I'll just skip over Saturday (complete with errands, grocery shopping, cooking, and laundry ugh!) and head right into Sunday since it contains enough adventure for many weekends.
I got up in the morning, went for a run, then headed out to a farm that I nearly ran by earlier in the morning where a colleague of the guy I rent a room from lives. Gus is a mechanical engineer (Graham, if you turn out like him in 30 years, I'm totally coming to live with you) who works at Avalon airport, the Chicago Midway airport of Melbourne. I have always really wanted to go flying, and I thought I might get to go flying with him. Then again, I wasn't really sure what was going to happen so I didn't want to get my hopes up.
When we arrived at his farm, we talked for a while about Australian farming politics and unions and then started a pre-flight check for a 44 helicopter that we would take to the waterfront (about a 10 minute flight). The helicopter is for tourists and normally charges 130 an hour, according to Gus, but due to complaints about helicopter noise it parks at Gus's farm every night so he can take free flights into the city of Geelong whenever he wants to since the helicopter has to get there anyway.
So, that was an experience in itself and I was thrilled. We flew over Geelong and around Port Phillip Bay and it really felt like we were floating. I got to sit in the front and the windows were so huge you could really see everything. We eventually returned to the farm and had morning tea and then Gus said he was going to take me out in his cessna, which he keeps in a barn attached to his house. Now I was really excited! We took off from a makeshift runway/pasture and flew to a nearby tiny airport to refuel. Then we took off again and flew around the Bellarine Penninusla, over Queenscliff and over the rip, an area at the mouth of Port Phillip Bay where water moves faster naturally than any other place in the world. Visibility was so high that we could see clear across the bay to the skyscrapers of Melbourne. Then we turned South to follow the coast (i.e. the Great Ocean Road) and I got to fly. I got to fly! So I flew down the coast until Anglesea when we encountered a rain storm so we skimmed across the Eastern part of the Otway mountain ranges and back toward Geelong. I flew over Deakin Uni and over the house where I am staying before Gus took back over the controls to land us back at his farm. It was so much fun! The best part is that he goes flying at least once a week and he said I could come back and fly with him again. We're planning trips to go further down the coast to fly by the Twelve Apostles (some cool rocks) and over the true Otway ranges as well as a night trip to see the lights of Melbourne. AND, as if you didn't have enough reasons to visit me in Australia, Gus is emphatic that I bring any visitors out to the farm so he can take them up as well.
I think I'll be dreaming about flying for a long time. I'm still really elated.
Here's a rough map. The farm is near where the main road from Geelong splits off to go to Queensfliff. Queenscliff is on the tip of the penninsula and Anglesea is at the bottom left. Lake Connewarre, my study site, is the big lake in the middle of the penninsula.
BTW, my favorite baseball team, the Rockies, are officially in the National League championships. They are such underdogs that even though they haven't won the World Series since 1995 and even though they have had an amazing season so far (only one loss) the story of the game didn't even make the front page of the NY Times sports section. I have a secret plan to convert everyone I know in Geelong into Rockies supporters so they will have a strong contingent somewhere outside of Colorado.
No comments:
Post a Comment