To the other side of the planet

The first flight out in the morning is definitely the way to go. Apart from the pain of getting up at 2am. The girls kindly got up as well and drove us out to the port. No traffic. Straight in. Moderate check-in. Straight through customs, duty free and onto the bird which actually departed early! Picture that! So we settle in for 13 hour stint in our own 2 seats down the back. The Joy of booking early and selecting your own seats. And so from the cold green dark of Melbourne we winged our way through sunrise over the Sundrenched Land, blue tropical waters,the Asian sub continent and into the hot dry bleached deserts of North Africa. An extremely easy transfer in Dubai and here we are - perched up the front top deck of a new A380. 2 seats to ourselves again. Luxury in economy. Internet access in the air (thus the post)

The middle east is pretty much a trouble zone these days. In order to avoid the worst of it we snuk up the coast of Iran (admiring their agricultural efforts in very harsh climate). Slipped around the edge of Turkey and used the Black Sea as cover until we got to the friendlier skies of the west. By the time we landed in Manchester the world had turned green again and the houses had peaked roofs and the accents all went a little wierd. All in all it all went according to plan. Hopefully with a decent sleep catch up the interesting stuff will start tomorrow.