Robertson family in Fregon

We had decided to spend the April school holidays in Fregon as we didn't have enough money to make the trip down. The schools bus needed to go into Alice Springs for repair so I thought it would be a good opportunity to go SHOPPING as I haven't been since Christmas and I had a whole bus to fill up. Bruce thought that he had better come with me just in case I didn't come back or stretched the credit card too far. We also took our neighbour, Bronwyn She has been married to a traditional aboriginal man called Kulii Frank.

We stayed at a motel, something of a novelty as we normally stay in a tent or caravan and as the bus was only supposed to take 3 days we just had enough money for those days ($74/night) plus the hire of a mini-moke ($28/day) to get around in.

Bruce and Bronwyn took the bus into the repair place while I went to pick up the moke. It was bright pink with just a sun roof, the clutch only worked for 5cm, the seats would move forwards and the brakes only worked if the peddle was pushed

David James and Puddles in the Pink Moke

to the floor. I only just managed to drive to the repair place where Bruce and Bronwyn were. Bruce then informed me that it would take over two weeks to fix the bus.
"Oh dear!we'll have to stay here in Alice for all of that time" As I am madly thinking of all the shopping that I haven't done.
"No we can't", says Bruce "We don't have enough money" Spoil sport.

So how do we get home with a bus full of shopping and no transport? Luckily the four-wheeled drive that is also owned by the school was in Alice Springs so I rang up the teacher that had driven it to Alice for its service. At first she couldn't fit us in as she had taken her family up here and the schools 2 photocopiers however after some quick phoning around she could fit in Bruce and the kids but Bronwyn and I would have to fly back to Fregon with the school paying my fare.

Alice Springs from Anzac Hill

So with that all arranged we continued shopping and storing the tins and other stuff on the bus. David and James loved the moke and wanted to take it back to Fregon. They loved the fresh air and roaring noise. It would never have made it back, it would have become one of the relics beside the road, spending its life with no wheels and windscreen and being slowly stripped of it bits as people drove past.

The guys packed into the Toyota on Tuesday and on Wednesday we had to be ready by 6 am. Having no alarm clock and the hotel having no wake up call Bronwyn and I had a very sleepless night worrying about the time. The airport minibus came to pick us up but we were the last call so it wasn't till 6:45 before we got to the airport. I was really worried about weight of my luggage as I had forgotten to send a bucket, 4 liters of cordial, Bruces new pillow, his parker and my extra shopping with Bruce the previous day. I thought that they wouldn't let me on the plane. It was really embarrassing when I had to get on the scales with my luggage infront of everyone else who was traveling. Oh no!! 100kg now I am really stuck in Alice with no money and no where to stay) Nothing was said and I waited nervously until 9 o'clock until take off.

I was hoping to go in one of the twin engine, 10 seater planes but no we had a single seater, Cessna. What happens when one of the engines stops at least with the 2 engined ones one of the engines would continue. I took 2 travel sickness pills as I didn't want to throw up all over the plane and it was Bronwyn who talked the pilot into letting me sit next to him in the copilots seat. We all squashed in and I came to realised that I could never become a pilot as I couldn't see over the dash, it came to the top of my head. Luckily the pilot could see or that's what he told me.

Before we took off he said that the dashes are even higher in one model of Cessna's however there no being made anymore as there in a legal battle in the USA. This was not good for my confidence before we were taking off. We finally got to the take off area and he too the plane to a white line on the runway and reeved up the engines. It looked like a drag strip for planes as it and all these tyre marks across it and down it. I looked around for the other plane who was going to drag with us. Nope maybe this is just a timed section. The pilot got the OK from the tower and we were off!

After getting into other right direction the pilot forced a piece of paper into a switch/
"Don't worry", said the pilot"Its the automatic pilot."

The view was amazing and I got to enjoy it after my nerves settled down and I started to take lots of Photographs. When we got to Fregon the pilot did a few passes around and I got to take more photographs of our house (see photo's of our house). I had been dying to fly out to Fregon ever since I got here and this was really worth it especially with the school paying for it. I wouldn't like to do the trip on a windy day as you have to pass over a few mountain ranges and the plane would zoom up and down a lot.

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