Dinosaurs and other Saurs (9)

 Tuesday 3 September 2024

Today was a catch up day in Winton so after packing I went down to the Musical Fence cafe for a coffee (another very weak one).

Once Dianne was ready we headed out in the heat to visit the craft shop, the boulder opal shops and the Visitor Centre to browse at a more leisurely pace.

Eventually we returned to the hotel, bought some chips and filled the afternoon reading in the foyer.

Irene was to drive us out to the airport in time for our 3:45pm flight but Dianne received a call to come as soon as possible as the flight would be leaving an hour early. A quick dash to the airport where we found the check in procedure very comfortable in a tiny waiting area.

Eventually the Rex lady was able to contact all 6 passengers. She had to ring around town for two of them because they did not have Telstra phones so calls were not going through. Luckily everyone arrived just on time. The last two still thought they had an hour left before the flight because the Rex lady had to go out to their car and ask them to hurry in as the plane had already landed.

The flight was relatively smooth and we got a taxi easily at the Townsville airport.

We settled into our motel then went for walk along The Strand finding a Thai cafe for dinner amongst the huge choice of eateries.

Back to the motel to watch a bit of TV before an early night.

Wednesday 4 September 2024

I spent a bit of time figuring out why our balcony door would not open (success at last!) while Dianne went for a walk. So after breakfast and packing up I spent a bit of time watching the light change on Castle Hill rockface, the Curlews in the empty block next door and the noisy wind in the rain trees.

It is only 23C here at 9am but is forecast to get to 28C today. Much better than the 39C of the previous week.

Dianne's friend Claire collected us at 9:30am and took us to the Townsville Museum. Claire is part of the Education team there. she gave us a quick tour then took us to meet the palaeontologist Espen Knutsen who showed us his work and was very interested in Dianne's citizen science work in Broome on the dinosaur footprints there.

We then spent a few hours looking more closely at all the exhibits while our bags sat comfortably in the staff office.

The current special exhibit is Lego Cities so of course as we both have grandchildren we had to visit that.

After a small lunch we collected our bags and waited outside for the taxi that the reception person had ordered for us.

Off to the airport and the long trek through check-in and security check. This time it was Dianne who was picked on.

There were quite a lot of military personnel also travelling on our flight with huge amounts of luggage.

After we all boarded there was some delay with final take off but eventually we were on our way. When we arrived at Sydney, after an hour waiting for our bags on the carousel about 15 of us had not received our bags. It turned out that with all the military luggage the plane was overweight and ours did not get loaded. We then had to queue to organise delivery for the next day to mine, but luckily Dianne will be able to collect hers at the airport tomorrow for her continuing flights to Broome.

We are both now safely home, with our bags, and all unpacked.

In all a great few weeks but far too hot for me.