campervan woes?

Fellow postees on TripAdvisor, especially those in Australia, are constantly warning against the supposed 'romantic ' notion of freedom campervanning along Oz's highways. Citing excessive distances, costs, absence of actual free camping, unpleasantness of living in a tin can in the heat and the rain, unreliability and especially dodgy van hire companies. So, imagine our concerns when a week before we left we received an email from the campervan middleman agents saying that our van wouldn't be available until 27 Oct, 2 days later than our booking for 2 5 Oct. There have been great storms in southern Aus - Victoria, NSW, ACT - the worst for 50 years, with parts of the Great Ocean Road blocked by landslides, and our van has been relocated for safety .

Our plans for the first 2 days of the van had been to take the short, 75 miles, drive to The Blue Mountains and spend 2 nights there. The Blue Mountains though is easily and cheaply accessible from Sydney by train, so Paul cancelled the campervan site booking and booked a private hostel room, 5 min walk from the station in the same town. Shortly after that we received another email, from the van company boss, thanking us for our understanding and saying that his practice in these circumstances was to pay for accommodation for the 'missing' nights of hire and a car if wanted. Paul emailed back the booking details and within minutes the boss replied to say that the booking had been paid for.

OK, so we haven't seen the van yet but we both think that it's not 'what might go wrong?' but more the 'how is it handled? ' that really matters. So far, Kangaroo Campers, so good.



Ethiad Airways

For years our air experiences have been the cattle market tubes - EasyJet, Ryan Air and the like. So how nice to travel on a proper grown up aircraft, metal cutlery and everything! A Boeing 777, firstly we noted the seat pitch. Paul had inches - 2 or 3 - in front of his knees. Then the command panel in front of us. USB port, ethernet socket, a socket we didn't recognise and even a UK (and as it turned out also the UAE) standard 3 pin plug socket, as well, of course, as the controls for the multi channel entertainment.

We exchanged some pleasentries with those on the row in front of us - middle aged husband and wife, and wife's mother - travelling to Aus to meet family. Perfectly charming. And as we took off the third, aisle seat in our 3 was free. Nice........ beginning.

About 10 min after departure a large gentleman relocated himself from his allocated seat to occupy the empty one, and stay for the entire flight. Oh well.

And then, about an hour into the flight the wife in front started acting all 'peculiar'. And continued so for the next 4 hour or so. Up, down, back and forth, underneath blanket, outside blanket, one seat then the next, ....... About the only position she didn't take was a headstand! There was also a very glazed look on her face whenever she looked around. And her husband and mother were constantly remonstrating with her.

We were both trying to avoid this by focusing on our entertainment choices - Pip, the Roots remake, Paul, the latest Star Trek and Independence Day films. After about 2 hours of the antics in front I (Paul) leant across to Pip and said 'Either she's forgotten her ritalin or she's taken an E. Or possibly both!'.

It was a good 5 hours or so into the 7 hour flight before she settled down. We have no idea what it was. She might just have been drunk, but we will never know.

The flight landed 45 minutes early. No issues getting through the airport. Most of the flight turned right to take onward flights. Only a small handful came in to Abu Dhabi. It must be so frustrating for the country. Interestingly our hand luggage was xrayed immediately after passport control. No signs to say why. And we walked through Nothing To Declare and all was fine. So no issue with Pip's 6 months of meds.

It was warm in the terminal. Soon after landing Pip said 'You think they would have the air conditioning on.'. We stepped outside the terminal and it was clear the aircon had been on. 35 degrees of hot air hit us fully in the face. ?

Isn't it frustrating though. 7 hours to fly 10000 (?) kms, then 3 hours to negotiate ticket and public bus the 15 miles or so to our hotel.

Will blog Abu Dhabi when on to Sydney.

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