09 June 2007 - Return to Mugeergarrrrdt

Two flights today. I wasn't on the weekend roster, but stuck my hand up. With the Audit happening this week, I was needing to fly.


The first flight is to Pepperminarti, where we usually take freight. This time, it's not freight, just a quick stop to collect the store owner and his dog (strange I remember the dogs name, 'maca', but not the owners...)


The second flight is to take a South African couple, who met in Perth, but live in New Gunnia, to Mudgerarrardt. They have a black box I suspect is full of blasting equipment, but turns out its full of photographic equipment. Must be a 'rent a gun' couple.


Everything goes to plan, and we depart on time. I've make some interior adjustments for the guy to take some scenic snaps along the way, but we are foiled by the awful smoke that's obscuring visibility. I say things like:

That's where Kakadu should start

That's about where the East Aligator river begins.


Eventually a combination of poor visibility, generosity and, quite frankly, my own interest, force me to take a detour. For the last stage of the flight I drop down to 1000ft and divert over the wetlands, around the rocky outcrops near a place called Mt Borradaile, that apparantly has some historical, archeological significance. Aparantly, but it's not in Wikipedia. Anyway, it's quite spectacular.


I return to Darwin 'empty', and put the plane away. It's cooler here today, about 28, and dry. I hear there's snow in Victoria. Today we're having snow too - black snow - a scrub fire somewhere nearby is raining down black ash, bark, grass. Nice. NT