I have just re-read the email that Rosemary Bell sent early in June
about her trip to the Channel Country. It sounded wonderful. I
wanted to have a flight however over a longer distance and I have
just returned from a flight Longreach--Birdsville--Wlilliam Creek--
Inaminka (where we stayed the night)--Longreach. It was wonderful
seeing the outback from the air. But we did not see anything like
the number of birds that Rosemary saw. There were only 6 of us in
the plane and we flew just about all the way at a height of 500
feet. At a lake before Birdsville we flew over a small island where
there were pelicans, standing room only. Lake Eyre is incredible.
This vast sheet of water, with no vegetation around the edges,
stretching for miles; but no birds did we see there. However,
between William Creek and Innaminka, we flew over Cooper's Creek. It
really is a river, and there were many birds there, not easy to
recognise them all from 500 feet, but great to see. As soon as we
reached Innaminka we rushed to the Creek. There we saw great egrets,
little egrets, rufous night herons and white necked herons, all with
chicks. They all just stayed around to be admired. It was getting
dark, so we planned to return to the river again in the morning. It
was not to be. It rained overnight. Mud, mud, glorious mud. As we
were having breakfast shortly after 7am, Steven, our pilot came in.
"We have to leave within 10 minutes or we will be stuck here for the
day". Or longer, I would think, as the roads out of Innaminka were
already closed. The runway was not sealed. Getting in and out of
that small plane was not easy. However we did it and were on our
way, flying still at 500 feet over the channels of Cooper's Creek.
It was a marvellous experience. I learnt such a lot
Elizabeth
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