March, 9th

Albany

We are on our way! We got out of our sleeping bags even before the alarm went off at 5:30 am, took a shower, had our small breakfast and started to prepare the trikes. It did take a little longer than expected untill the last bag was stowed away and the last can of oil was packed. With good luck wishes from Tom, Ian and Sally we rolled to runway number 23 and took off into the quite chilly morning air. After circling once above the airfield and taking a final picture of Serpentine we headed South towards Bunbury. After a short while we had to discover to our dismay that the engines consumed way more fuel then expected , due to the extra weight of our luggage. Giselas trike usually needs around 12 liters, so does my brandnew Rotax 912 four-stroke engine. But now my consumption rose to 16 liters and Giselas engine burned a record high of 22 liters per hour. That will get us in trouble as our trip to Narromine will have a couple of stretches of more than 200 kilometres! If we come across headwinds in those areas we will really have to come up with something. But first let's get back to our flight. To the right we have the coastline, then a broad stretch with lakes and dried-out waterpools and dusty willows. Winds are mild, the air is comfortably cool and visibility as far as you could wish for. After 1 hour and 35 minutes we land in Bunbury. Just as we were told to do in Australia, we announced our arrival on the radio five miles ahead of the airfield, then flew over the airfield in an "orderly fashion" and approached for landing after flying a left-circle. The microlight-pilots that seemed to have crowded the place yesterday were all gone today. Time to get gas at the Air BP-pump. The fuel-prices in Australia are just a joke. At a regular gas station you pay 70 to 75 pfennig, the leaded airplane-gas even lies below that with only 60 pfennig per liter. A quick drink of water, one phone call to Paul Coffey who promises to organize gas for us at the next stop and we are back in the air. During the next two hours on our way to Kojonup our minds are occupied with calculations on fuel-consumption and distances. In Kojonup - and in the midday heat - Terry Williams and his daughter await us. Unfortunately no one had told him that we need canisters in order to fill the gas in our tanks. So we drove around for a while trying to borrow some Jerrycans at a Farm. Luckily we found a gas station and filled our tanks with 87 liters of fuel. In the meantime Gisela had a visitor at the airfield. A man who breeds sheep but who used to be a mechanic and who seemed interested in our planes. He recognized the label BWKA and inquired about our connection to them. He knows the "Bremer Wool-Combers" and he even heard that they were in some financial trouble...

Due to the rising temperatures, the planes have a hard time getting back airborne. Luck has it that the runway had been built long enough for the Flying Doctors. We continue over endless miles of farmland. Very different to what we are used to in Germany, though. The willows are huge, with gumtrees in between and only a few sheeps on the ground now and then. Kilometres apart you find some tin barns and a farm house. The landscape is flat and dry with lots of manmade waterwholes sprinkled all over for the sheep. It is a long way to Albany and our groundspeed decreases considerably. As we get closer to the ocean, we get strong headwinds. Our map and the GPS-display prove to be very reliable. The only thing to worry about is our fuel-consumption. The airfield in Albany has two runways that criss-cross and a dispatch office, just like Bremerhaven does.

But the airfield seems almost deserted. An enthousiastic amateur-aircraft builder wants to meet us and we are introduced to the manager of the airfield who lives right next to the hangar. He leads us to a parking spot for the planes and shows us his newest construction (his fifth) an RV 80. Then he takes us into town where we find moderately priced accomodations at the Backpaker-Hotel London. After our five-hour flight we are happy to stretch out our cramped arms and legs.