Departure Day minus 1, Sat 30 May: Hippo Farm

Just as we were returning from afternoon drinks with the neighbours, Wendy received a text message from QANTAS informing us our direct flight to Sydney had been cancelled. This is not something you want to hear the night before flying out to Europe. So after many, many minutes of Wendy waiting on the phone to speak to a real person, our flights were changed: we were to get to Sydney via Brisbane on a DASH8 (a much smaller plane than the direct flight of a Boeing 717, aka: bugsmasher)!!. This added an extra four hours to an already long journey and meant leaving home four hours earlier than expected!!  However, at least we were guaranteed of getting there!  As the flights were being re-arranged, Wendy asked about the bikes and informed QANTAS there were an additional two person in our group travelling with bikes and the reason for booking the direct flight to Sydney was to avoid the potential of the bikes not being loaded.  QANTAS informed Wendy that no luggage was guaranteed of making any flight, but the bikes, if they were to be off-loaded, would eventually catch up with us.  Again, not what you need to hear the night before starting a holiday involving riding a bicycle.  Oh well, getting upset over it was not going to change the outcome, so we rushed around madly getting ready and went to bed later than planned.