Ashley took us out to the airport after a rare family tea for our late night flight. Tullamarine was quieter than I expected for so close to Christmas, and our check in took less than half an hour. However, I was pulled aside for an explosives check, and the guy wanted me to read and agree to 2 A4 pages of explanation before he would pat me down, and swab my bag. All a bit pointless if your reading glasses have been packed away for the security screening, and you can't say no anyway. I think that the word 'humourless' would be the appropriate word for the guy when when I tried to point that out to him. Anyway, everybody seemed relieved that I didn't have explosives strapped to my body, and we celebrated with a coffee while we waited for the flight.
We opted to go to Johannesburg on Qatar Airways, which meant that we were actually heading to Doha, the capital of Qatar, to pick up our connecting flight. Qatar Airways seems to be trying to model themselves on Emirates, and set themselves up as a flight hub to bring money and travelers into the country, and it all seems to be working nicely. They currently have 96 aircraft in their fleet, and have just ordered another 250 for a lazy $45 billion.
As expected, the aircraft are new, modern and well equipped. Room between the seats is much better than Qantas, and the menu was extensive. The 14 hour flight was all in darkness, and we managed several spells of sleep.
Qatar is a tiny peninsula in the Gulf, near Bahrain and Dubai, and a glorious red desert sunrise greeted us as we landed.
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