Perth
Thursday, July 23rd, 1998
| Australia 1998 | -31°57', 115°52'
My dad used to work for BOAC, as it was then, and when he’d left had been given some free standby flights. It was a bit risky trying to go to Australia with them because there was a very good chance we’d be waiting several days before we could get on a flight, and when we went to Heathrow we weren’t sure whether we’d be going to Australia, just as far as Singapore, or back home again that evening. Just 20 minutes before the flight was due to go, someone came up and said “You’re booked on all the way to Perth - go go go!”. We sprinted through the terminal and boarded the plane pretty much at the last possible moment, unable to believe our luck.
London to Singapore is a huge long flight but it went very very quickly for me. We had an hour to kill in Singapore , where at 6am it was already 26°C, and I hoped Australia would be a bit less fearsomely hot.
Our first stop was beautiful, sunnny, laid back Perth. I loved wandering around, taking in the atmosphere of a country I’d always wanted to visit. For the first day or so I had the odd sensation that I was still on a turbulent plane - most of the flight had been pretty bumpy - but that soon passed. One particular highlight in Perth was the King’s Park, a big area of wilderness right in the city.
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