Lake Eyre: Delightful Flying Tours to the Australian Outback
Flying tours to Lake Eyre are standard fare for anybody who has travelled to the Australian outback. Several air charters run flights out of Moorabbin Airport in Melbourne to facilitate an aerial view of Australia's largest lake.
If you haven't already indulged yourself with this visual feast, book yourself on the next available flight, on July 17, after which you will only have four more opportunities this season, with the remaining flying tours scheduled for August 3, 9 and 18.
There's good news for those who have delighted in the sights of Lake Eyre during the last three successive wet seasons. Warburton Creek has received good rainfall this year and the resulting influx has meant that Lake Eyre is about half full.
But here's the bad news – the season will only last about seven more weeks. Come September, and the increasingly hot weather is likely to cause the lake water to evaporate. So make the most of your opportunity while you still have the time, and catch the next Navajo or Chieftain aircraft leaving from Moorabbin for Lake Eyre.
Better still, you can board a more spacious and faster KingAir plane if you are willing to pay 30% over the normal fare. While most of these flying tours are scheduled for three days, you can persuade the air charter operators to take you on a shorter trip of, say, two days.
Typically, a three-day tour involves flying from Moorabbin to Broken Hill, where the aircraft will fuel up before proceeding to Innamincka for a lunch stopover, while allowing you to take in a breathtaking aerial view of the renowned Burke and Wills Dig Tree, en route. Post lunch, you can head to the Coongie Lakes, before finally retiring for the night at Birdville.
Breakfast, on the next morning, will be followed by a low flight down the Diamantine until you can see Lake Eyre below you. Lunch at Muloorina will be succeeded, weather and road conditions permitting, by a drive to the edge of Lake Eyre. End the day at Flinders Range, but not before a gaze at the stars at the Arkaroola observatory.
Take the 4WD world famous Ridgetop Tour, on the third day, in the northern Flinders Ranges. Else, you could choose to take in the visual splendour of Coopers Creek, on a boat cruise, or even take a trip to the opal fields in Andamooka before finally returning to Moorabbin.
In the wet season, Cooper Creek is a bird-watcher's delight with the riverbanks play host to a plethora of migratory birds, and you should find the place teeming with Australian Pelicans, Banded Stilts, Caspian Terns, Red-necked Avocets, Red-necked Stints, Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and Silver Gulls.
If you haven't already indulged yourself with this visual feast, book yourself on the next available flight, on July 17, after which you will only have four more opportunities this season, with the remaining flying tours scheduled for August 3, 9 and 18.
There's good news for those who have delighted in the sights of Lake Eyre during the last three successive wet seasons. Warburton Creek has received good rainfall this year and the resulting influx has meant that Lake Eyre is about half full.
But here's the bad news – the season will only last about seven more weeks. Come September, and the increasingly hot weather is likely to cause the lake water to evaporate. So make the most of your opportunity while you still have the time, and catch the next Navajo or Chieftain aircraft leaving from Moorabbin for Lake Eyre.
Better still, you can board a more spacious and faster KingAir plane if you are willing to pay 30% over the normal fare. While most of these flying tours are scheduled for three days, you can persuade the air charter operators to take you on a shorter trip of, say, two days.
Typically, a three-day tour involves flying from Moorabbin to Broken Hill, where the aircraft will fuel up before proceeding to Innamincka for a lunch stopover, while allowing you to take in a breathtaking aerial view of the renowned Burke and Wills Dig Tree, en route. Post lunch, you can head to the Coongie Lakes, before finally retiring for the night at Birdville.
Breakfast, on the next morning, will be followed by a low flight down the Diamantine until you can see Lake Eyre below you. Lunch at Muloorina will be succeeded, weather and road conditions permitting, by a drive to the edge of Lake Eyre. End the day at Flinders Range, but not before a gaze at the stars at the Arkaroola observatory.
Take the 4WD world famous Ridgetop Tour, on the third day, in the northern Flinders Ranges. Else, you could choose to take in the visual splendour of Coopers Creek, on a boat cruise, or even take a trip to the opal fields in Andamooka before finally returning to Moorabbin.
In the wet season, Cooper Creek is a bird-watcher's delight with the riverbanks play host to a plethora of migratory birds, and you should find the place teeming with Australian Pelicans, Banded Stilts, Caspian Terns, Red-necked Avocets, Red-necked Stints, Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and Silver Gulls.
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