Drama on the way to the airport.

Not only did we have our luggage lost, but further events were to make the trip to Alice Springs memorable.

After our conference ended, we had to return to the airport.  My friend and I had to get our reimbursement for the items that we purchased when our luggage was lost and wanted to get to the airport in plenty of time to arrange for that.  However, as there were six of us, we chose to book a limousine to get to the airport.  We phoned, booked and at the appointed time sat in the hotel foyer waiting.  Soon it became clear we were not going to get the limo – a phone call to them was not answered, and a taxi van arrived dropping customers off, so we quickly arranged with the driver to take us to the airport.  We were running a bit late by this stage.  We squeezed into the vehicle and I sat in the front seat beside the driver.  It was a VW – with the engine in the rear, so I felt a little vulnerable being so close to the front of the vehicle.

Almost halfway to the airport, a utility coming the other direction (it was a vehicle from the Ross River Resort that we had stayed at a couple of nights earlier) suddenly almost ran off the road, the rolled towards us.  The driver of the taxi swerved but was not able to get out of the way.  As they say, your whole life flashes before you at a time like this.  I thought I was going to die, or at least be injured as both vehicles came to a halt on the side of the road, wedged together – the ute inches from my face!!!

We all jumped out quickly,  but I was a shaking mess.  As it turns out there was an ambulance driving behind us, and we quickly had emergency services on hand.  As well as being worried about the driver of the ute, we were concerned we’d miss our plane and be “stuck” in Alice Springs, as we would miss our plane and our connecting flight from Sydney to Brisbane.

As it turns out, no only was there an ambulance, but another taxi was on its way to the airport, so we and our luggage squeezed into the taxi and made it to the airport in time to get our reimbursement, and rushed to board our plane.

Phew!!!  You would have thought we had had enough excitement for the day, but more was to come.  As the plane approached Sydney, so did a crazy electrical storm, with lightning and turbulence.  Would be land safely?  The plane changed its route and soon came back to the airport, and landed safely.  We were all “shaken up” as you can imagine.  Safe!!!

We had a short wait for our next flight and I tried to regain composure but was still shaken!!

As it turns out, the storm was heading north, and again we flew through major turbulence and around lightning,  but, fortunately, landed safely in Brisbane.

It certainly was a memorable trip!!!

 

Have you had your luggage lost on a plane??   Feel free to comment below.

 

Share This:

About Di Hill

My business card says "Writer, Traveller, Camera Addict, Bamboo Fan, Workshop Presenter." This website will focus on my writing - and the workshops I present. Workshops on Blogging, Marketing for Writers, and Life Story Writing.
This entry was posted in Travel and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.