Sydney to Newcastle – Fulfilling a 31-Year Premier League Pilgrimage

[kamchatsky]

Prologue

I live in northern region of Sydney. Travelling to Newcastle would only take me 2 hours on M1. I have done this quite a few times. You wonder, why would I be writing an AFF trip report that I can simply drive for 2 hours?

The reason is that when I refer to Newcastle, I meant Newcastle UK (NCL), and not Newcastle NSW (NTL). NCL is more than 10000 miles away from SYD. Whereas NTL is only 88 miles from SYD.



Then the question is, why would I go all the way to Newcastle, the other side of the world? Well, this is because I fell in love and followed Premier league team Newcastle United since 1994, when I was just finishing high school, and just after Premier League was formed. I have been a long-suffering supporter for the last 31 years. I saw them relegated from Premier League twice and lost the FA Cup final twice and Carabao Cup final once. They finally won the Carabao Cup last year, their first domestic trophy in 70 years, even though it is the smallest trophy in the top-flight English football calendar. People asked me why I don’t follow bigger clubs such as Manchester United/City, coughnal, Chelsea, Barcelona or Real Madrid etc, the clubs that actually won big trophies. I cannot really answer you on this but somehow, even though I have never been to Newcastle before, I could not change my support to any other European club all these years.

One of the things I really wanted to do in my life was to visit St James’ Park at Newcastle and watch a Premier League game. St James’ Park is the home stadium for Newcastle United. For various reasons, I have kept putting away from visiting St James’ Park all these years. You know, money, lack of time, higher priority stuff like marriage, kids, family etc.

I have been to Europe twice, once in 2009 with my wife, and second time in 2023 with my wife and 2 kids. However, both trips were in the middle of summer and during the Premier League off season. No one in Europe were playing football at that time. The timings just could not work out.

But my kids are starting to grow up, so I thought this is my chance to finally go to Newcastle to watch a game. I just need to have a good excuse for it.

Therefore, in January 2025, I proposed to my missus to travel to Europe in December 2025 – January 2026. We would be going there for 6 weeks, and travel to Newcastle for a few days to watch a Premier League game. It would fit company Christmas/New Year shutdown, and also summer school holidays for the kids.

They did not like the idea as Europe would be cold, wet, freezing and dark during that time. The experience would be much worse than travelling there in summer. Also, we would need to visit my in-laws in China during that time, when it is Australian school summer holidays and office shut down. So, by August 2025, it was decided by the family that we will be going to China again for family reasons, I thought my dream of visiting will be postponed again ……

Then one day, my missus said to me, "whilst we cannot go with you to Europe, maybe you can travel to Newcastle yourself from Hong Kong, and all of us stayed in China instead with the in-laws. This is the best she could offer as we may need to visit in-laws more regularly, or they stay with us in Australia as they were getting older and older ……". I could not believe she said that to be honest. I thought it was all a dream. Given the health conditions of my in-laws, this may be my only chance to go to Newcastle for a long time. I won't be able to go anywhere if the in-laws decided to move in with us later.

So, I very quickly look at the Premier League 2025/2026 fixtures to see if it fits with our planned trip to China. Newcastle was playing Crystal Palace on 3 January (NOTE: later changed to 4th January for TV broadcasting requirements) and Leeds United on 7 January. Both are home games at St. James Park. Those were the games I could fit with our existing itinerary. OK, I could make it work. But I would have to go solo on my Premier League Pilgrimage, rather with my family.

I ended up booking QR J from Hong Kong to Europe using my AA miles and also QR Avios. My intra-Europe flights to/from Newcastle UK were paid in cash.

So eventually the itinerary is as follows:

Part 1: Family trip to China

19 December 2025: To Guangzhou: QF415 Y SYD-MEL, QF29 Y MEL-HKG (cash), China CRH G6564 to Hong Kong -Guangzhou dong (East)
20 December 2025: Restday at Guangzhou
21 December 2025: To Guilin: China CRH D1872 Guangzhou nan (South) – Guilin xi (North)
22 December 2025: To Yangshuo County: River Cruise
24 December 2025: To Guangzhou: China CRH D1835 Yangshuo – Guangzhou nan (South)
25-30 December 2025: Visiting Families at Guangzhou

Part 2: My Solo Premier League Pilgrimage

31 December 2025: To Hong Kong and then Doha: China CRH G6583 Guangzhou nan (South) - Hong Kong West Kowloon, QR817 J HKG-DOH
1 January 2026: At Doha, to Barcelona: QR141 J DOH-BCN (HKG-DOH-BCN on 75K AA award)
2 January 2026: At Barcelona, to Newcastle UK: BA485 Y BCN-LHR, BA1340 Y LHR-NCL (cash)
3 January 2026: At Newcastle, Stadium Tour at St James' Park
4 January 2026: At Newcastle, Newcastle United vs Crystal Palace at St James' Park
5 January 2026: Visit Edinburgh via train, then to Glasgow via Flixbus at night
6 January 2026: Visiting Glasgow, go back to Newcastle at night
7 January 2026: At Newcastle and Durham, Newcastle United vs Leeds United at St James' Park
8 January 2026: To Dublin then to Doha: BA8965/EI3351 Y NCL-DUB (cash), QR46 J DUB-DOH
9 January 2026: To Hong Kong: QR816 J DOH-HKG (DUB-DOH-HKG on QR 90K Avios award)
10-11 January 2026: At Hong Kong, meet up family again
12 January 2026: QF128 Y HKG-SYD (cash)

This trip report is split into 2 parts. One is travelling to China with my family visit. The second part is my Solo Premier League Pilgrimage, 31-years in the making. This is the flight map for my report:

 

[drron]

Good for you. I have always had such dreams but haven't acted upon them. my teams though were selected because of their lack of results. Sounds silly but the only games I went to as a youngster was North Sydney in the ARL as it was known then. I lived at Lane Cove. They last won a first grade trophy in 1927. When they were booted from the NRL I thought my dreams were shattered. But fittingly like Phoenix they are arising from the Ashes as the Perth Bears next year 100 years after their last trophy. Hopefully I remain fit enough to make a pilgrimage to PER to see them again.

My Premier League team is Stoke City. A bit like the Bears being founding members of the Football League in 1888. But spend a lot of time out of the EPL. I did tay up in 2011 to watch the FA cup final in 2011. Sadly they lost.

In the NFL I followed the Eagles from the early 80s. They often showed a lot of promise but fell short. They were following my eams usual rajectory but in 2017 won the super bowl hence my avatar.

So I will follow your quest with interest and won't cheat by looking up results.