blowin in the wind
The sound of strong wind in the leaves is something I will never grow tired of. Like yesterday, today's wind send us dust from the southeast. No Morning Glory. For the first time since our arrival 16 days ago, we went back to sleep after our routine pre-dawn wake-up. We gathered in the dark between the cabins this morning, discussed the wind, the lack of moisture, made a few tired jokes, and concluded that it was not Morning Glory weather. Later, I wandered down the road that joins Burketown to the next closest town, Gregory Downs (population 50), 150 kilometers away. "Willy willies" of dust rose up and swept across the road before disappearing in the wind. When I returned, I was covered in a fine layer of Queensland's loosely clad skin, and there was grit in my mouth.
Two days ago, however, this was not the case. Another fabulous ride on the back of Burketown's blustery giant took us out to Sweer's Island on Saturday. The Glory was another rippled beauty, and we surfed the primary for a while before hopping over it to the secondary, then the tertiary cloud.
The glider here is VH-YHB, the motor falke I trained in, on the primary cloud. Beside the Glory, it looks miniscule.
wow! i had no idea of the scale of "the monring glory" photographs make it look much less substantial. do gliders register a flight path (i'm a none pilot so please understand my ignorance!) given that they follow heat and wind? another gorgeous post. steven
ReplyDeleteWhile on the Morning Glory, we communicate on a common radio frequency so that we can keep track of each other and learn what the lift/sink is like on different parts of the cloud. I haven't heard of anyone ever registering a flight plan for a morning glory flight--it's almost impossible to predict where it will take you until you get up there and experience it. Glad you like the posts!
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