So far we have missed two out of three planes...

Yep, that's right, we missed our flight from Brisbane to Melbourne yesturday!  Having woken before the crack of dawn to finish packing our bags, Abdullah, Sky and I jumped on board with Chris who was being our Taxi driver for the morning, delivering us to Robina in the Gold Coast to catch a Train to the Airport.

It was the kind of journey that had me praying in the back seat, a truly hair raising experience!  Sky found another Tick on herself but luckily it hadn't bitten into her yet and we flicked it out the window.  Half way along the journey, (once I realised that we were going to miss the earlier train) the car started to have a definite vibration that got gradually worse until we were forced to pull over, thinking we had a flat tyre.  The tyres all looked fine and each of us had a different idea as to what was wrong.  Having no minutes to spare we got back on the road and made our way slowly to Robina with 10 minutes to spare before the Airport train left.  We thanked Chris for the ride and wished him well fixing the car and getting back to the farm safely.

By this stage I was trying not to panic and did the maths as we waited for the Train.  It was 9:43, the train leaves at 9:53, arrives at the Airport at 11:34, our plane leaves at 11:50 - we were going to make it by the hair of our chinny chin chin.  We got to the airport station and ran for it, dragging our collection of large and heavy luggage behind us.  We got to check in to be greeted by a large line.  I sweet talked our way to the front only to be told that check in had closed and we had missed our flight!  

Qantus very kindly put us on another flight later in the day and due to sky having packed her shoes into our check in luggage, we nearly weren't allowed on this flight either.  Luckily there was a store at the airport and we were allowed onto our flight after showing off Sky's new thongs to the flight crew.

This was actually a blessing in disguise as it now gave us time to relax, eat some ridiculously expensive airport food and show Abdullah (who was catching a later flight) where he needed to be and help him read the relevant signs etc.  Being from Jordan and looking quite middle eastern, guess who was picked for the 'random' screening for explosive powder.  Just lucky a) he had not been making any bombs and b) that Abdullah is an organic farmer as traces of nitrate fertilizer would have raised suspicions and had him carried off for further examination! 

We had a few hours to wait in Melbourne Airport so we had some more ridiculously expensive food and also found a shower which was great as I was still hot and sweaty from the mad airport dash earlier in the day.  I have always said I don't see the point of running unless someone is chasing you, I now extend that reasoning to catching public transport, especially airplanes.  Not that it did us any good!

We stayed at Trinity College (University of Mebourne) last night and very shortly we will be off to the course to meet the legendary Bill Mollison.  I can't wait, I am going to listen very carefully to everything he has to say so I can fill you all in when I get home.