Jetstar

From Cairns to Sydney

The journey is almost over, just a bus ride home remains. It was a pleasant Jetstar A320 flight back from Cairns with a cheerful crew. We had $25 meal credit so instead of food we used it to buy a Jetstar 787 model.

We all slept on the flight, which had some lovely views of Sydney on descent. A good end to a long trip. 

I’ll write a summation up later. After a shower and a sleep and everything else about coming home. 

At Cairns on the way home

Here we are at the Qantas Club lounge at Cairns eating fresh fruit and wishing we were in bed. The Jetstar flight back was okay. Managed to get a little sleep but basically just had the flight map on with the John Williams album as the playlist or a relaxation video playing. 

Couldn’t eat much of the curry pork katsu dinner and the other two, who slept most of the flight refused theirs. Same with the banana bread breakfast. Bit disappointing. 

There were lots of niggling bumps but no seatbelt left ghts displayed. Can’t say I enjoyed it too much, but it was okay. Time to fly home now. 

Smegging off to Osaka

There are few things better than a really nice hot shower in a modern hotel room after a long flight. I don’t know how you can work up such a smelly sweat after doing nothing for seven hours but that’s what always happens to me. 
It was a really good flight on the Jetstar 787-8 from Cairns to Osaka. At first I was concerned about the big clouds over the city, but we just curved around them. 

There was lots of high cloud along the way and some impressive anvil clouds, but I distracted myself at first with relaxing electronica, then watching episodes of Red Dwarf on the seat back screens. How good is that? 

Also watched Hidden Figures, about female African American mathematicians working for NASA during the start of the Space Age when segregation was still official. 

Ate roast chicken and vegetables for lunch and a meat and cheese pie for evening snacks. 

Just as the sun rose during the first flight of the day we landed in the light of the setting sun. It was a beautiful and exotic. 

Long queues through immigration and to pick up my rail pass, though not as bad as last time. 

I booked the first few days of train travel at the reservations office and had a really tasty late supper of chikawa (fish stick) udon at one of the Shin-Osaka Station restaurants still open at this late hour. 

Now I’m lying on my bed in the very modern, but small, room of the Remm Hotel listening to music on my portable speakers. Tomorrow the big rail quest begins with a trip to the northernmost station in Japan. 

P.S.  I just discovered that what I thought was a standard office style chair in this room has a back massage function! How cool is that? 

Cairns International Airport 

Ah, Cairns International Airport, I can’t decide what to make of you. Are you an exotic gateway to the tropics or are you lacking in local character with the colour of a hospital ward? 

I want you to be so much more, but your food is limited and expensive and you long ago removed the fish tanks. 

But at least you have places to sit and nice big windows. 

Colours of morning

Some gorgeous colours outside as we flew from Sydney to Cairns. The salmon sky and grasslands the colour of desert sand. Was a pretty smooth flight until the rain clouds around Cairns. Will post a video of that later. 

And we are up

Something different, we took off on the East West runway this morning, looping around the south before heading north over Richmond. 

Two Jameses up front. Planned cruise at 34,000 feet and hopefully arriving 20 minutes early. Our flight path should take us over Narrabri, Moree and Roma before we begin our descent into Cairns at Townsville. 

Supposed to be clear smooth skies but there are a few bumps as I type this.