Across Australia by Helicopter.

[MeMock]

Quite by accident we stumbled across the WA/NT (Western Australia / Northern Territory) state border. We gained 1/2 hour doing that and would gain another 1.5 hours about 3 hours later when we crossed into Western Australia.

[MeMock]

We had a massive tail wind of about 30 knots (60 kph or there abouts) so we made really good time to our next stop which was a cattle station called Brunette Downs

On the way we saw lots of errrr nothing.

[MeMock]

As you can see Brunette Downs is rather large. It is actually 1.3 million hectares. Not bad for one block of land

The landing at the airstrip was downright scary. With the 60 kph winds the rookie pilot was having a hard time of it and I must admit that at one stage I did think to myself "well we are only 5 metres from the ground so when we crash at least I wont die"

I did manage to grab my video camera and film it though! To the pilots credit he refused the instructors offer to take over and went around again for another try and this time got us down okay.

Here is the instructor filling up. (pretty tall for a welshman)

[klongmaster]

Great stuff guys...thanks for the explanation re: the trailers Cimboc...

I thought the kink in the road was just to keep the drivers awake...

[MeMock]

So after a 20 minute break we braved the winds and continued west to Newcastle waters station.


The tail wind was really kicking in so the two pilots decided they didn't need to stop there after all and we headed straight on to VRD.

I was unaware of this as I had managed to doze off for 30 minutes in the back seat much to their amusement.

Coming into VRD the scenery thank fully started to change.

[MeMock]

Sorry, VRD stands for Victoria River Downs, another cattle station, one that is quite famous.

Here are some pics of the station.





Nice erosion.



And the homestead.

[MeMock]

After filling up we got to meet the locals and they even offered us some lunch which was nice. They have there own engineering place onsite that fixes all their choppers and fixed wing aircraft. Not only do they muster there own cattle but supply a lot of machinery to other stations in the area.

Not all of the choppers are able to be fixed though

[buad hai]

^Gulp!

[Chong Boy]

Some of that landscape reminds me of Saudi, lots and lots of nothing for miles and miles.

Not bored of the big rigs, show some more, they are crazy, love it!

[natalie8]

Any idea why they would put a bend in the road here?

Good question. Maybe to break the monotony.

I love the truck / train pics. I've never seen one of those, even in pictures. Good explanation on them too. Thanks MeMock for the great pictorial.

[MeMock]

So finally we were homeward bound. The pilot to see his wife and four daughters after 3 weeks away and myself who had been away for 6 months.

Unfortunately they were doing controlled burns (if you call throwing fire bombs out from a fixed wing aircraft and letting it burn controlled) in the area so visibility was pretty average.

[MeMock]

and then I saw it and I knew we were home.

The beginning of the majestic Lake Argyle.

35 million megalitres of water and cover a surface area of 2,072 square kilometres.





My photo programme seems to be playing up, I hope I can get the rest of the pics up tonight.

[MeMock]

Photo programme sorted.

The lake is obviously full as this is the spillway.



I have seen it at 6 metres over this in the past.

And all this water is held back by this tiny wall.



Below the wall is the second stage to the Ord River which is what I grew up on. Swam, showered, fished, camped, built my office on it etc etc.

[MeMock]

Thousands of tourists travel to the Kimberley. Here is a tourist boat from this company.

[cimboc]

Quite by accident we stumbled across the WA/NT (Western Australia / Northern Territory) state border. We gained 1/2 hour doing that and would gain another 1.5 hours about 3 hours later when we crossed into Western Australia.

Gee is that the first time you've got over the border without that "special glove" check you usually attract...

[dirtydog]

The excitement of it all, after 20 hours of driving the lorry driver wakes up his family to tell them there is a bend in the road, they whole family starts cheering as he takes the sweeping curve at 60mph, then they go to sleep for another 20 hours, hmmm, maybe Bangkok wouldn't be such a bad place to live when you look at it like that

[cimboc]

LORRY

This is a Lorry...



This is an Australian TRUCK



oops sorry old photo most rigs in oz are now tri axle prime movers

[MeMock]

^Gulp!

As we took off I noticed another 3 wrecks laying out in the bush.

[MeMock]

So then it was time for the last 20 minutes to home. We were going to land at the pilots house which suited me just fine as he is my brother and I hadn't seen my four beautiful nieces for 6 months.

[MeMock]

And people wonder why I spent 23 years living in Kununurra. Just take a look at the place compared to the rest of Australia that you just saw!

[MeMock]

[MeMock]

It was at this moment that my battery gave out





We were only 10 minutes from home so I enjoyed the ride in flying over familiar ground.

We buzzed my brothers house and watched his wife, mil, auntie in law and four daughters coming running out to watch him land.

Thankfully it was the best landing off the entire trip.

Hugs, kisses and tears and that was the end of the trip of a life time. I had a blast.

[cimboc]

Some awesome pic's MM - you never cease to amaze me.....

Cheers for the effort since I know your time in front of the computer has been limited since returning home.

[sabang]

Great trip. Personally, I love the Aussie outback.

[buad hai]

Spectacular stuff. Thanks for sharing. (Finally....)