We were out of the flat a few minutes after 0530 and before we had really started to look, an eagle-eyed driver saw us and whizzed his taxi over to us and bundled into his car. As usual around here, we drove flat out all the way up Skeikh Zayed highway and up to airport and within 25 minutes were being dumped on the pavement outside Dubai International airport.
We found our check-in desk easily and completed formalities in a few moments before heading for the emigration desk to get our passports stamped. Security was next and within 15 minutes of arriving at the airport we were in departures, possibly one of the fastest times we've ever experienced!
We quickly found Le Clos and bought a couple of recommended bottles of South African wine before finding something drink and eat whilst we waited for our flight to be called.
We were travelling on QF9 a Qantas flight that originated in Melbourne and was bound for London Heathrow. There was a shortage of seats for passengers awaiting this flight, but once through the gate check-in, there was plenty of room. We really didn't wait long here either and were soon ensconced in row 76 on our Airbus A380.
Advertised flight time is well over 8 hours,,but the captain announced he was expecting to be just 7 1/2 hours. We should get the Heathrow by 1200 at that rate. Our flight route today took us out of Dubai and across the Straits of Hormuz and into Iranian airspace. Then heading generally north we head up to Qom in northern Iran before turning northwest parallel to the Armenian border and into Eastern Turkish airspace.
About an hour after take off, we were tucking into a dinner of chicken tikka salad accompanied, I have to confess, by a last taste of Tasmania, a can of James Boag beer.
The aircraft continued northeast to the Black Sea and crossed that into Romanian airspace. By 0900, UK time, we were passing north of Bucharest at 40,000 feet with three hours flying time to go. By 1000, we were crossing the Danube not far from Budapest, Hungary. 1100 saw us travelling through the skies of southern Germany having flown across Austria. Sadly, for most of the flight there was thick cloud, but I could clearly see the Danube in Hungary.
Despite arriving in the London area about 40 minutes early, we then sat in a holding pattern for 20 minutes before finally landing at Heathrow at around 1230. After leaving the plane and getting through immigration quite quickly, we stood and watched the baggage carousel for a long time before our bags finally appeared, most other passengers had left by then!
Stephanie met us at the short term parking and we paid £3.80 for roughly 5 minutes parking. We had a good journey back up to Lincoln arriving back home at around 1630.
It's been a good trip and we've certainly seen some wonderful places. I think in the past 9 weeks we've flown around 20,000 miles, driven the best part of 10,000 kilometres and visited 5 countries. The planning for the next trip starts now!
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