HLO Day 26: Delay Growth And Damp Garments

Up until today, I’d done 11 flights (and one boat trip) for Hand Luggage Only and only experienced a minor delay of 10 minutes on one journey. But that pretty impressive record got blown out the window when my Sydney-Perth flight was an hour late boarding because of “technical requirements”.

Getting delayed is always annoying, and doubly so when you’ve got the prospect of a relatively lengthy flight and a time zone change in front of you. But what really had me spitting chips was that for the first time this trip, I’d been forced to pack some partially-dried clothes in my luggage, so the last thing I wanted was for them to spend extra time stewing in the venerable bag.

Given the daily handwashing requirements of only travelling with three outfits, I’m probably lucky this scenario hadn’t come up before. One obvious strategy would be to wear the damp garments, but in truth the T-shirt was a bit too wet to even contemplate that. (And after experiencing the breeze blowing down St George’s Terrace when I boarded the airport bus this morning, I’m glad I didn’t make that choice.)

It’s a slightly annoying end to a successful trip to WA. It’s also the start of four consecutive nights in different locations, so what looks annoying now might well be the norm by the end of the week. Either that, or I’m going to have to really turn up the heating in my hotel rooms.

Throughout May 2009, Lifehacker Australia editor Angus Kidman will be travelling throughout Australia with just one carry-on bag for the Hand Luggage Only project.