The Beginning

Departure - Friday 18th January 1980

Today was the start of our dream trip.  Rayls will turn 23 in a few days and I am just 25.

After having dinner at Rayl's parents house we were taken to the airport by our friends Tony and Bev.  This was the old Perth Airport, the international part was where the domestic airport is now (2008).

We arrived at the airport at 7:15pm - we were early in the hope of getting a window seat but a computer break down (they had them even back then) meant we were unsuccessful.

We sat in the coffee shop and both my parents and Rayl's parents came to see us off.

We were called up at 9:45pm and after saying our goodbyes we went through immigration and on to the departure lounge where we waited till 10:40pm. 

We boarded the plane, a British Airways 747 and sat in seats 34D and 34E.  The plane took off at 11:00pm, we were on our way.

Saturday 19th January 1980

After taking off our plane went to 35,000 feet and the trip was pretty uneventful.  There was a projector breakdown so we didn't get to see the movie Ýou and Me'.

We both tried to sleep with very little success and both felt queezy.

We landed at Mumbai (it was Bombay back in those days) at 7:00am.  There had been a recent fire at the airport terminal and subsequent overcrowding and so were not allowed out of the plane.  We were asked to remain in our seats while the plane was cleaned.  Sadly my queezy feeling got the better of me and I spend much of the plane refuelling period not sitting in my seat!!!

We took off again at 8:45am. Captain Fuller now in charge.

Very soon after taking off from Bombay it began to get light and by 9:30am the sun was up.  After breakfast they showed a movie, "Movie Movie", must have fixed the projector in Bombay.

Rayls slept some but no sleep for me - never did master the art of sleeping in a plane.

We flew over Tehran (capital of Iran), this was just a few weeks after the US Embassy hostages had been taken.  Also flew over Turkey, Bulgaria and Yugolslavia.  Beautiful scenery, lots of mountains and snow.  Then over Austria, Germany and Belgium, too much cloud to see much now.

We finally landed at London Heathrow at 10:10am (England time) - 6:10pm time Perth time so it was 19 hours and 10 minutes after departure from Perth.