We expect travel mishaps, but not all in the first week. Please!

Embracing life

Travel is sometimes mistakenly, in my opinion, seen as running away. I have a different perspective. Of course I do. I see a decision to travel as a decision to run towards life. To embrace it. Travel is life. With all life’s ups and downs. Life is a rollercoaster. Life is described in Buddhism as suffering. We need to learn to accept. And move on. And so with travel. 

Undoubtedly, travel brings many highs. Seeing new countries. Experiencing new cultures up close brings a perspective you just don’t get if all you are ever exposed to is what you have always known. 

Travel opens your eyes to the fact that we are all the same. We are all human. All seven billion of us. Yes, many of us have different beliefs and values, and that is what makes the world so interesting. 

Travel Stories

So, making a decision to travel is making a decision to embrace all life’s uncertainties. Any traveller will tell you that the most interesting stories they have, have come out of adversity. Something that feels terrible in the moment and then makes a great story to tell a few years later over a few beers. 

I expect to have these ups and downs. I just don’t want to have them all in the first week. One week into our travels and already we have had our fair share. Starting on the first day we left Perth. 

Every Travellers Nightmare

We were stood around the luggage conveyor belt waiting for my bag. We already had Victoria’s. And we checked them in together. Mine won’t be long, I assumed. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. We waited until the airport had almost completely emptied. 

No bag. With a flight out of Brisbane the very next day, this was not the way we intended to start our travels. What was even more surprising was the queue at Qantas passenger services. Of other customers whose bags had not turned up. And from other flights. I have since read that this is a problem that is starting to blow out of control for Qantas as they suffer the ramifications of all those redundancies they made. You reap what you sow. 

A nervous night unfolded with us frantically searching for places in the Brisbane CBD that opened early the next morning, allowing me to pick up some essentials before flying out to Hamilton Island. Essentials such as underwear, toothbrush, deodorant, shorts, and a couple of t-shirts to wear.

Through dinner I got the phone call that brought much relief. My bag had been found and was being flown to Brisbane. I would be reunited with my life possessions early the next morning. Which in itself turned out to cause more anxiety. 

With The Clock Ticking Down

The bag was due to arrive early in the morning and yet we had to leave at 10am to head back to the airport. By 9.30am I still didn’t have my bag but I had tracking on my phone that showed an icon of a little van driving around Brisbane, dropping off orphaned bags. With minutes to spare it arrived at the hotel, and we were off again, with all our bags in tow.

Little did we know then that our next travel mishap was only a few days away. Laying around the pool at qualia, on Hamilton Island, we reflected on an amazing few days in paradise. Excitedly looking ahead to the next stage of our trip, four relaxing days in Noosa. A farewell champagne preceded an air conditioned ride to the airport. An airport we found ourselves stranded in all day.

Unexpected Cancellation

Our plane arrived in from Brisbane, on time, and then developed an “engineering problem”. Being the small island that Hamilton is, there are no full time engineers on the island. This was an issue. A big issue. That only got worse. After four hours of no further updates we were suddenly told to make our way outside where we were to collect our bags and we were being bussed to the ferry port.

Yes, my friends, we were leaving the island by boat. To Airlie Beach, almost a couple of hours away. From there, we knew that another bus was waiting for us to transport us to Mackay airport, ANOTHER two hours away. Whether we were staying at the airport, or getting on a plane, none of the frustrated passengers amongst us knew. And the Qantas flight crew travelling with us, who were supposed to fly the plane to Brisbane, weren’t saying much either.

Finding Mackay On A Map

By now, the sun had set, as had our hopes of making it to Noosa this evening. We had to ring and cancel dinner plans, and call to move the hire car to the next day. It was only en route to Mackay that our Qantas travel app suddenly showed us as checked into a flight from Mackay to Brisbane, that evening. But we had nowhere to stay in Brisbane. This was the worst possible outcome for us.

After much searching, and a few telephone calls, Victoria found us a budget hotel. And when I say budget, think broken lifts, and missing light bulbs, budget. That said, when we finally got there, just before midnight, we were just glad to have a bed. Somewhere to sleep, and put all memories of the day behind us.

How Travel Brings Perspective

The day was not what we had planned when we woke up that morning, but isn’t that just like life? We don’t always know what the days are going to throw at us, and yet the sun always sets, to rise again the following day. We take what learnings we can and share our gratitude that we get to start all over anew each day. And the new day brought Noosa, a tropical paradise a short drive from Brisbane.

We are hoping that the trip does not bring anymore dramas, at least for a while!