Oz 2 Outback....in Search of the 2,000,000th Cache

Tues Sept 24--Thurs. Sept26.…Homeward Bound Adventures

Tuesday had us packing our bags and the miracle of all miracles was that both of us got everything in each of our one main suitcase even with all the stuff we seemed to accumulate….they are heavy, mind you, but they are in one bag!

And since we did get it all in and we seemed to have room left…..we went a did a bit more shopping on our way to drop the car!

Did I mention we started with 648 km on the odometer (a brand new car) and we took it back with 2638km!!!!

Jane and Andrew’s son joined us for dinner of pizza on our last night. Lori hadn’t seen him for a long time We were early to bed because we were getting up at 4:30 for Andrew to drive us to the airport.

Andrew, Lori and Jane

By about by about 5:30 we had our first two boarding passes for the Perth to Singapore flight and the Singapore to Beijing flight and most important to me was the promise that we didn’t have to pick up our luggage in Beijing... that it would go right through to Vancouver. I can’t seem to figure out the pattern to when you have to get your luggage if you’re on a 2nd flight and quickly check it through to Canada. I had to get my luggage in Houston Texas on my way back from Peru, same when I got to Montreal last year where I changed planes on the way back from Europe. This time it’s supposed to go right through to YVR despite the 12 hour layover in Beijing. We will see!

We traveled Singapore Airlines to Singapore and then again to Beijing…..Lori is really excited because it is rated the best. It was…comfy seats, great breakfast, drinks, lots of smiles and hospitality.

Some of the amenities at the Singapore Airport

Butterfly Garden

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I have been looking forward to the airport….again rated number 1 for the 25th year. It is very big and homey….there are lots of stores, free movies, free wifi (that works), plug-ins and desks for charging, TVs with comfortable chairs grouped around, playgrounds, a big slide (that we didn’t see that Lori wanted to try), large chairs that give free massages to tired calves and feet, and by far the most uniqe thing is a butterfly garden!

Yes, a 2 story garden with a waterfall and a path, lots of flowers and lots of butterflies that will sometimes lite on your hand. Oh and a geocache! Placed with permission from the airport authority. But as I had it on a watch list we knew that it was missing, which this one is every once in a while... we came prepared with a replacement! It just happened to have our signatures on it!!

As we still had about 4 hours, we caught a cab and had him drive us to a couple of other caches near the airport so we got to see a tiny bit of the city. I am very impressed with what I saw and I really would like to come back and spend a bit more time. Very clean looking with lots of blooming bougainvillea in the centre island of the major roads. Our taxi driver thought we were a bit nuts I think, but we were having a good time.

Our flight to Beijing was again on Singapore airlines ……which served a great dinner along with Magnum ice cream bars for dessert! We caught a bit of sleep on this flight because by this time it was late evening and we got into Beijing airport at 12 midnight.

Dessert tune...Lori's favourite!

We headed to the bathrooms first as did everyone else on the flight only to find out that the water is shut off….we have no idea whether something was broken or it is always off at night. We made our way out of customs….we had a mission to accomplish in the city.. There is a fast train into Beijing, but it doesn’t run at night nor do the city shuttles…..so that left taxis. After spending about an hour in line for a cab we were on our way…..the driver knew Tienanmen but we would have to guide him to the second cache (both victuals, meaning we only have to have a picture taken at each site).

Rickshaw cache

Tienanmen Square cache

Breakfast? Lunch? Dinner?

Again the driver, who didn’t speak any English, thought we were a little strange; at 3am in the morning the streets are pretty well deserted so it was a pretty quick drive,,,,,but there are police/military with flashing lights at every corner and at the Square there was even more. I took Lori’s picture (I have this one) and we were off to the next one….a bronze statue of a rickshaw and driver/puller, that you have to get a picture of yourself in the rickshaw ( I don’t have this one) Then we were speeding back to the airport.

The airport was pretty empty when we got there, not much open….they have an hourly bed and shower hotel but it was full. So we found ourselves a couple of stretch-out benches and slept for a couple of hours….we still had about 8 hours to put in by this time. The gate that we would get our boarding pass didn’t open for our flight until 9.…so we got breakfast or was it lunch or supper….we had lot track by this time. We finally figured out the “Free airport wifi” that you had to get a secret password for. Anyway we made it through our little adventure in Beijing in the middle of the night and we are now on a flight home….just going over the International Date Line as I am writing to relive Thursday again. We just figured out that we have been up for about 38 hours with very little sleep.

We are flying China Air and they have served us a good lunch and I can smell breakfast coming soon. We have 4 hours left

Pam’s Final Thoughts

I have had a fabulous 8 weeks of adventure….spent time with Curtis and Natasha, loved going back to Melbourne, I can see why Curt likes it so much here. My home exchange with Joan was wonderful, the location and the accommodation and met lots of her friendly family and friends….. When Lori joined me we went to Tasmania, the Great Ocean Road again (I’d like to do that road again), the Grampians, Bellarat. Then our trip into the Red Centre….Alice Springs and Uluru…the camping under the stars. Then Darwin with the camping trip to Kakadu and Litchfield parks, the watering holes and the crocodiles. Bali with its crowded roads and the nice hotel we had Ubud with the hotel with running feet in the roof. Perth, enjoying the hospitality of Jane and Andrew, the road trip to the Wave Rock. The geocaching along the way, including the original quest of the 2,000,000th cache (now Lori is talking about the quest for the 3 millions soon to come!). I will let Lori to give you all the statistics, because I know she kept them as we went along. I only know that I have been on 11 airline flights on this trip!

Lori and I have travelled together before on our little geocaching adventures (Nevada, Oregon, Utah) but never for so long. Kudos to her for putting up with my messes and my anxiety over the suitcases not being in Vancouver when we arrive …..they were there! I know her family will be happy to get her back.

Lori's Final Thoughts

Wow...what an adventure. This was a fun trip that I'm glad and thankful that Pam let me invite myself to join her on!!! Every part of it was different, but exciting. Sometimes TOO exciting..... It's also great to travel with a "mission" in mind and with someone who likes to learn about the same things as I do, especially the "trivia" stuff. I think we did a great job for two retired "mature" ladies! I know we surprised more than a few people with some of our antics...

Pam has mentioned all the great sights we saw, and has done a great job with the blog. Here are a few "numbers" to sum it all up:

1 000 000 000......flies swatted in the Outback

45,675....km added to the Lo-dometer

800+.....photos to edit

165.....caches found and signed (more for Pam)

52......days of travel

44....hours continuous from Andrew and Jane's house in Perth to our house

18.....different beds

12.....number of flights (11 for Pam)

5.....countries visited

5....Australian states visited

3.....pairs of glasses lost/broken (all Lori)

2......exhausted but happy friends

1......lost bank card

0.....mosquitoes, snakes, accidents, or regrets!!

Thanks Pam! And thanks to everyone who read the blog and kept us going with emails and support. We already have thrown around some ideas for "next time...!"