March, 13th

Caiguna

160 kilometres just straight on! That's the Eyre-Highway, stretching from Balladonia to Caiguna and - from where we stand - it marks the beginning of the "Outbacks". The highway is named after John Eyre, an explorer who in 1841 was the first one to cross the continent from East to West in five months.This asphalt road looks like a thread spanned from here to the horizon on the section of the planet we look upon right now.

Thanks to our maps we know that it will bend just a tiny little bit and that from there on the road won't continue as straight and go into a different direction. After yesterday's experiences we are definitely going for higher altitude again!l Leaving Norseman behind we then climbed up to 1.500 metres to take advantage of the slight tailwind up there. At first the landscape is just a little wavy with this boring black and brown fauna and some saltlakes. That changes into even less trees to more bushes and fields.

I decide to make a quick stop at Fraser because I might not have enough gas left to make it to Balladonia. Fraser has a small runway that is enclosed by hills on three sides. The landing strip belongs to a small farm, but right now it is busy because the workers for a road construction site have set up camp here with some dozens of containers to live in. The farmers wife is there right away, helping me to hold the trike after a very turbulent landing. I know for sure that I can't take off again under these wind conditions. Stakes are much too high of getting into tailwinds and to crash into the trees at the end of the runway. Gisela had flown ahead so I asked the farmers wife to call Balladonia and inform them about my problems. While she was still on the phone the winds calmed down some so I braved another takeoff. Luckily I did make it to a halfway decent takeoff and left this valley to continue in Giselas direction.After another lonely hour in the air I finally landed in Balladonia.

The owner of the gas station lent us his car so that we could take our tanks the 300 metres from the pump to the airplanes. Unfortunately now the power supply on both of our trikes broke down and we had the most boring two hours in the air without any communication. Landing on the almost 1.000 metre long runway next to the motel proved to be difficult. The groundwinds were very gusty and exactly sidewise so that both trikes started to sway upon touchdown. Right now the trikes are secured for the night and are parked next to a small plane. It belongs to Hary Walton who is on his way to Perth. We start to talk and - wouldn't you know it - Harry is a good friend of Garry Leach who happens to be the one helping us extremely well with our preparations and to whom we report daily about our progress...

After todays five-hour flight we are really bummed out. Sure, stearing is only hard work during take-off and landing but I can feel how I do get all tense during the flight, especially when we are in higher altitudes. Therefore we make just two phonecalls to Bremen and Hamburg, eat a very strange peppersteak with french fries at the Roadhouse and call it a day.

P.S.: The Australian Governments intends to link even the remotest villages to the wide world of data-communication and has therefore established Telecenters all over. A telecenter is nothing but a room open to the public and equiped with all up-to-date multimedia technology which you can use under the guidance of their personel. We received permission to sneak into the Center in Caiguna one day prior to its official opening to send our diary-report and to check up on some of our e-mails.