Friendship Flight 2010: Morning Glory: Burketown Day 7

I woke up at 3am this morning. The wind was making the leaves of the tree next to my room rub up against the exterior wall. Then it stopped. Then it did it again. I wondered if I had imagined it, but it kept doing it. So at 3.30am, I got up and went outside to have a look. It was 27 degrees and the wind was coming from the south west at about 5-7 knots. I could see stars so I knew the sky above was clear. It was darker on the horizon, but it was difficult to tell because of the light pollution from the street lights. I stood there listening and feeling the wind start up, then stop then start up again. Although there was no cloud, I believe it was a morning glory system going through. Unfortunately, it was too early – the sun was not coming up for another few hours. Can’t fly in the dark, need to wait for the sun to rise. The cycle stopped, no morning glory clouds appeared. When the sun rose, it was confirmed that although there was no morning glory by then, it was still a glorious morning to be flying.

I had stayed up later than I should have the night before, looking at options for places to visit today. We settled on Karumba, which is further east on the coast of the Gulf of Carpenteria. The Falke stayed here as Erich and I flew Russell’s “Grobsky 109 Croc Duster” along the coast. I also finally worked out the GoPro camera so managed to get some great photos and some great video of us flying along the river on the way back (well I think it will be good – haven’t had a chance to watch it yet). I also turned the Spot Tracker on so it should be appearing on the tracking page. Probably looks a bit funny with us winding along the river. I'll let the pictures of Karumba speak for themselves. I'd like to include more of the ~300 photos I took today, but I don't want everyone to hate me. It really was that nice, particularly the prawns and the oysters, and the beach,.... ahhh.

I also forgot to mention a few things in my previous posts: I did go back and do some more fishing with Geoff along the river the other day. I got several dozen bites, but unfortunately they were from mosquitos and sandflies, not from any fish. They should have healed by the time I get back to Melbourne. Also, if you were wondering where I slept the night after the cane toad incident, I slept on a fold out sofabed in one of the other rooms occupied by a couple of the other glider pilots (the room was occupied, not the sofabed).