A few friends of mine wanted to see the outback in a short timeframe, without all the driving that normally comes with it. The plan shaped up to fly to Karijini NP with a couple of stops in between.

So we took off early on a Sunday morning in a Cessna 182, heading north via the coast. We covered good ground and landed at Mt Augustus Station in time for lunch. The highlight up there is the national park with a rich aboriginal history. Mt. Augustus is the biggest monocline in the world, more than twice the size of Ayers Rock. Mt. Augustus is away from mass-tourism as 400 km of unsealed roads separates the boys from the men, so to speak. Flyers clearly have an advantage!

After checking in we hired a 4WD and discovered the aboriginal drawings and also the Cattle Pool. Temperatures soared up to 48 DegC and a cool beer at the bar was order of the day.

The next day we headed off to Karijini NP, after a brief stop in Paraburdoo to get supplies. The Rio Tinto Iron Ore mine there had stopped operations over Christmas for the first time ever and the place was rather sleepy. Karijini NP has a good strip which is located just by the Tourist Info. We spent a day exploring the caves and taking dips, it was an awesome experience!

Next, we headed west and landed at Coral Bay. Here we spent two days doing nothing in between swimming/snorkelling and doing nothing. The only “new” experience was having a shower in salt water, since the town’s water supply seems plumbed to the sea.

Heading back home, we flew the scenic trip via overhead Monkey Mia to Carnarvon and on the way in we spotted the fruit plantations. The only traffic here was an RFDS King Air. After landing we found out the King Air was guarded by a policeman and the crew were waiting to transfer a patient to Perth. A short time later an ambulance and two more police officers arrived. The (unruly) patient was transferred and flown off, again guarded by police. Apparently RFDS sometimes have issues with their guests and rely on police to keep order in the aircraft. (What a waste of taxpayers’ money!)
In Carnarvon we hired a car for the day and went on the compulsory trip to the Big Dish, South River Road and North Rover Road and returned with boxes of delicious fruit, which we stowed in the Cessna. The sweet scent of mangoes accompanied us on the way homewards.

Our last stop was Dongara, which (on the satellite images) looked handy to go to the beach for a dip in the sea. The terrain however was quite rugged but worth the effort.

Back at Jandakot we found the mangoes were all safe and sound.

All in all, we covered about 2800 km in just under 12.5 hours flying time. The trip would have take a lot longer by car!

Leo Schuler