THURSDAY 8 FEBRUARY     HOME

After a very early breakfast, it was back into the bus and off to Hedland airport, where we were booked on the 9am flight to Perth.

This time we really were leaving the Rail Villages for good! I’d had enough of the heat, and poor John really needed to get home and rest.

We left the bus keys on top of the wheel, as usual.

Checked our bags in, hoping they would be properly transferred in Perth and make it back to Melbourne. We each were carrying a  laptop and small day pack. We had to take off our steel capped boots, which we were wearing because we had only taken fairly small cases with us, and there wasn’t room to pack them. Bad planning initially!  John was told to take off his belt to go through the metal detector, so at the other side he was clutching daypack, laptop, boots  – and his pants fell down around his ankles! The man has no hips at all. He had the same problem in Perth.

Our flights were uneventful. Had to spend a couple of hours hanging about Perth Airport, waiting for the connecting flight.

We got into Melbourne at 7pm, their time. It was a very long day – but we were being paid for ten hours of travel, so that was some recompense. Son picked us up and drove us home.

Melbourne in summer seemed cold by comparison with where we had been.

We sat up late, talking with M and drinking wine.