While visiting mum and dad in Mt Gambier in October 2018 I hired a Cessna 172 from one of the guys in the local aero club and flew over to Barwon Heads, near Geelong, to catch up with Henrik, who’s building an elaborate beach house in Anglesea nearby. It was great weather and after the winter rains southern Victoria was looking extremely green.

From Mount Gambier I headed east and flew over Dartmoor and Macarthur then on to Colac.

A few puffy cumulus clouds made for interesting flying along the way. I could hear plenty of flight training activity at Colac on the radio so stayed south of it and flew over the Otway Ranges to the coast and followed it from Lorne to Barwon Heads via Anglesea and Torquay. I had to land at Barwon Heads as that was the closest airstrip. Henrik was waiting for me and we went off for some lunch.

Later in the afternoon I took Henrik for a scenic flight along the coast past Anglesea to Airey’s Inlet, with a few orbits over Anglesea so he could photograph his new house from above.

On the way back we flew over the Anglesea coal mine where the power station had recently been demolished.

The old Anglesea coal fired power station had been detonated 2 days before and reduced to a tangle of twisted steel and concrete. It was the second attempt as the first didn’t do much damage. This one seemed to do the job. Apparently the stack will remain as a “tourist attraction”.

After a smooth landing Henrik told me that it had been his first flight in a light aircraft. Previous smallest was a Dash 8!

We celebrated with dinner at the Anglesea Golf Club which does a very good steak and probably the best Black Forest Cake I’ve had this side of Austria.

The next day I headed back, taking off once again into the wild blue yonder.