Diary of an aviation nut: Cruisin' the coast

Our track around the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria is shown.
Much more fun than a straight line!

Today we flew from Karumba to Burketown but, rather than fly the short 76nm (140km) straight line route between the two towns, we flew around the Gulf of Carpentaria coast.

After a nice breakfast, we and our bags were dropped back at the Karumba airport. We're a well-oiled team now and within 25 mins the aircraft was packed, checked over thoroughly and we were rolling. Climbing to 1000' we tracked down the coast and, when clear of civilisation, descended to 500' for our trip along the coast.

The coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria is fascinating in this area and it's one of my favourite places to fly. It's inaccessible by road and even boats struggle in this part of the coast due to the shallow waters and mangrove swamps. It's billiard table flat with large salt pans and, in the wet season (November to April), floods extensively. There's no apparent coast - the land just seems to merge into the sea.

As we tracked westward the rivers and streams running into the Gulf become more numerous. We followed a few in search of crocodiles but none were seen. At the height we were flying we saw lots of tracks (of something) across the sand and salt pans but didn't sight anything but flocks of birds. During the whole flight we never saw any sign of mankind.

The flying was lovely in calm and clear skies but it was time to actually go to our destination which we'd long since passed. We climbed to 3000' and turned back toward Burketown. From that height the rivers and tributaries look like a picture of veins and capillaries in a medical journal.

I've been to Burketown twice before; the last time in 2012. It's a peaceful little isolated outback town that offers the only pub for miles around. During my last visits I stayed in Donga's (cabins) behind the pub. However, the old pub burnt down in 2012 shortly after I last visited. It was an old rambling place and may have fallen down if hadn't burned down. By October 2013 there was a brand new swanky pub in its place. Such is the importance of a pub in an outback town.

We're staying at the Savannah Lodge which is lovely. They even offered us the use of a car to have look around. It doesn't take long.

Bruce is a keen photographer and can be credited with most of the photos taken on this trip. He's revelled this evening in putting his impressive camera gear into action for stunning pictures of the night sky which is spectacular out here.