Home!

 It seems almost surreal as I write the final "chapter" to our flight.  I am sitting in my study in my own home listening to the James Last orchestra play Sail Along Silv'ry Moon . . . this time last week, Tim and I were in Port Moresby.

 

Our flight from Port Moresby to Cairns went quite well.  I found it very difficult to say good-bye to my high school friends I had caught up with while I was there.  There were so many wonderful memories that surfaced as soon as I saw them . . . some of my dearest friends are in Port Moresby and to see them again and spend time with them was just wonderful beyond words.

 

So with a very large lump in my throat, we departed two hours than we planned due to refuelling operations, but at 9:59am, the wheels came off the runway at Jackson's Airport, and we pointed the nose to Australian shores.  It seemed that the Airvan knew where we were going because our average speed for this flight leg was higher than we ever had throughout this entire flight.  At the FIR boundary and our subsequent entry into Australia airspace, we made our mandatory broadcast at this point, and the flightwatch controller acknowledged our call and then said "Welcome back boys!"

 

An hour and a half later, we landed at Cairns International Airport.  Customs and Immigration out of the way, we headed off to the MAF office there in Cairns where we had a relaxing hour talking with the MAF staff there.  We spent the evening with Steve & Sue Charlesworth and had a really wonderful time with them and their friends.  I also received a very pleasant surprise visit from some old friends from the Moresby days . . . Ross & Heather Campbell - fantastic to see them again.

 

Early the next morning, we took off for Brisbane (Archerfield Airport).  The weather was simply magic!  We refuelled in Mackay, and at 2pm, we landed at Archerfield.  A number of my family were there to greet us . . . and I think my Mum & Dad were truly relieved this flight was nearing its end!  After an interview with Vision Radio and a good chat with Jonathan - the MAF representative in Brisbane, we went to my Mum and Dad's house for evening where Dad cooked up some fantastic steaks on the barbie!  (For the meat connoisseurs reading this . . . it was Black Angus striploin, and it tasted incredible!)

 

After dinner, we completed and filed our last flight plan . . . it seemed so long ago that we filed our flight plan from Bendigo to Wollongong, and yet here we are . . . YBAF to YPKS to YBDG (Archerfield to Parkes to Bendigo).  The last one!  I did not know it was possible to cram so many memories into such a short amount of time . . . as I went to bed that night - the last time to sleep in a "strange" bed, my mind was just flooded with all the things we had seen and done over the last 59 days.

 

Up at 4:30am, Thursday morning 8 July, I packed my gear for the last time and two hours later after Dad took us all back to Archerfield, we were airborne for our last day of our flight around the world.  The weather was pretty wet and dreary, but after about an hour and a half, we were clear of it, and the skies were just crystal clear.  We landed in Parkes so that we could refuel the plane and also give it a good clean to ensure it looked impressive for our final landing.  (Oh, and before I forget, a number of people have asked me about the Indigo Sat display of our flight into Parkes - I conducted an NDB approach into Parkes and thus the "circles" some of you have noticed!)

 

The plane clean and refuelled, we took off for the last time . . . our next landing would be in Bendigo.  We were running a few minutes ahead of schedule so we conducted an orbit of Echuca before we flew the last 40 nautical miles to Bendigo.  Oh, what a sight to see Bendigo Airfield appear in the distance . . . we had accomplished our goal - we had flown around the world!  We did a fly past and "waggled" our wings and were astonished at the number of people who had turned out for the flight, and then two minutes later, our wheels touched down on the runway at Bendigo.  We were home!

 

The City of Greater Bendigo warmly received us with a formal ceremony, and it was hard to believe that we had achieved our goal of flying around the world . . . but the work really has just begun.  We cannot see the things we have seen throughout our flight and simply state all our goals have been completed.  If anything, the exact opposite is true.  The flight itself may be finished, but there is a huge amount of work to be done to really start making a difference in so many of these areas severely affected by malaria.  Top priority is Malamaunda . . . we must do something about this region, and it must start now.  We need to get malaria nets in there urgently . . . within a matter of weeks.  People are dying right now, and we have to act.

 

So, while this may be the last post about the flight, it is only the beginning of a much longer journey . . . the journey to make a difference, and that journey starts right now.