BRE to SYD … Broome to Sydney

The daily program we received last night advised us that breakfast would be at 8:00a today. Coral Discoverer was expected to pick up the pilot while we were having our brekky and would be alongside in Broome by 9:30a. That was ship’s time, of course … still on Northern Territory time. We’d be gaining 1.5 hours as soon as we stepped off the ship. Much better for our 10:55a flight to Perth.

All went according to plan. We were at the airport by 8:30a local time.

Broome has a small airport and it was pretty much dead when the transfer bus dropped us off at the terminal … along with Captain Peter and a few others. The counters were not due to open until 9:15a. So, we put our bags in the check-in queue and settled down to wait. Once the staff arrived, dropping off our bags was quick and easy since we’d already checked in online.

The departure of our QantasLink flight was delayed by 20 minutes or so. That added a bit of stress to our travel day since the 55 minutes we had to make our connecting flight from Perth to Sydney was shrinking with each minute of delay. The good news is that all went well and we made the flight with a bit of time to spare.

The 4-hour flight to SYD was delayed as well. This one by 10 minutes. Otherwise, it was an uneventful flight, arriving at SYD a few minutes later than our scheduled 8:30p touch down. By the time we got to baggage claim, our checked bags were already on the carousel. After collecting them, we set off for our hotel.

With a flight to Yulara tomorrow, I opted to book us into the Ibis, one of several budget hotels not too far from the domestic terminal. Since we’d been sitting pretty much all day, we opted to walk the 10-12 minutes it takes to get to the hotel. At check-in, we were assigned to a quiet room on the 6th floor. As might be expected from a budget hotel, our accommodations were of the “no frills” variety. Clean bedding and facilities … that’s all we needed … that’s all we got.

Now for a good night’s rest before we hop on the flight to Yulara tomorrow.Read more