When this posts, I will be somewhere between Darwin and Canberra, on my way home from the annual RWA conference. I don’t think people realise how big Australia is (including some Aussies). To get home I need to take two flights. The first leg is Darwin to Sydney, the second a short jump to Canberra, my home town.
The first leg is about 4.5 hours, the second about 1hr. With check-in, layovers etc, the travel time for me to get home will be about 10 hours.
The map below an overlay of the USA (minus Hawaii and Alaska) and Australia. There’s not a lot of difference – interestingly the USA have 50 states and we have 8 states and territories. Of course, vast areas of Australia aren’t really inhabitable as the middle is desert. We mostly live on the coastlines.
You can see Darwin in the top centre of Australia, and Canberra, my destination, on the bottom right. A bit like flying from North Dakota to Florida I guess.
Aussies are used to travelling long distances though (it’s my first time trying to embed an instagram post so I hope you can see it *fingers crossed*)…
We think nothing of driving for 8 hours to get somewhere. A day trip can mean driving 3 to 4 hours each way. We used to regularly drive for 16 hours each way to see family.
What is a big day of travel for you?