Friday 19 August 2022.
Highlights: Qantas Business Class flight, Spectacular sunset Cable Beach

The long delayed trip, my first since August 2019, was finally here. This 16 day experience is being shared with my amazing sister Kara as part of a celebration of a major birthday.

After staying the night at my sister Kara’s we got up early to be on our way to the airport by 5 am for our 7.35 am flight.

During the week both Kara and myself had our upgrade request to business class for the first flight from Melbourne to Perth on Qantas A330 flight. This also meant access to the nice Qantas Melbourne Business Lounge. After a quick self check-in we were though security and enjoying a nice breakfast before our flight.

COVID rules meant we had to wear a mask on this 4 hour flight except when eating or drinking. Kara got a window seat (1K) while I was in the last row of Business also with a window seat (7K). The in-flight entertainment system allowed me to watch Everything Everywhere All at Once which is a fun and unusual sci-fi type movie. We arrived a little late at Perth which was a small concern for our connecting flight.

However it turned out our Perth to Broome flight was delayed by over 1.5 hours. Both Kara and me were happy with this as it increased the chances our bags would also make the connecting flight which they did, major trip obstacle was therefore overcome.

A bonus was in this all economy A320 QantasLink flight is the middle seat between Kara and myself was empty, another little bonus.

Our 2.5 hours flight actually arrived 2 hours late in Broome and we immediately knew that Broome was a different world. The temperature had jumped to 32c from 8c in Melbourne and 16c in Perth, this will take some getting used to. A nice bonus is that the Cable Beach Club Resort had a courtesy bus transfer on arrival which was unexpected and made getting there at lot easier.

Cable Beach Club Resort is a huge resort with some wildlife on the site in cute wallabies. We did some exploring of the resort before our AAT Tour group check in followed by group dinner. There is supposed to be 37 passengers on the AAT part of the tour.

In the restaurant we watched a spectacular sunset over Indian Ocean and Cable Beach.

Unfortunately just before my meal was delivered, I was feeling unwell (likely due to lack of sleep, a little dehydration from flights and the Broome heat) so I left Kara to enjoy the meals (I hear they were lovely) and talk to some of our fellow travellers.

So tomorrow the Outback Australia Experience really begins. Having got here with little trouble, having a 4 hour business class flight upgrade on the first flight, and most importantly, our bags showing up has us well placed to enjoy the upcoming adventure.