Day 4: Travel Day
Welcome
Yesterday we wrapped up our affairs in Brisbane and flew to Perth.
It was overcast and felt pleasantly cool when I headed out for a run yesterday morning and I enjoyed exploring some of the pedestrian and cycle trails that ran along the riverbanks near our hotel. Afterwards Tristan and I headed out for a late and leisurely breakfast date, enjoying a walk through the humming streets of the big smoke to our favourite Brisbane Café, Felix for Goodness. Tucked up a back alley and up a flight of stairs we found the spot largely unchanged since our last visit in 2022; a small and pleasantly dim room lit by natural light that filtered in through yellowed glass windows. The menu was just as good as we remembered, and it was with great reluctance that I had to reject most of the fantastic sounding meals and narrow it down to a single choice. Tristan and I both settled on the same order – the Breakfast Hummus with lentil hummus, chickpeas, chilli oil, parsley, poached eggs, macadamia dukkah, sourdough, and a sausage.
One of my favourite things about walking through downtown Brisbane is watching the squinting countdowns on these italicised crossing timers.
Our flight was not until 6:30pm so we spent a couple more hours enjoying the lounge of our serviced apartment before assembling downstairs at 3pm to check out and head for the airport. There was still an extra hour floating around in the schedule, so we stopped off to play some cricket at a nearby park, finding a rough old tennis volley board that served as a superb backstop for our four-person game.
Then we drove the rest of the way to the airport, returning the cars and checking our bags before making our way through to the departure gates with ample time for a sit-down meal before take-off. Our Boeing 737-800 departed on time and as we climbed over Moreton Bay the sun was already just an orange smudge on the horizon. The aircraft pointed its nose in that direction and began the 3600km journey west, not quite swift enough to catch the fading light which turned to blue, then grey, and then disappeared. We continued in darkness, crossing Queensland and South Australia, and passing over the expanse of the Nullarbor Plain as we entered Western Australia.
Catching the elevator at Brisbane Airport.
It was just before 10pm local time that we touched down at Perth Airport after five and a half hours up in the air. The flight had been lightly bumpy but not unpleasant and we were tired but in good spirits as we disembarked and made our way through to baggage claim. There were two more pristine rental vehicles waiting to be collected outside the terminal and unsurprisingly they were a Hyundai Staria Van in Creamy White, and a KIA Carnival, winner of the the 2024 Editor’s Choice award in the minivan category of caranddriver.com, and ranked 19th in the category Best Cars for Families.
Our Perth KIA Carnival, finished in a handsome Shark Grey paintjob which I believe KIA call Ceramic Silver.
We drove into Perth’s CBD and found our hotel on a street awash with rowdy people out enjoying the public holiday eve. We were impressed by their energy and also exhausted and headed straight up to our rooms for a rest.