Home from a FANTASTIC day out. We drove to William Creek and took a flight over Lake Eyre which we both loved-I still haven't stopped smiling about it! It's 160ks out on William Creek Road and about 6 along the Oodnadatta track into William Creek (population around 20 in the tourist season) to catch our plane at 1pm.
Our pilot (who looked about 12) arrived around 1.30pm to take us to the plane. We sat on the runway for almost 30 minutes as our plane wouldn't start in the heat ("a fault of these old Gippland Aviators" apparently), but finally got off the ground and took the best light airplane flight I've ever had. A bit of a worry though as the longer we sat on the runway, the shabbier our plane looked!
Our twelve year old pilot found great joy in flying low over the lake, then banking (often) even lower over it. We had two little girls (about 7 & 9)on board who'd NEVER flown before and the look of delight on their faces was worth seeing-they also asked lots of intelligent questions which was great as most other head sets didn't work apart from hearing them and the pilot.
The lake is awesome (to use a much over used word) and it's almost impossible to imagine it just dries up and goes away for so much of the time. Amazing to think all the birds, fish and even the odd yacht find their way to it when it is full of water. We saw a trailer sailer out on it today even though the traditional owners request no one does so. The flight out over the land was pretty amazing too with lots of waterholes, salt pans and just the ever changing colours of the land. The lake is about 100ks long, 40ks wide, and 4 metres at it's deepest! We started and got too late though to come home via Ooodnadata and the painted desert so we'll be back! And we both highly recommend if you're up this way the flight is
expensive, but well worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment