10 May 2007 - The trip continues...

I had the earplugs in firm last night, so I didn't even hear Phil leave when the sun came up.


The plan was to leave about lunchtime, so I pottered around, fed myself, had a shower, went for a fresh pair of socks.... Bugger. No socks to be found.So I washed them, figuring they'd be dry in an hour or so. Of course, it's probably 75% humidity, and DID actually manage to rain briefly. So while the socks sweated it out on the line, I sweated it out that they'd be dry by the time Phil returned.


I didn't venture into town again, thinking the humidity was just likly to make the hounds of Numbarwarville even grumpier, so I bided my time by doing some more study.Fortunatly Phil was later than expected, and fortunatly the socks did dry, so by the time we left at midday, all was in order.


On this leg we were on 'plan c' - or 'd', I think, with further revisions to destinations. We were ment to go to Urapunga, but ended up going to nearby Roper Bar as Urapunga had been closed by CASA, due to rocks on the strip, and other hazards caused by lack of funds for maintainence. Fortunatly it all went well with the pickup - one of the teachers from Urapunga community picked us up in a 4wd. A lovely lady of 50ish, who is the school principle, promised to vent her computer troubles to Phil only briefly - and did so with much restraint, then proceded to tell us a little about the community. How they have about 70 people in the community, 40 of which are kids attending school, a full and regular turn out apparantly.


The dominant feature in this area is the Roper River, a normally placid river that swells to the proberbial 'mile wide' in the wet season. Urapunga lies to the North of the river, and Roper Bar to the south, so to get from one to the other we had to ford the river (there is no bridge), crossing at (I presume) Roper crossing. The signs said the water was about 20cm, and the maximum for crossing is 40cm - aparantly the locals have some fun watching 'new locals' cross at 40cm, though they don't dare do it themselves. We were just about at the far side when I spotted a huge Barramundi out the side window. At least 60cm worth, we looked at each other and he shot off upstream somewhere - amazing.


We passed by Urapunga airstrip - half burnt from local fires, and went straight to the school. Phil gets straight to work, and I set about waiting. He has much to do, in order to both fix things, and keep the Principle happy, and I am hoping he gets them done by 4:30 latest, so we have sufficient time to return to Nukar to get fuel, and still make it to Bamyili before dark. Oh yes, another change in plan, it was originally Beswick, as that's the town where the work needs to be done, but the strip is closed, and the guy we are staying with lives in nearby Bamyili, so whe'll go there instead.

The school at Urapunga is great. Very clean and tidy, and all the kids attend. It's got some great facilities, and I spend my time waiting in the library. Some of the books are familiar, classics, theres have a more indiginious slant, but it's clear the school is loved by all.

They have something I've never seen before - an electronic whiteboard that doubles as a PC screen, so you can write on it, type on it, or anything really. I amuse myself for a short while viewing mega size images of Urapunga and neighbourhood on Google Earth.

We set off at the latest possible time for Nukar to get fuel, and I'm desperatly hoping that all goes to plan - whatever revision of the plan we are up to. Any hold ups with the trip, or getting fuel, and we won't make it to Bamyili before dark. It's a short (8 minute) flight to Nugkurr for fuel, and fortunatly one of our pilots is there to help, so we get away on time. The trip to Bamyili is one of those awkard ones with the sun setting right where I'm facing, but at least it is smooth, and it does make for one of my more memorable landings. The strip is only narrow and short, and runs the same way as Darwin, so when the sun sets you're either facing directly into it, or having it behind you. Fortunatly it was behind me, and as I'm just about to touch down, coming opposite to me down the runway is the shadow of my own plane, which was both beautiful and freaky. It did help to judge height though, to the touchdown was as smooth as they come.

We overnight at the Beswick school principles house, and feed on red thai curry. Of course, my shirt gets some as well. Classy even in the sticks.

Write about getting cut off in the wet / 5 months / no airstrip or vegies