Cairns to Canada

A year. That is how long it has been since I quit a pretty good job and started wandering about the planet.

A year ago Vas was in Wiepa, in the northern part of Queensland. I was in Alice, but took time off to fly to Vancouver and then drive to Banff for Gabe and Nola’s wedding. When I got back to Australia, Vas wanted some time off so I flew from Alice to meet him in Melbourne and we started a round the world tour.

Well, it wasn’t really a tour, but we did make it around the world. Australia to Thailand to Germany to Sofia; we stayed south of the capital city for a few months, taking a couple of train rides and a few short bus trips.

After Bulgaria it was back to Frankfurt and on to Vancouver. We weren’t there long when we took off again, this time to Mexico. Vas had never been and we needed to warm up again. Then it was back to Canada, then on to Melbourne before we finally arrived back in Cairns in January. That was the end of the round-the-world stuff, but not the end of the travel stuff.

I got a job in Cairns that required me fly to Mornington Island and back, every week.. a 3.5 hour flight over and over again for three months..like a bad dream. I quit, and soon found myself on a longer flight to Alice.

I met up with Vas and we drove the 800 K along a dirt track they call the Tanami highway to Balgo, WA. where I got the job as a cashier. Big learning curve. Loved it but six weeks later we returned to Cairns via a chartered Beachcraft as far as Alice where we completed the journey on a commercial airline.

Yesterday I arrived back in Canada, and will be leaving Vancouver in just six weeks, after a trip to northern B.C., Alberta and the East Kootenays. While I am here I get to see my grand kids, plural now, as well as the rest of my family. This is why I do planes.

But like some of the best things in life, flying is only tolerable once it is over. It's like childbirth that way: you forget the pain.

From the ground airplanes appear so carefree, so fast. But up close they are fat and cumbersome. Even watching movies (five of them!?) reading, and completing about thirty suduko puzzles, being corralled in such a small space with so many strangers makes the hours crawl by. And there are so many of them (hours) between my two homes.

Vas drove me to the airport in Cairns, which doesn't take long, but you have to get up early and then hurry and wait. From there it takes two hours to get to Brisbane. Of course you have the long wait in the airport, and that is only after you have lined up for the bus to get across the tarmac from the domestic to the international terminals. You wait to go through security. You wait even longer to get through immigration: they need to be sure you are really leaving. You wait to line up to get on the plane. You wait, you wait, you wait.

It takes about twelve hours to fly from Brisbane to Los Angelas. Then I had to collect my suitcase, go through customs and find my way back to the drop off point to get rid it again. Then it is back off through security, which takes forever. It is off with the shoes: the Americans have all sorts of extra security measures that aren't required in other places. I love the one about not lining up for the toilet: it is illegal to congregate in American airspace!

I sat in LA for eight hours. No sleep. But after all the waiting the flight from LA to Vancouver is just 3 ½ hours. Of course you have to pay for your meals, and they were crap, but that was ok as I had had Huevos Ranchero's while waiting in LA.. Yum!

Planes are like big buses only they have stewardesses that wander the isles to make sure you are wearing your seat belt. They are usually pretty nice though, not like the time I was on China Air and the stewardess slapped me on the back of the head for not paying attention. "Important! You listen!"

Most long-haul flights serve wine with dinner. God bless them, you need it. I usually have a bit using the rational that it will help me sleep: that never works.

When I arrived in Vancouver I had been awake for more than thirty hours.. how much more I have no idea: I am tired and still can't do the math with the time change and all. But I was wide awake when we landed and so after I had lined up for customs and imigration, and collected my luggage from where it waited for me all by itself in front of the lost luggage counter (don't ask) I wandered out of the airport and got on the Canada Line of the Sky Train. I got off downtown and gave two dollars to a begger for the 'karma'. It worked, and the next bus was an express and delivered me right to the ferry terminal just five minutes before the 7:30 ferry left for Langdale. I called mom and she picked me up on the other side.

Yup it is a long way.. Trains, Planes and automobiles. Busses and Ferries too. What a trip. I crawled into bed and didn't even move for twelve hourse.

It has been a busy year, and it isn't over yet. I will still have to go home, and then there is that trip to Cuba in November, which will be even longer. I am crazy! And, I think I need a job. A 'real' job. Not something that is just pretty good. I need a 'really' good job. One that pays for all the travel, and gives lots of holidays.

I am going to have do something really good to build up lots of kaarma. Any ideas?!