The Early Bird

There's one last thing to do before leaving Kununurra; I've booked a scenic flight over the Bungle Bungle Ranges. The flight is scheduled for 6am which is an obnoxiously early time to be awake. It's still pitch black when I stagger, bleary eyed, onto the courtesy bus.

The airplane is a Cessna Caravan and it's an ugly looking thing; it looks like a minibus with wings. The pilot offers the copilot seat to one lucky passenger. Dave and I both shoot our hands up... but I was that much quicker. Whee. Banks and banks of humming machinery. I've never seen so many knobs. I resist the urge to play with them.

The flight takes us over Lake Argyle and the view is all the more impressive because I can now see the shoreline in all directions. Flying at over 300kph it takes about an hour to get across the lake to our destination; the Bungle Bungle.

The Bungle Bungle stand between the featureless desert of the interior and the rugged ranges to the north. Millions of years of erosion have shaped the ranges into beehive like domes. Bacteria has eaten the rocks to create horizontal stripes of alternating colours. Deep gorges cleave through the landscape and separate the beehive domes into tiny clusters. The odd scenery looks like an alien world. I can almost imagine the domes are homes for the aliens.

The plane flies back to Kununurra and there's no reason to stick around, so we waste no time racing to Katherine. We cross the Northern Territory border at noon then the speed limit increases to 130kph. The roads seem ill suited for the higher speeds; they're narrow and very rough. However I'm dripping sweat inside my gear and I can't wait to finish this section. I belt along the road as fast as I can.

When I reach Katherine it's the hottest part of the day and I think I'm suffering heatstroke. I can barely think. It takes nearly an hour to find accommodation before I can strip off the heavy gear. I collapse, exhausted.

And this is winter!