There’s absolutely no doubt about the undisputed nadir of a trip from Cairns to Japan and back. It comes around three o’clock in the morning, not all that long after you’ve managed to nod off, when the cabin crew start doing their thing prior to a scheduled 5:10 arrival in Cairns.
Part of the problem, at least as far as I can see, is that the scheduled arrival time doesn’t coincide too closely with the actual time the tyres hit the tarmac.
It’d be fine if they were late, or consistently late, anyway. If five-ten managed to consistently creep towards six they mightn’t need to start rousing people around three o’clock.
Last time, in Business Class, it was actually worse. They’d plied us with dinner and wine, which meant it was that much later when you started the attempt to nod off. Then, since you might like something for breakfast, they tapped us on the shoulder around three.
This time, in cattle class, when you’re not looking for anything they more or less left us alone, and you could put the travel blindfold back over the eyes and attempt to drift off.
I think I managed to do that, but if I did it wasn’t a very long doze, and definitely wasn’t deep enough to qualify as a power nap.
And when you’re awake, looking out into the predawn gloom on the seaward side of the aircraft there isn’t a whole lot to see until you’re well into the descent and the street lights of Cairns’ northern beaches appear beneath you.
We were on the ground at 4:30, and even with disembarking and the formalities associated with re-entering the country it was still before six when we found ourselves at the front of the International terminal giving the Airport Parking shuttle bus a buzz.
They weren’t quite as quick out of the blocks as they could have been, but it was still well before seven when we hit the road, scratching our heads and trying to figure out what to do next.
We knew what we weren’t going to be doing. There was no way we were going to attempt the six hour road trip back to Bowen. Tried that last time, thank you very much, and it could have been a total disaster.