Oh what a night we had in Moree; over 40 thousand pounds raised for Angel Flight by the local farmers and businesses of the area. Captain cockpit and Head of Entertainment were in charge of the ‘grog cart’, keeping the golfers refreshed, while a group of the wives were taken on a cultural tour of the town. It would be easy to think: “Culture, what culture”, but this town is home to some of the most famous aboriginal art in Australia. There was also a hard hitting exhibition by Nan Goldin - voted one of the most influential photographers in the world for chronicling her life, including addiction to prescription drugs and domestic violence. It was definitely a challenging exhibition to see and so unexpected in this small outback town.
Then it was up and away again and off to Lightning Ridge and Bourke. To say we met characters there would be an understatement. Lightning Ridge is the heart of the Australian opal mining community and Peter, our guide, passed me a couple of black opal nobbies to wrap my greedy little hands around. Frankly they just looked like dirty old rocks to me!! The town itself looked pretty much closed, except for the amazing Olympic sized swimming and diving pool that had been built and funded by locals and is one of only 5 in Australia (not officially verified, but Peter was very proud of it)
To call Peter a character would be a massive understatement!
Another 45 minute flight across farms as far as we could see and It was with some trepidation that we parked our little Cessna up against a Royal flying Doctor aircraft. Not because of the plane, but because Head of Entertainment had discovered some extremely unfavourable reviews about our motel. Fears unfounded; the bed was comfy, the rooms were clean and there was a small swimming pool in which to cool off. They had even sent a welcome party to greet us at the airport terminal.
Look for the Joey in her pouch
Such is the kindness of country people that someone we had met only the previous evening had arranged a delightful young farm manager called George to drive us around his cotton farm. As you can imagine, irrigation is vitally important out here as there is no reliable rainfall, so the dams and man made lakes have an abundance of bird life - including Jonathan’s favourite - pelicans.
Tomorrow it’s Louth. Population of 74. There’s another Angel Flight event in the only pub in the village. The top attraction is apparently a visit to the cemetery; I do hope that’s not an omen for the evening
