Thursday, October 10, 2013

Leaving the Rainforest to fly west to Ayers Rock

Tursday, 10.10.2013, 07h03, SA/D 20131009, 23h04. Yesterday

Outside Teperature 27DegreeC, very pleasant.

This morning our alarm clock rings at 04h00, it seems to get earlier and earlier!!! Transfer to the airport arrives at 05h15, all works well, we have a spectacular sunrise, we see, literally, thousands of Wallaby's on the fields. Our driver, Tom, informs us they are a pest at times and they have to be culled to control them. He also told us that only tourists eat Kaengeroo meat ...

We got permission to line up and cleared for take off..... it is 07h16. We love it!!!!


We are in the air 2 min later and we have 3,5 hours in front of us to Mount Isa to refuel and our second and last leg for today to Ayers Rock is estimated to be about 4,5 hours depending on the wind. 


Below us the airport we just departed from, Cairns, Australia. Dietmar is smiling and a happy chappie, He loves flying in Australia!!! The controllers know what they do, uncomplicated. He keeps saying: what a pleasure, what a pleasure ...

We are in the air, and we are one hour early! We are so used to calculate our time VERY generously because something goes wrong every time. Not today. Everyone else in the group will arrive later at the airport, the transfer bus left the hotel @07h00. Not even those who refuel in Mount Isa will catch up with us... refuelling will be easy and swift, because of us arriving apart from the herd. Unless something happens we will be out of there before everyone else arrives. There are times when being in a group is a disadvantage. Below us is what the Aussies call OUTBACK, mountaineous area, only with 4x4 tracks, 



Would be good to go there with our Gelaendewagen. Two nights ago I had a dream: we, Dietmar and myself, driving in our G and we were pulling our plane, hooked up like a trailer. Up and down, serpentine roads, (I actually think the dream took place during the last night on the cruiseship!), up and down, left to right we pulled our aircraft. Until a huge truck overtook us, hooted, and shouted: 'Hey Pal! You guys lost your plane! Its way behind you! And going down the hill!' On that we thanked him, waved, put gear in reverse and we followed the plane in reverse gear all the way... Thats one way of digesting all the stuff.



Down here it still looks the same, mountainous terrain, 4x4tracks only, river beds. it looks like the area behind Robertson or De Hel near Calitzdorp in SA. We had our breakfast. Breakfast in our aircraft is shared and consists of the following: Poppy seed wheat cracker, a Salami stick, a piece of cheese, 1 apple, 1 slice banana loaf, 250ml Orange juice, unfortunately no Espresso.

Below us, still nothing, except the terrain as described. We have 01h20 to go. 



Below us an airfield with a few hangars and buildings, but we see little else. 



Mount Isa, We had a very quick turn around, it is now 10h42, we have arrived in Mount Isa and left after refuelling and a short friendly chat. Another pilot we met by the fuel station is flying an air taxi and he had just fetched a big black nanny and her son from a mission post north of Mount Isa to visit the local clinic. Both, pilot and fuel man LOVED our small plane and a friendly Good Bye was said.

Below us we spot 'sort of a freeway' with a shady parking canopy very much like we have in RSA.



The soil and ground are also reddish, sandy and dry like with us and NAMIBIA.


Once we get to Ayers Rock we will do a sightseeing circle around the rock like shown below. 



Our friendly fuel man told us that five lodges are in that area, all run by the 'indigenous people'. And we will be able to swim there. Now we overfly 'Simpson Desert', and we leave the territory Queensland behind and enter Northern Territory.

We just had our lunch, same menu as for breakfast. Still no Espresso. We will enjoy one as soon as we get to our destination.

We are 5 min away from the rocks and we will do a scenic fly around, herewith first pictures.













2 comments:

  1. Liebe Vero und Lieber Dietmar

    Wie schoen euch zu folgen so frueh Morgens. Es macht spass euere Reise zu lesen. Vero du machst es so gut und dabei verbreitest du unseren Horizont
    Vielen Dank. Geniess euere Flug und wuenscht euch viel Spass. Keep on flying.
    Dalene & Reinhard

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hallo Vero & Dietmar
    Da kann man Dalene & Reinhard nur zustimmen; tolle Reiseberichte! Wir können garnicht auf die nächste Ausgabe warten.
    Dem happy Chappie weiterhin viele fähige Fluglotsen und natürlich viel Rückenwind.
    Bev & Manfred

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.