The Timor Sea – Rosa’s Blog

I’ve never flown on a plane before. And I don’t plan to again.

But I’ve done it now. After all our efforts, travelling for months without leaving the ground, all the way from England to East Timor, we’ve had to fly over that last little stretch of ocean to Australia. I can’t say this is how I wanted to reach our final destination, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit excited. It was an experience that most people I know have had, multiple times. So many scenes in movies and TV shows have characters on planes, and I just… have never known what that feels like. The idea of flying was equal parts exciting and terrifying for me.

Putting all the effects it has on the climate aside, how did I feel about going on this plane? Well, I certainly didn’t like the idea of being 35,000 feet up in the air in a large, heavy, metal machine that in my personal scientific opinion should NOT be able to fly, nor did I like the idea of taking off and landing in such a vehicle. Other than that, I was actually quite fond of the fact that we would be in Australia in only an hour and wouldn’t have to spend three days on a yacht in a notoriously difficult stretch of ocean being tossed around by a cyclone and throwing our guts up. I was also excited to see the world from up so high, to see what it looked like to be above the clouds.

And it was amazing. After an ever-so-slightly nerve-racking takeoff (it definitely freaked me out), we were able to see the world such a ridiculously long way below us. The island of Timor slowly grew smaller, surrounded on all sides by the ocean that from this height you could really appreciate stretched on forever. Then we reached the clouds. It was so strange to be shrouded entirely by fog knowing we were literally up in some of the highest clouds in the sky. The main flight attendant was amazing and super good at her job, and even gave me a care package when she found out it was my first time on a plane.

It was a little plane, only 90 seats, and the flight was so short we were descending before I knew it. As we approached Australia, I got to see its shores from above, marvelling at this huge, elusive landmass that I knew was our final destination. The beaches were golden and the water was a brilliant turquoise. We got to see some magnificent clouds as well as beautiful stretches of forests and lakes as we came down to land. It really was tough, having to get on a plane after all we had achieved without one, so the win felt bittersweet, but still, we had made it. And I’m glad I got to experience what it felt like to fly on a plane at least once in my life. If any time was worth it, it was now.

When we walked off the plane, we were greeted instantly with a wall of overwhelming heat. Welcome to Australia, I guess. Wow. We didn’t spend long out there, quickly scurrying into the airport and out of the blistering sun.

The airport in Darwin was very small, and customs was not the nightmare I had expected it to be from all the accounts I’d heard. We were very soon through and officially into Australia. We’d have one night in Darwin before we started our four-day nonstop (slightly crazy) trip across the whole of Australia to Sydney on the Greyhound bus.

But for now, we were here. I wished I could be more excited about it. But of course, after setting out on what looked like an impossible mission to get all the way to Australia over land and sea and ACTUALLY MANAGING to get ALL the way to our penultimate stop without getting on a single plane, that final plane was always going to feel disappointing. Like, I can’t say I made it. Not really. And that is something I’m going to have to accept now. I can no longer say I’ve never been on a plane.

But damn, I hope I’ve still managed to achieve something on this trip. To show people that so much is possible without hopping on a plane. Sure, a plane is faster and so much more convenient – I can see that clearly now, the plane we went on took an hour, as opposed to three maybe four days on a boat – but you really are able to travel to most places in the world without one. And when you do fly, you miss the world that makes up the spaces in between. It takes away from what an amazing thing it is to be able to travel halfway across the world and see what an incredible, diverse and endlessly interesting planet we live on. Of course it’s harder to travel this way, but doesn’t that make the destination feel that much more earned?

And once you’ve really seen the world, why would you want to fly when you’re not only missing it, but the plane that flies right over those incredible places is helping to cause its destruction? I can’t act all high and mighty, (when did being high and mighty ever help anything anyway?) I have flown now and that was my choice. But I tried so hard not to, all this way, and I hope we all really think about the other different ways we could travel before any of us get on our next flights. Maybe it’s not so hard to get the train after all? Wouldn’t it be an amazing adventure?

I have to say, from experience, that it is.