Keeping up with Beth

I initially thought that 3 months was quite a long space of time. 3 months is quite a significant amount of time to the right people. If you try hard enough, its long enough. I started planning my return about 4 weeks into my trip. I had been thinking about when I’d want to be back, in terms of money, and exhaustion and all the rest of it. My parents figured at the start that after my time in PNG I might be ready to return, and in my head that did make sense, I could go home and make a few stops along the way to some of Asia perhaps.

Thats not what happened though

I wasn’t sure how I was going to get home, but I thought it might be nice to surprise everyone, leave it up in the air. That wouldn’t have been a surprise or a worry to anyone, if anything it would have made the most sense with it being me and me having no sense of urgency or need for organisation etc.

So it began. About a month into my trip I decided I would start planning my return. Not because I was desperate to come home at all, but so that I definitely had a plan and could plan the perfect surprise. I contact a friend and told her my idea, even though I didn’t really have to much idea how it was going to work it meant together we could figure it out.

And we did. I started looking at flights trying to figure out how I was going to get home and which was ultimately cheaper. I was trying to figure out the date, was straight from PNG better, or go around for a bit first. So many choices, I had complete freedom on my route and time. In the end it worked it significantly cheaper to come back to Australia and then fly home, so that’s what I did. I spent a day the other side of Australia in Perth, less than 24 hours, and then flew home!

After leaving PNG I had 3 days before I actually made it to England. It was very confusing with all different time zones and flights from different places, I couldn’t tell you precisely how long it was but I returned home on Tuesday midday in London Heathrow.

My day in Perth was pretty interesting. I stayed in a motel for the night, arriving about 11pm, and having to check out 12 hours later. It was very strange being completely alone in a room again after so long of people being around me pretty much 24/7 but it felt peaceful which is probably exactly what I needed before this long journey. I had managed to lock up my suitcase and bag and just had my backpack to get me through the time with all my clothes, suncream and everything else you need. It was an interesting day keeping everything on my back to say the least, but Perth was worth it, with perfect clear blue sky’s and the last day of perfect sunshine and walking round the botanical gardens (seemed to be my go to) and over looking the whole city, the river, the roads, all the buildings. But seeming so natural up where I was. It was magical and I couldn’t have given myself a more perfect last day.

That evening, I headed back to the airport, slyly messaging my family as if I wasn’t leaving, telling them about how much I liked Perth, trying to figure out where everyone would be and when so that I could surprise them properly. It was going well. no one assumed I would ever leave early and come back just to be nice. And it was so worth it.

I made my flight to Doha with Qatar airlines, which was heavenly in the window seat, no one next to me and the massive space they have. If you ever get a chance to fly long haul with them do it, It’s a luxury.

I managed to sleep a lot, and watch a couple of films before the flight was over and it was time to catch the connecting flight- very very swiftly, with British airways back to Heathrow. A less luxurious flight, a lot more cramped, but I managed to sleep, write and enjoy the fact that I would be off the plane food in less than 12 hours!!

I met my friend and her mum at the airport to drive me back so that I could surprise everyone. I messaged a few people who then gained suspicion but nothing that would expose me before my grand entrance amazingly.

We tuned up at my front door, with the classic British rain falling on us, and knocked on my front door. My mum had told me a little while earlier she had been having a bit of a bad day and nothing had really been going well, so I knew she was home and was greeted by a very blank confused and scared face. It hadn’t occurred to me that just showing up on my front door without any warning might be a scare like something had gone wrong, but after the initial shock I was pulled into a classic mum hug that may have had a few tears in the mix. We chatted in the kitchen as mum listened to some of my stories, still shocked that i was home and not 10,000 miles away as she had thought less than an hour ago. We then began planning how we could surprise everyone else. We walked up to school after mum had messaged Ghisi and Jamie to ask them to come meet her and was again met with shock and few hugs with less tears than before. Dad came home from work slightly later as I sat just at the kitchen table nonchalantly and got a surprised look and a hug.

It was a pretty exciting day, I have to be honest and I’m glad I came home- although I found out had I have left it an extra couple of weeks I’d have come home to a clean car, tidy room, made bed and a whole lot more. But those are just the sacrifices I had to make.