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Aussie' Aviation Pioneer Sir Charles Kingsford
Smith. (Source: Bing.com Images)
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As it's been a long time ago since I made my
longest transcontinental flight Down
Under Mates, but Hey, if A-L-L the Daily Mail can dribble on 'bout between Grands
Prix is Lewis going scuba diving, then I can Bloody well babble 'bout long haul
Aeroplane adventures...
VIDEO: It's A long way There
By now, Y'all are quite tired of reading
about your humble No Fenders scribe recent trek to thou B-I-G' Islands 'O Hawaii.
As naturally travelin' via B-I-G 'Ol Jetliners lingers on thine mind.
And Although I've moved on, I still had Bill
Bryson's enjoyable Down Under travel tome stuck in Thy Head, thanks to our
dreadfully long, dark, untypically snowy, "wintery Percip" bleakish winter
we've endured this year, with our local Fishwrap' proclaiming it's the coldest
winter since 1985; Shiver me Timbers, R; Although we've had everythingy' Man;
but I digress...
Alas, as if I was on a Waltzing Matilda
myself, with my virtual Walkabout thru Bryson's excellent In a Sunburned
Country travel narrative, read by the author himself
on the CD Audiobook version I'd corralled from my local library last December.
Having taken a month's time to go from start to finish...
I marveled at how his trek Down Under ended
in Perth, after having gotten horrifically sunburned when attempting walking to
Freemantle; CRIKEYS!
Having decided to
go for Walkabout in order to view the widow of OZ's Iron Ore magnate's Lang Bancock
- How dare he marry his Housekeeper and her $35m house ...
As Bryson notes, it's 4,000 kilometers from
Sydney, 5,000 from Brisbane and 4,000 actual driving kilometers from Alice
Springs; did I get that correct Mates? With NO idea how far it's to Melbourne.
As won't even
reach for the low hangin' fruit by spinning some witty yarn about some lad
who's Perth's favourite son currently wearin' Red Bull overalls and driving the
#3 in Bloody F1 Mates! Although I'm sure he's happy to have the Melbourne
weekend over...
Bryson finishes off his adventure in search
of the ever elusive Stromatolite, which can only be easily accessed via
Boardwalk at Shark's Bay...
And as he explains to presumably another Ugly
American traveler, who complains to her husband 'bout traveling across an
entire continent to stare at some ugly rocks.
Bryson politely tries explaining their
amazing qualities and that she's standing at the only place where one can see
such treasured gems so easily accessible in the world, and she retorts: you've
got a very nasty sunburn!
Naturally Bryson's tome put me in the spirit
of travel and also peaked; NO Danica Jokes here; Hooah! My curiosity about an
unknown aviator named Charles Kingsford Smith, who seems to live in the total
shadow of some chap named Lindbergh.
As I found myself way more intrigued over
Bryson's stumbling into the remains of the Kookaburra accidently
on a day's Walkabout of Alice Springs tourist attractions solo, bungling into a
totally obscure, nondescript building with its door slightly ajar.
And after my most unimpressed search findings
for the Museo in Questione, like seriously? It's Twenty FREAKIN' Seventeen, and
Alice Springs cannot afford a dedicated
website for its Central Australian Aviation museum; WTF! Like Holy Internetz Domains
Batman! Having owned the No Fenders website for over 10yrs now; but I
digress...
Oh Yeah, it's a-L-L coming back to Mwah over
Bryson's most unflattering description of Alice Springs lack of caring towards
tourists, from the Hotel's being named incorrectly to the snobby Desk Jockey
Clerks, etc; albeit that was Wayback in 2000, so you'd like to ARSE-Sume it's
improved since then, eh?
As just the "Back story" alone
about the fate of the Kookaburra is most interesting
itself, but I was more intrigued over the lost aviator the two doomed pilots
had set out to look for on their fateful flight. As I'd never heard of Sir Charles
Kingsford Smith before, who's truly an aviation pioneer who seems largely
relegated to obscurity here Stateside; Sigh!
As I'm having trouble finding much of
substance upon the lauded Aussie pilot fondly known as Smithie', although I did
run across this brief story 'bout a damaged wooden propeller from one of the
'Ol Bus's flights in 1935, in which Y'all should really check out the gallantry
of navigator Gordon Taylor who climbed out on the wing six times to scavenge
oil for their remaining overheating Ford motor!
As this famous Fokker tri-motor Aeroplane was
subsequently donated after it's failed King George Silver Jubilee Mail Delivery
flight headed for New Zealand, shortly prior to Kingsford Smith's disappearance.
Alas, this new found curiosity over the
forlorned Aussie aviator naturally turned my radar onto other aviation stories,
as Bingo! Up popped an article from Air & Space Museum's online magazine, regaling
another once unthinkable flight.
Whilst the father of true modern day
transcontinental flight, made seemingly ordinary with the creation of the
Boeing 747, giving our local Aerospace company a true leg up upon its
competition just passed away recently.
But Y'all know how Man's never satisfied, eh? As
how dare some of those really, really Bad Middle East people go about breaking
the record for longest distance flight! As sure good thingy' they did I-T ahead
of those IDIOTIC travel bans...
And lastly, since you're probably saying this
isn't very Open Wheel Racing related, if you've stuck with me this far, albeit
Australia and New Zealand do rightly hold their place in both Formula 1 and
IndyCar racing!
As just think of such luminaries as Jack
Brabham, Bruce McLaren, Alan Jones, Denny Hulme, Scott Dixon, Will Power and
Chris Amon for starters.
As I had a very
enjoyable Chinwag' with my Shuttle Express driver on the way home. Asking her
if that's a Wee Bit 'O Aussie' accent I hear? NO, try a little farther away...
As Sue promptly told me she was from New Zealand and has to "Educate"
us Yanks' A-L-L the time. And I wasn't too shocked when she told me she didn't
know who Scott Dixon was...
Nonetheless, perhaps the next long haul
flight frontier will become ordinary flights to the Moon and Earth's outer
atmosphere. For which one local entrepreneur's busy trying to win the race...