Thanks Ingrid for the posting whilst we were in the wilds, best entry we’ve had for ages!! Legs were 230 miles and 160 miles up to Cape York rather than km’s, we wish. The flights up to Bamaga via Cape York were in fine weather and we were very pleased with progress up the eastern side of the Cape, as the thought of these flights had been worrying us for a while. These fears were also fuelled by things we kept being told. We had a fantastic reception at Bamaga from Carl the airport manager who kindly fed us, drove us around the area and generally looked after us far too well. The following morning we flew down the coast to Weipa. This was an excellent flight, we spotted crocodiles, manta rays, turtles and dolphins. The tailwind that we had up to the Cape had, as expected deserted us but thankfully the headwind was far less strong than the tailwind had been. After we left Weipa we took on a second leg of the day and flew on to Kowanyama. This turned in to a long flight as the wind wasn’t hugely kind. It was a four hour flight and temperature was well over 30 degrees on the ground when we landed. We overnighted at Kowanyama and spent a great evening with our unexpected hosts, one of whom is a local pilot. Thank-you to you all. First light Friday morning we took off for Kurumba. Three hours later we arrived at our destination unable to land due to a howling crosswind and diverted to Normanton some 20 miles away. Here we met up with Keith who’d also had an exciting couple of days with some driving on unsealed roads. Unforunately he’s now got a windscreen with several stonechips and a crack to show for the experience. Today (Sat 30th) we’re having a much deserved day off before heading for Darwin tomorrow. This we estimate will take five days, our first intended stop being Hell’s Gate Roadhouse tomorrow night. Jim, John and Keith.
Comment by Jim_and_John (2002-03-31 09:02:56)
Thanks for the offer. We expect to be in Darwin around Wednesday (weather permitting) so we’ll give you a call and catch up with you when we arrive. Jim and John
#31