DAY 3
Week 1
TERRANORA (New South Wales, AUS)
Friday May 14th, 2004
TODAYS MILEAGE – 81 miles or 130 kilometres
TRIP MILEAGE – 8586 miles or 13818 kilometres
Our flight left an hour late and due to some head winds and skirting around some turbulence over the equator, we arrived nearly two hours late into Sydney. After clearing customs and finding out that my passport would expire in two weeks, I got to the transit lounge well after the only direct flight to Darwin had departed for the day.
As this was a continuation of my international flight, Qantas offered me the option of flying to Adelaide, overnighting at my expense, then heading to Perth for a 3 hour layover and then finally arriving in Darwin at 11PM the following night. In essence they wanted me to skirt the Southern and Western coastlines of the continent. My initial 1963 mile (3158 kilometre) flight is fast becoming a 3690 mile (5938 kilometre) ordeal.
With the knowledge of having to renew my passport and that there are daily flights between Brisbane/Cairns as well as Cairns/Darwin, a quick call to my mate Philthy in Terranora and I was soon on my way to Brisbane, with onward flights confirmed for Darwin tomorrow.
Thankfully Philthy had a day off, so he picked me up at the airport and we spent 2 hours renewing my passport. I had to fork out an extra $140.00 to have the new passport expedited and shipped back to Brisbane, for me to fly out on the 31st.
No use in worrying about things out of my control now. I'm officially on holidays and I'm going to enjoy every last minute of it. 
• BILINGA BEACH (Queensland, AUS)
• TERRANORA (New South Wales, AUS)