20 April 2007 - The 'health clinic'

An 8am start today, for a short flight to Garden Point, on the other side of Bathurst Island. Maintenance needs to be done to the phone system at the local health clinic, and I've got a short wait while it is done.

Now, I say 'health clinic' because that's what it is referred to as being, but I'm not so sure that's what it actually is. While the technician gets to work on the phones, I'm offered a small, dirty, dusty room out back to wait in, and I'm shown a small, dirty, dusty room where I can get a coffee. I start on a coffee, but something floating in the cup after I add water makes me think twice, and I poor it out and go back to the bottled water that I brought along. The walk to the back room trying to touch as little as possible...

The work is done shortly, and I make a quick flight back to Darwin, for a quick turn around to Cape Don, where the lighthouse/resort caretaker needs to be collected. Cape Don was the destination for my first ever Darwin flight, if I remember correctly, back when the wet season was in full swing. Today, it's a much sunnier place, warm but with a cool sea breeze. I can see why people come this way when it's winter down South. In flight I snack on lunch I made, in bulk, last night. Tired of missing out, I've made up enough lunches to last a week, and while todays is still slightly frozen, it doesn't take long to thaw on the dashboard on the trip over!

On return, it's one more flight, for a freight run back to Bathurst Island - the usual Friday freight, and a total flight time today of 4.4hrs - a good return.

Dinner tonight is at 'Tims', a local eatery in Darwin, with Richard, the chief pilot and another couple of pilots. Beer has never seemed as refreshing as it is in Darwin.