Morning Glory Cloud

Morning Glory Cloud
Morning Glory over Massacre Inlet (photo: Diane Davey)

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Burketown Day 1 - Familiarisation

It was an early start this morning – even earlier than I expected thanks to my too-smart-for-it’s-own-good-phone.  It decided to set itself to daylight savings. Only there is no daylight savings here in Queensland. So instead of waking up at 4am, I woke up at 3am. I feel jet-lagged.
It was still dark when we got to the airport. There are half a dozen or so gliders here. Some people had arrived earlier and were already lining up for a first light departure. There was excitement in the air as the wind picked up and someone mentioned a few ‘dry glories’ going through, meaning a Morning Glory system with no cloud.  
Paul, an experienced Morning Glory pilot from Byron Bay had kindly agreed to come with me today to give me a bit of a tour of the key landmarks and tips on what to look out for. Whatever had been going on with the ‘dry Glories’ was gone, but we did have an absolute magic flight in the still morning air. My apologies for forgetting the Spot. I forgot about it in the early morning excitement. I realised when we got airborne but it was at the bottom of my bag and I just could not get to it without dislocating my shoulder, which I nearly did!
We were back on the ground before 7.30am. We spent the rest of the morning touring around Burketown in the Lodge courtesy car before coming back for a much needed afternoon nap. The new routine might take me a while to get used to, but I think I can handle it!
The Falke lining up at dawn


Grob and Dimona ready to go

Paul and I heading for the coast

How novel - water to the north.

Stunning.

The Albert River and surrounding salt flats


Burketown. The airstrip is just above the town, near the centre of the photo. There is a cross-strip but it's not visible on the photo

Grave at Burketown cemetary. A very lonely place.

Don't mess with the cows here

The Albert River - nice spot for a swim?

Maybe not

Remnants of a failed 19th century venture - Boiling Down Works. The entrepreneurs were fooled by unusually good conditions in the area.

One of two boilers, just rusting away in the middle of nowhere.

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