Reef, Rivers and Rainforests – September/October 2018 - Day 19 - Flight home, plus overall comments

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Day 19 – Wednesday 10th October 2018 – Doha - Stockholm - London
Reef, Rivers and Rainforests – September/October 2018

Link to trip report index – including pre trip report:
Here

This last long-haul flight was at the horrible time of 1.15am, but to be honest our body clocks were all over the place so it didn’t really matter! We’d settled down on board with a cocktail (a non-alcoholic one for Alison – pah, amateur!)

then we changed into pyjamas before take-off, so that as soon as we could we tried to sleep. We both ended up sleeping/snoozing for around 4 hours of the 6-hour flight which was quite good.

With around 2 hours or so to go we both had breakfast. I gave my order and somehow, I ended up with cornflakes with hot milk, odd but strangely lovely, something got lost in translation along the way I think! Alison also had cornflakes (with cold milk!), and fruit and we both had a pastry basket.

I freshened up and watched Dr. Strange, one of my favourite comics from childhood but the film bore no resemblance to my memories. Shortly before touchdown I noticed a duty free trolley through, not seen one of those for such a long time!

We landed on time (with a massive BUMP!) at 07:25 local time in Stockholm. Once off the plane we made our way through immigration and Alison got stumped when the security officer spoke to her in Swedish thinking she was a local. I guess it’s an easy mistake with her being a tall, leggy blonde!

We queued up for a while at baggage reclaim whilst the infernal Pippi Longstocking played on and on in continuous loop – aarghh! Once the bags were collected we had a long schlep from Terminal 2 over to Terminal 5, which seemed to go on for ever through countless doors and corridors. We had quite a wait for our next flight though, so it didn’t matter.

The security check seemed to take for ever but once through we made it into the safe haven of the lounge which was just getting set up for the day.

There were a few very different breakfast items on offer here including pickled herrings, the world’s largest Ryvita crackers and wine on draught. I passed on all of these and had some coffee and toast to keep me going.

We had getting on for a 3-4 hour wait, and typically we had a delay of around an hour! Eventually we boarded for the last flight of the trip where we had emergency exit row seats which was good – although the leg room wasn’t huge!

There were a lot of children on board, one was a baby of around 6 months and the mum tried to change him on the aisle floor! Luckily a member of cabin crew saw it and promptly directed mum to the toilets!

We had a very loud Swedish family behind us with 2 pre teen children who played electronic games on loud and spoke throughout the safety announcements.

Eventually we landed at Heathrow and made our way to the unfamiliar luggage reclaim area where we didn’t have long to wait to collect our bags.

We then made our way home via the Heathrow Express, tube, train and uber – whew! And we’re both back to work tomorrow!


Transport count - final count:
Flights: 10
Ferries/boats: 5
Trains: 14
Trams: 4
Tubes: 2
Ubers/Taxis: 8
Coaches/Buses/shuttles: 11
Step Count today:6596
Total step count for the trip: 166428



Overall thoughts / Highs (no real lows!)

Well, that was an epic trip and one that will live for a very long time in our memories, we have so many exceptional memories from this trip and it’s tricky to narrow down the best experiences.

Stockholm – pleasant city, have been before. Vasa Museum was good

Doha – liked having the long layover and a free hotel, especially on the way out. On the way home we just wanted to get going really

Qatar Airways – Good as always, although the cabin crew can be a little robotic

Qantas Airways – All good, nothing to complain about, I liked their IFE app

Adelaide - Small and compact, wouldn’t rush back as a destination place to go but happy to transit

Sydney – Loved it, people friendly and lots to see and do, loved our hotel room

Blue Mountains – very picturesque, glad we did this but wouldn’t rush back next time. Won’t rule out a visit in future though

Cairns - We need to re-visit at some stage, overnight wasn’t enough to get a proper feel for the area, but it had a lovely vibe. Hotel was amazing!

Port Douglas/Thala – loved this area. A car is a must!

North Queensland in general – Magical, would go back in a heartbeat

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb – Exceptional, must go back to re do this for the photos

Great Barrier Reef – Totally blown away, nature never ceases to amaze and surprise me

Australia in general – loved, loved, loved it here – can’t wait to go back!

Thanks everyone for reading!

[Melbatb]

Thanks again for another great report - really enjoyed reading along!

[kateh134]

Have also enjoyed reading, particularly as Australia is on our long list of destinations.

[rach19]

Thank you for sharing, have loved reading about your trip. It is a trip we hope to do at some point.

[sparkles18]

Have really enjoyed reading about your trip, thanks for doing it and off to look for your next trip.

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Originally Posted by sparkles18

Have really enjoyed reading about your trip, thanks for doing it and off to look for your next trip.

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Glad you enjoyed reading - next trip starts on 10th January