Erik Skye Travel Diary

15 Jan 2012

For the map, click here: Google Maps – Wizard of Oz

Car’s trip odometer: 7,300 clicks (km)

As John introduced me to his parents, Mick and Phyllis, he referred to my travel blog as an online diary. I like that. What I’m doing here has more of the connotations associated with a diary and less of the connotations associated with a blog. The writing and photographs are my way of recording how I feel about my experiences, and I hope the combination entertains as well as educates. I’ll start calling my publications “Erik Skye Travel Diary”. By the way, doing the travel diary is a passionate hobby for me, and I assign it no commercial value. In the not too distant future however, I intend to inspire on a grander scale by marketing some of my best photographs and perhaps writing for magazines.

John’s the Chief Engineer for (British owned) Flight Safety Australia, an aeronautical school similar to (USA’s) Embry Riddle. The school’s located at the Moorabbin Airport (just south of Melbourne), and some of the students from their three-year program go on to become captains for airlines such as Qantas. The airport used to be the busiest in the southern hemisphere, but its quieter now, with less students enrolling due to higher costs that are the result of a strong Australian dollar.

“Chief Engineer” means that John’s the head mechanic on the maintenance side of things. When I arrived, John gave me a brief explanation of the business and then whisked me through the shops to his beautiful airplane, Super Cub VH-WOO. She was originally a 1965 model living the hard station life in the outback of Northern Territory (once hitting a windmill, another time hitting the side of a barn, and known to have carried six people in an emergency during a flood event – a Super Cub only has two seats).

John recently finished the 2-1/2 year rebuild project for VH-WOO, which included a new airframe and overhauled engine. John said ‘do you have time to go flying?’, and I replied quickly ‘you bet!’ Then I thought for a few moments, and with less enthusiasm asked ‘have you flown it since completing the rebuild?’ John knew what I was getting at and responded that he had flown it for eight hours since, adding cautiously ‘I’m game if you are.’ Well of course I was game, so off we went in the Cub.

The tightly-arranged neighborhoods of Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs materialized below us, and it quickly became apparent by the distant city skyline that long commute times were required for the privilege of living in the maze and congestion below. It didn’t take long however, and we were over pristine farmland and wilderness. John pointed out vast areas where a devastating bushfire ran through. We flew over Maroondah Reservoir where Adie had taken me on Day 2, through the hills of the Yarra Ranges National Park, along the high cliffs of the Cathedral Mountains, across Lake Eildon (a man made reservoir used for irrigation that John said is five times larger by measure of shoreline than Sydney’s Port Jackson - full now, but until recently almost dry), and on to John’s hometown of Mansfield where we landed at his parents homestead for a visit. John informed me that the movie The Man from Snowy River was filmed in Mansfield.

The way back from Mansfield was even better. I quietly witnessed the unique landscape go by: At first a network of random-height yellow hills spotted by lonely gums, triangular-shaped man made ponds, sheep and cattle, farmhouses, streams (what Australians call rivers) and distant mountains (what John’s Dad referred to as ‘not mountains’ by Alaskan standards, but that really were mountains by my standards), etc. Closer in to the southeastern suburbs, large areas were covered by the neat, bright green rows of vineyards, orchards completely covered in a drapery of white fabric (which John said was to prevent hail and rain damage), and the most beautiful of all – farmland belonging to a Dutch community established post-WWII, which seemed to have a wonderful combination of trees, hills, tilled plots (in bright reds and greens), and long shadows cast by the low sun.

For the videos, click here:  Flight over the Bush & Landing at Mansfield Airport

I spent the last of the evening at Melbourne's Federation Square.

For song of the day, click here (let website load briefly, then click orange “play” next to title): Bon Iver - Holocene

For access to archived Erik Skye Travel Blog articles, click here: Archive

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