Flying Home

April 21, 2024

Canberra to Brisbane

Minor Panic!

That sinking feeling when you step enthusiastically outside the accommodation with your bike-in-a box ready to fly home to discover the city is thoroughly shut down in preparation for a mass running event.

Police, barricades and hi-viz traffic control as far as the eye can see. Uber driver Michael cancels. Cab1300 can’t get through. A traffic guy says the streets are shut for at least two hours.

Then that feeling of elation when Eritrean-Australian Uber driver Yared says he likes a challenge 45 minutes later he cheerfully bobs and weaves his hybrid Toyota to the kerb.

20 minutes later he has me and the packed bike at the airport.
What a champ!
Yared so deserved the sizeable cash tip I gave him.

The rest of the day was uneventful and I was home by early afternoon.

Small world! Not only were these acquaintances, Julie and Michael, on the same plane, they were in adjacent seats. They were flying from Canada to Canberra.

Rugged ranges northern NSW. We’d cycled slightly west of these,

Massive open cut coal mines in the Hunter Valley. Prime agricultural land lost forever.

Weereewaa aka Lake George. A lake which appears and disappears.

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