You just never know what's going to happen

So dear reader on Friday right on schedule we cruised into William Creek, landed impressively on a dirt strip, after a nice taxi and a quick turn, we'll be good. BUT no one told us about 'bull dust', soft clay that sucks up everything in sight and yes you guessed it as we turned, Jabi's beautiful front and one side wheel got bogged. So here we are bogged. Between some shoves and radio calls we moved Jabi a bit BUT THEN the William Creek cavalry arrived and gave us a big shove, we parked the Jabi and went straight to the pub for drink. (Sadly, no photos as the official tour photographer decided now might not be the best time to be clicking.) William Creek - the place in the middle of nowhere - was awash with people.
The Oodnadatta Track had been closed for a few days because of rain and when the sun shone William Creek was the place to be for a shower, sleep, meal and beer.   

Saturday after breakfast at the pub - note to Nabateans - don't ask the William Creek guys for a skinny coffee or adjust the set menu in ANY WAY, we took off to Coober Pedy. Nice flight BUT airport was not right in the town as advised by one of the trusty William Creek boys. We are stranded. BUT THEN an angel appears in the form of Jan, a South African guy, who offered us a lift into town and kindly offered to show us his dug out home and when we were ready to go to call him and he would give us a lift back to the airport. Nice guy! We walked around Coober Pedy for quite some time, now that is a place with some interesting locals and of course opals and flew back to William Creek.

With a lots of enthusiasm the next day, Sunday, in beautiful weather we took off for Rawnsley Park. Lake Eyre south was magnificent, we said hello to Marree from the air and the weather held up almost to Leigh Creek. Then things got tricky.....the trusty pilot and navigator tried to find a path through the mist but things got worse rather than better and the pilot made a call "We'll stay the night in Leigh Creek".  Leigh Creek on a Sunday is not the place to be stranded, and with no Coober Pedy angel in sight we walked into Leigh Creek.

Stay tuned for our night in Leigh Creek and an exciting departure in the next post. The pilot has the b-b-q happening at our cottage in Broken Hill and food awaits.

The Flying Nabateans
PS photos coming....

The beer in Birdsville was worth the wait and now we're in Broken Hill

Good to connect again dear reader, it seems not even wireless broadband reaches all parts of this big land. Since our last post we've been to Birdsville, William Creek, Coober Pedy, Leigh Creek - now that was a surpise visit due to weather not allowing us to go to Rawnsley Park -and now Broken Hill. So it might take a couple of posts to get up to date.

  

We took off from Charleville and flew across the red earth and channel country to Birdsville. The photos don't really tell the true story, but here is some insight to the great beauty of space and colour as well as the transforming power of water.

 The trusty Jabi took us to Birdsville for the beer Vasant has been waiting for for twenty years -aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.  

Is that clear?

Our next blog will be the story of how we made it to Broken Hill from Birdsville, despite some dodgy weather, small bog, a Jabi parking ticket, cold battery, but importantly some very helpful people LOTS OF FUN, NEW SIGHTS AND ADVENTURE.
The Flying Nabateans

10-4 Birdsville



20 yrs for a beer



10-4 Charleville



Jabiru boys work some magic

 Right now we’re in Charleville dear reader. That means that yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) the test flight went well and the boys at the Jabiru factory did some final magic and before you know we were in the air on our maiden voyage for a late afternoon flight from Bundaberg to Hervey Bay and Fraser Island.



Ready to go!



Instruments OK!

But of course the real adventure started to today when we took charge of the Jabi 24-7821. We took off from Bundy at 10.30 am and made our way across vast Queensland via Eidsvold, Taroom and Mitchell to touch down on the red earth of Charleville at 1.45 pm.

Touch down Charleville



A leisurely walk around Charleville, then to the Bilby sanctuary followed by dinner and prep for ourflight to Birdsville tomorrow.

Weather is looking good.

The Travelling Nabateans

Relax, it's Queensland

   Greetings dear reader,

We arrived safely in Bundy airport yesterday (Monday) and walked with great anticipation to the Jabiru factory. Let's put this in perspective - the factory is actually right beside the Bundy airport runway. What did we see? A fully exposed Jabi getting lots of hands-on attention from factory staff. Will Jabi be ready for us to go to Charleville on Wednesday was our immediate question? Relax, it's Queensland.

 

We had a very interesting day at the Jabiru factory - no assembly line here. Each Jabi is carefully constructed, piece by piece, by skilfull and clearly interested craftsman.  We had an inspiring and insightful conversation with Rodney Stiff, the founder and one might say "father of Jabiru."



The birth of Jabis



Jabi relaxing under a coolabah
tree after a successful test flight

We did consider a liquid lunch

Just to pretend life is not ALL about Jabi, we stopped in at the Bundy rum factory and took a drive out to Bargara for a Bundy ginger beer on the beach. And topped the day off with dinner at the Bundy RSL...now that was a local experience.

 

So how are things going mate?

 Today, is test day. A few orientation flights for Vasant and if the Jabi boys get it together on time, possibly an inaugural flight to Fraser Island and Hervey Bay for Vasant and me. But it's all Insha'Allah on this trip.

Until the next post

The Travelling Nabateans

Our next adventure...

Well dear reader, it's been some time since our last adventure and you may have heard our story. Now come Jabi with us.

Vasant and Bernadette
The Flying Nabateans

Here's our trip map, you can tap or click to enlarge:

And here are the stats:

Day	Date	Location	Distance		Time	Weather we fly, or weather we don't...
			nautical miles	kms	hh:mm
Mon/Tues	11/07/2011	Bundaberg, QLD				Bundaberg
Wednesday	13/07/2011	Charleville, QLD	340	612	3:05	Charleville
Thursday	14/07/2011	Birdsville, QLD	374	673	3:24	Birdsville
Friday	15/07/2011	William Creek, SA (Lake Eyre)	241	434	2:12	Marree (near William Creek)
Friday	15/07/2011	Coober Pedy, SA	85	153	0:47	Coober Pedy
Saturday	16/07/2011	William Creek, SA (Lake Eyre)	85	153	0:47
Sunday	17/07/2011	Rawnsley Park, SA  (Flinders Ranges)	202	364	1:50	Hawker (near Rawnsley Park)
Mon/Tues	18/07/2011	Broken Hill, NSW	147	265	1:20	Broken Hill
Wednesday	20/07/2011	Parkes, NSW (The Dish)	349	628	3:10	Parkes
Thursday	21/07/2011	Cowra, NSW	47	85	0:26	Cowra
Thursday	21/07/2011	Wollongong , NSW (home)	115	207	1:02	Sydney
		TOTAL	1986	3574	18:03
Air Speed
110 knots	198km/hour	125mph