When we arrived in Los Angeles I had time to put in my last bids in the St. Jude auction, and then we boarded the plane to Sydney for a 15+ hour flight. By the time we got to Sydney it was June 2 following a May 31 departure in Oklahoma City. Crossing that International Date Line can really start playing with your body clock. After a several hour layover in Sydney we flew to Darwin which is located on the Northern coast of Australia about halfway between the east and west coasts. We got to our hotel, ate dinner and crashed for the night. The next morning we got up and went down for breakfast. Being in the southern hemisphere, it is the beginning of winter in Australia, but Darwin is at the far north and much closer to the equator. As a result, the temperatures we encountered were very close to those we had just left behind in Oklahoma. The tropical atmosphere felt a lot like south Florida and looked like it too. Here we are eating breakfast at the hotel.
We headed back to the airport and boarded an Embraer jet that held over 100 passengers, but there were only SIX passengers on the flight, along with four crew members! An hour and a half later we landed on an airstrip in the middle of nowhere at the McArthur River mine airport. The only thing around was the mine and the mining camp.
Fortunately Andy Ivy and Mick Baker were there to pick us up. I had talked to and corresponded with Andy for years and had corresponded with Mick concerning the hunt, but it was great to finally meet them in person. I can say that all my high expectations for both of them were fully met -- and then some. We couldn't have asked for a better couple of guys to be guiding us for the next week.
We loaded our gear into the Landcruiser and headed off for our hunting camp. The last bit of civilization before getting fully into the outback was a sort of convenience store where I got my first taste of the Northern Territory official non-alcoholic drink -- iced coffee -- which is sort of a coffee flavored milk drink. Outside the store was parked an R44 Robinson helicopter that was available for charter. We tucked this into the back of our minds in case something happened and we needed a search and rescue flight.
With some cold drinks in hand we drove off to the camp that would be our home for the next week.
Allan
Topic: Somewhere over the rainbow -- back from the land of Oz (Chapter One) (Read 16755 times)
