Today saw the start of the journey home. At 16:10 we caught the first of two flights over the next 24 hours to get us initially, to Singapore. The first flight was on board a Singapore Airlines A380 Jumbo, brought out of retirement to service this busy route.
We departed northwards and therefore had great views of Sydney and the Harbour Bridge.
Travelling to the northwest of the country we crossed the Simpson and Great Australian Deserts before crossing the Indian Ocean to Indonesia and a night landing in Singapore where we saw ships waiting for the tide or to unload.
The next flight departed Singapore at 02:10 on the 17th, travelling overnight and back through time to Manchester for 13½ hours, but felt interminable. The conflict in the Middle East had made the crossing over Central Asia very difficult. Firstly there were large numbers of aircraft in a narrow corridor, the routing zigzagged to stay within friendly territory and the aircraft were travelling lower and slower therefore using more fuel. From Istanbul however, a special route had been established for the long-haul flights at 40,000ft. We landed in Manchester ahead of time because of this routing, but it demanded great airmanship to stretch the fuel safely.
We travelled a total of 27,300 miles.