LONDON to DARWIN #7: One last sea to the Great Southern Land

Water Cannons! But more on that later, first the penultimate stop - Timor.

The Vickers Vimy landed on December 9th at Atambua on the island of Timor, at the time part of the Dutch East Indies. Ross Smith wrote that they barely slept so anxious and excited where they that tomorrow should bring Darwin, a return to Australian shores, success in their incredible endeavour, winning the Great Air Race and netting a tidy purse of 10,000 pounds - around $1,000,000 today.

Today Atambua is part of Indonesia and a domestic airport only, so whilst still on the island of Timor, my final stop before crossing the Timor Sea would be Dili, just over the imaginary line drawn on a map that national borders doth depict, in Timor-Leste.

This worked particularly well, as our Screens Without Borders cinema program has been running here now for 10 years, and it was also the day of our staff Xmas party at Beachside Hotel! Like the Vickers Vimy crew, I didn’t get much sleep, but for reasons of a more mundane nature... with a day of thoroughly cleaning the plane inside and out, refuelling and a bunch of paperwork, and a fabulous Xmas party on the beach... there was an old fashioned task at hand... upon arrival in Darwin I was to be met by Australia Post to collect the commemorative mail I’d carried, of which a chunk of Bintoro’s reproduction postcards was to be given to each of the invited guests awaiting.... so I stayed up, with the help of hotel Manager Mel, half the night applying stamps and rubber stamping hundred of items!

In fact I had a lot of help in Dili in the intense 36 hours I was there, Angelo, Freddy and Amenta, Alex and the team at Dili Airport, Jason and the MAF team, Dept. of Aviation and even the guys at Babcock helicopters all helped prepare Southern Sun for her passage through Timor and onwards - thanks everyone. Managed to get good enough internet to do a Skype interview with the Parap School in Darwin, and to squeeze in time to pop in to the Dili International school and give a talk to Coco and her fellow Grade 5 and 6’s, and even check out Felix’s Robot!

Back at the hotel, the Xmas party was lovely, Mel arranged a Santa Suit for me to wear and with around 30 staff there were many children receiving presents - and of course, a Santa suit is just the thing for an island near the Equator! It’s a wonderful team we have in Dili, every bit the big happy family we have at the cinemas at home, we are very blessed. Especially as I was able to get more of Dulce’s amazing Anzac cookies, tweaked to have extra nuts and no sugar, perfect flying snacks and a previous batch had got me all the way from London!

The 3.45pm landing time in Darwin had been chosen as there was debate as some records suggested the VV landed at 3.40, others 3.50pm... in a video post at some point I averaged it to 3.45pm and it stuck.... I was determined to touch the runway at the exact minute... the good news, with a generous flight time of around 4 hours, there was no need for a crazy early start...

The usual flight plan fiasco’s, sorry, entertainment, continued, but soon enough we were away and climbing over Manatuto then over Angelo’s home town of Viqueque on the south coast - then hours of open water. There were headwinds above 3000’ so I crossed at 1500’ where I was surprised to find a small tailwind - all the way! It became clear I was going to be a good half an hour early, so with 150 miles I started slowing down, and made a plan with a nod to the past - I would fly the last hour at only 80 knots, the speed Ross Smith and his crew aboard the Vickers Vimy it is by co-incidence the speed I went around the world in a Searey, so while it was familiar to me, it felt very slow and mushy in the new Southern Sun!

I first came across the Tiwi Islands, which reminded me of the fun film Too End Wedding from this year, which we plan to dub into Tetun as our film for Timor next year. I was soon in contact with Darwin controllers, which is operated by the RAAF and I think are the calmest, clearest, politest and most helpful ATC in all of the lands, right up there with the teams in Israel and the UK - world class and the beginning of a very warm welcome.

Except for the thunderstorm and lightning at the end of the runway! The plan had been for me to land on 29 where there was a convenient viewing area for the public, the lightning saw me move around to 36, which took me straight over Fannie Bay and Sir Ross Smith Avenue, their original landing strip - before turning base and as I eagerly watch my GPS time, turning onto final saw 06:14 click around, 3.44pm local - with a few more knots than usual I focused on the runway, holding the wheels above the runway til I saw the 4 roll over to a 5 - and then touched down 100 years after Ross and the VV. Yay.

I noticed RAAF and airport vehicles either side of the runway with photos and video being taken, and promptly then did a horribly average landing - figures!

As I took my taxi directions towards the main terminal building, I noticed something that made my heart skip... Fire Trucks. Either side of the taxi way. Facing each other. Water cannons aimed high and towards each other. I felt very proud, emotional, and wished Anne and Tim were here... wow... While I later found out - my flight had been put on the Arrivals Board - now I felt spoilt!

Thus an arch of water welcomed my arrival into Darwin after 21 days of flying from London. As I passed under the water laden windscreen obscured my view, quickly reminding me of my Attu dilemma 4 years earlier, but this time, thanks to Russian ingenuity, I flicked the switch on the yoke and the windscreen wiper cleared the view ahead!

I parked off to the side for Quarantine and Border Force inspection, all was fine after spraying the cabin for critters. I then taxied in front of the terminal to Bay 4, between an Alliance Fokker 100 and an Australia Post van - right in front of Dome Cafe and hundreds of people standing in the window waving and taking photos. (I wish I’d thought to take one back!)

Hmm, I suppose this is where I open the door, stand up and wave! I climbed out and was met by Andrew and Greg from Australia Post, absolute legends who had made it their mission to be be part of the commemorative mail journey, even arranging a special postmark rubber stamp for my flight with today’s date on it! They took my Gladstone bag with 364 items in it, a mix of postcards and envelopes, the same number of items the VV delivered a century earlier. They took it away for Jane and the rest of the AusPost team upstairs to start stamping away....

I was brought in and - of course - we then had to go through security and the full body scanners to get upstairs! Doh... As we boarded the escalator J looked up to find multiple TV, newspaper and radio reports waiting at the top - oh, everyone is here! I answered some questions, with the theme seeming to be “yes, this story should be better known, I’d like to see it on school curriculum across the country like it is in Darwin” and then moved across to the party. I was greeted by our official host, the Administrator of the NT, the equivalent of their Governor. For such and elegant, sophisticated lady, they really need a better title!

They were even broadcasting live radio there! I mean wow, it was packed, I’ve never had a crowd like this for an arrival so it was quite overwhelming - but I have to say, I felt pretty chuffed. Lots of hand shaking and back patting, a glass of bubbles appeared as I embarrassingly returned the specially produced beer that was handed to me...

Speeches ensued, a quick Q&A with the very cool MixFM host Ali, then we cut a magnificent old fashioned cake. Photos, etc... chatting. It was fun.

We then put the plane away for the night, and I arranged a quiet dinner with Stef, who had flown up to meet me from Melbourne, retracing the Wrigley & Murphy flight, who crossed Australia conducting an aerial survey for the VV a 100 years ago this week also. After the couple of hours of mania, and my adrenaline must have been flowing as my Q&A responses were pretty lively... a quiet night chatting was just the thing.

Next day after a couple of radio interviews we taxied Southern Sun to the aviation museum so that the public could see her, and caught up with Dan @thatMallardGuy, and the new person that he and Jen made! It was then back to see Vicktor and the amazing team at NT major events, and grab a quick lunch with Ali to go over the plan for the nights In Conversation at the Darwin Entertainment centre. Back to my room to prepare a photo and video collection for the talk saw the afternoon vanish quickly... and was soon back at the venue, testing completed enjoyed half a falafel and then a great event unsure, Ali draws you in and you’d share anything she asked you to - the mark a great journo. It was a fun night...

Decided not to leave Thursday but spend the day finalising the commemorative mail and getting plane back to the GA stand and fuelled ready for a sunrise departure. On the way I dropped in to see Chad and his lovely ladies, and a photo shoot with these most elegant flying boats. Caught up with Vicktor for a drink, who is just a champion of a fella and pulled off an incredible event for Darwin - I was just one of several parts of the activities of this centennial celebration.

Bed followed by a burning ball of gas seemingly rising in the sky ends this post, and while it’s easy to relax, there’s still a continent to be traversed and lightly taken that must not be, the remotest lands of the journey lay ahead.