summary

This trip is over. I decided to continue this blog during my next flying trip which is not that far away. I’m going to Minden, Nevada again in the summer time. There are only ca. 5 months left and it is time to start the initial preparations and book flights as soon as possible. I’m planning on spending next European winter in Australia again …

It really doesn’t matter how many records I set. This trip was supposed to be a trip to discover a new flying paradise, learn to read the weather and work on the ambitious stuff next time.

I feel really privileged to be able to have this experience and nobody will never ever take it away from me. Soaring is a kind of sport where you cannot succeed being left on your own. I call myself a very lucky person to have so many people around me who I can call friends and there are no appropriate words to express how thankful I am. I might not have all these material things and a regular family life everybody is out for. To be honest - I have nothing. But this nothing is everything. I am very rich and very happy because of each and every one of YOU my friends …

"Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard on it" ...

destination Kingaroy

We hit the road to Kingaroy the very next morning and almost killed the biggest snake I’ve ever seen that was trying to cross the road in front of us. This was a monster … a very lucky one and at least 2.5 meters long. Brown snake – really dangerous. Unfortunately it all happened so fast that I didn’t manage to take a picture. We finally made it to Kingaroy and I was able to see the place on the dark side. A magic place in the middle of nowhere with some sort of special atmosphere. The grumpy club house, sleeping facilities, couple of hangars. There is something about this place. We rigged the pussy glider. How come we call it pussy glider? Some would think – because Ziggy is flying it. But no. It’s a pussy glider because a pussy can help you rig it. Thanks for the help Zig ;) Anyway we rigged it quickly and placed in the hangar … which Ziggy forgot to close before we left. He spent the next two days calling everybody he could think of to ask him to lock the hangar. But in the end … he succeeded.

We decided to continue to Brisbane the same day and spend the remaining two days in the civilization on the coast. It’s been pure relaxation, discovering the city, swimming in the hotel pool, having sushi for dinner and shopping ;) I decided not to leave Australia without a real kangaroo skin hat and the typical Australian boots. As an addition to the shoes I got a saltwater crocodile leather belt. Now I’m all equipped and picked up some ozzy words. It’s kind of hard to get the accent figured out. I’m gonna work on this one next January in Narromine …

Kingaroy Club House

most wanted

old & new in Brisbane

Brisbane river

pool

street players

drive to the coast

We had a long drive ahead of us – 1000 km. We drove couple of hundreds kms and stayed over night in Moree. Beryl suggested the glider trailer friendly place to stay. We were able to drive the glider trailer on the property, unhook it and leave there locked over night. I was wondering about cages in every window in this little village. It turned out it was an aborigine place … lot’s of unemployment and crime. The motel owners were the nicest people you can imagine. They came from Slovakia and have been running the business for over 20 years now. It’s been a great evening with them. Of course there was no way to stop Ziggy from bullshitting and the poor people believed him the story about his proposal and me saying no. They were trying to do anything to convince me to say “yes”. They even wanted to organize the wedding party in their place. Sweet.

We had to open the trailer the next morning, pull out the fuselage and let kids play in the glider. The owner in turn opened his garage and showed Ziggy his Harley since Ziggy’s been riding a Harley couple of years back.

So if you ever find yourself in the middle of nowhere in a place called Moree stop by at Angel’s Rest Motel. You won’t regret it. And don’t forget to go to the chineese place for dinner.

come on ... say yes! ;-)

that's airspeed

let me show you what I've got...

the last flying day

I tried it once more. The day turned out to be the last flyable day… unfortunately not good enough for my plan – low cloudbase and weak thermals. It was still better than not flying at all. Every single flight is an experience nobody can take away from you and it surely will pay off in the future. We had to leave Narromine the next morning. The whole place was booked out for the Womens Week. And they started arriving … When we asked Jenny why is she not taking part in this event she just replied: “oh no … to many women”. I could clearly see why she said that ;) It was a rainy morning anyway so we could put the glider in the box and hit the road with no regrets.

copyright Morgan & Patrick

zoo day

It was really dark when I woke up and looked out the window – overcast. The morning briefing just confirmed that the situation is not really going to improve in the afternoon. Let’s go to the zoo then! Sometimes it is really good to get one of these days when you can be completely sure it will not get better and you’ll not regret that you didn’t go fly. The Dubbo Zoo is a really famous place and only 30km drive from Narromine. The place is just huge and has no cages at all. This is a drive in zoo located on an enormous area and designed the way that gives you the feeling being among the animals. You don’t see the grooves that separate you from the animals when sitting in the car.

The fun started at the entrance. The prices are pretty high – A$ 45 per adult. There were 5 of us in the car – Ziggy and myself in the front and Dan, Dennis and Michael in the back. We just said to the lady at the entrance that there is two of us and 3 kids in the back. She believed that and sold us a family ticket – A$ 125 ;). That’s how I became mommy of 3 kids …the youngest one was 10 years junger than me. The zoo was an experience even though I didn’t get to hugging a Koala Bear. We’ve been witnessing a sexual act between two giant turtles and after that a fight between three males wanting the same from that poor female turtle. Everybody was impressed.

Dennis, Michael, me, Dan

Another amazing experience were the singing monkeys giving a show. I’ve never seen it before and would never say monkeys can perform that well.

the cutest thing ever

turtle sex

At any rate it was a really nice day finished with the German Night organized by “our kids”. They cooked Bratkartoffeln, Wurst und Sauerkraut for us. Sweet …

major internet problems ... Singapore update

Unfortunatelly we've been experiencing major internet problems during the last couple of days. I'm now on my way back ... in Singapore. Just two more flights (14 hours and 1 hour) and I'll be back in Berlin. Few interesting things happened in the last days and I promise to be back with you with all the stories and pictures tomorrow.
Time for boarding ...