Tripping Over: Up in the air...

About two weeks ago now I got an amazing opportunity to head off to two aboriginal communities on a small plane to do some work in the clinics, I also managed to get Brenton on board!

We were picked up by my boss at 6:30 am whilst it was still dark!

He drove us out to the Alice Springs airport where he keeps his plane which is only a small-four seater and we were lucky enough to watch the sun rise as we were taking off, such an amazing sight! Such a sight I even forgot my fear of flying whilst watching the sun come up over the MacDonnell Ranges.

As I mentioned above I have a HUGE fear of flying and was practically sweating before I hopped on the plane- knowing that you feel every bump, but to my surprise I really enjoyed it (although I admit I was scared at times), the take off was pretty smooth so I was lucky there. Brenton couldn't take the smile off his face!

I think I felt safer because I could see Peter (my boss and the pilot) at all times and he explained a lot about the plane including the sounds and even later in the day when we had a bit more wind around, dropping slightly a few times, he never looked stressed or worried, but did find amusement in my reactions when it got rough.

Top of the ranges.

Our first stop was Willowra- a community of about 300 people, about 350 kilometres north-north west of Alice, it took us about an hour and a half to get there which apparently is longer than usual, Peter said we had a really strong head wind so he tried to fly higher than usual but said it was so bad it didn't make a difference. I think the highest we were allowed to fly was 10,000 feet.

All that flying made us hungry!

The very small clinic at Willowra.

Tom, the main nurse from the clinic was there to meet us at the very small 'air strip', then we drove for about fifteen minutes before heading into the community. Driving in we noticed a heap of burnt out cars, and a lot of run down houses, the only school looked a little like a prison with high fences all around and there were heaps and heaps of dogs, more than Hermannsburg.

We were taken straight to the clinic door and almost shoved inside as we got out of the car, making us feel just a little uneasy. The clinic was very tiny and all the staff running it were lovely, there were only two nurses and one person in charge of admin - the Doctor only comes out every so often or if there is an emergency. We sat through a presentation about helping ease chronic pain and then got to work out in the drug storage area throwing away out of date stock.

We were there for about two hours then headed back to the plane with a few dogs chasing the back of the car!

Our next stop was Laramba which was on the way back to Alice, it's a dry community which means no alcohol allowed with about 250 people.

Coming in to land the wind had picked up a heap and we were worried we were going to hit the massive rock-face that was on one side of the plane, just one of the moments I looked scared. We did manage to miss it but did have an extremely rough landing sliding slightly to one side.

The wind sock had seen better days.

We did get there a bit earlier than expected and our ride was not yet there to meet us, we waited a good fifteen minutes and Peter decided it might be quicker to walk. It was about a 20 minute walk across the dusty runway and then through the scrub and once we got to the town we noticed it was a fenced community so we had to get over a barbed wire fence to get in, the locals probably thought we were lost back packers!

Laramba was extremely different to Willowra, first there were no burnt out cars, only two dogs that we saw and the school looked like a normal school, inviting-with a great playground. It was a very clean town.

From the front of the clinic.

The local footy oval. Most train bare foot or in socks.

The clinic was no bigger than the one at Willowra and after we finished our work we went and sat outside and were lucky enough to meet the local school kids, they ran straight up to us with cheeky smiles, shook our hands and asked us lot's of questions, one being "Are you my dentist?"

They were so adorable.

My boss told me this was one of the better communities because of the ladies who ran the school, apparently they did a lot more than teach, including making sure the kids are fed, washing their clothes and organising lots of after school activities, for kids and adults. We really enjoyed Laramba and after finishing our work it was back to Alice, a bit earlier than expected.

This time the wind was on our side and we cruising along. We flew back over Alice and even got to see where we are staying from the air, we had such an amazing experience and are so grateful to Peter for taking us, especially because you need permits to visit all the towns so it's a lot of work for him, I think Brenton wants his plane licence now!