Mm, picnic. What does one take to a picnic? Crisps, dips, sausage rolls. No, come on, think outside the box.

Mm, napkins? What are you, the mum? No, something a bit more exciting. Something like, I'll have those red scratch cards, please.

Add some play with National Lottery Scratch Cards.

Search Dream big, play, small, rules and procedures apply.

Players must be 18 or over.

Hello, it's Tuesday the 2nd of November and thanks for joining me, Simon Calder, for the latest on travel and destinations from the Green List and the travel desk of the Independent.

Today, the first scheduled service from the UK to Australia for 20 months has taken off today. But what are the chances of Christmas down

under? And Thailand, Israel and Japan are all easing their travel restrictions after a fashion.

Of course, this podcast is completely free, as is my weekly travel email, and you can sign up for that at

independent.com.com.uk forward slash newsletters, lucky you. Well, great excitement at Heathrow Terminal

3 today because Qantas Flight 2 took off from Heathrow

destination, well first Darwin in the Northern Territory and then Sydney, Australia.

And unlike the series of repatriation flights that Qantas has been operating on and off for the past 20 months,

the new departures can be booked pretty much like any other flight,

as long as you're an Australian citizen or a permanent resident.

You can return to New South Wales, to Victoria or to the Australian Capital

Territory, and that is primarily Canberra, of course, without needing to quarantine. Absolutely

revolutionary for Australians, but a very long way from restoring anything like the normal ties for British visitors.

Scott Morrison, Australia's Prime Minister, was actually managing director of Tourism Australia

about 15 years ago. So you might imagine that he would be really keen to start things off. Well, he's not.

He's very keen on skilled migrants to Australia. He's very keen on international students.

And then he thinks, and I quote, we'll get to international visitors next year.

...