Up in the air ... again

I've been up in the air again. Last weekend, after about a month on the ground, it was back south to Brisbane I flew.

This time it was an afternoon/ evening flight. I was certainly at the airport early enough but better to be safe than sorry.

It was a smokey afternoon for take off. 

But take off we did. I love take off and landing, and flying (think you might know that by now). The funny thing is I hate roller coasters and any other rides that do the same motion.

We headed south, straight over the city.

I don't think I had taken off like that before. I have noticed though that recently the flight paths have changed coming in and out of Cairns. I think they must depend on the weather a bit.

The landscape from the air is always amazing, such a different point of view. Even the smoke didn't detract from it.

Predictably the smoke source was near Yarrabah.

Even just looking at thee pics is making me want to hop on a plane again.

The smoke made it pretty cool, like fog above the mountains.

It was the time of day where the sun caught the water, turning it gold and making it really stand out as it wound its way through the land.

The smoke didn't disappear as we headed south. It was so easy to see where the fires were. It was also so easy to see how fires can create their own weather with plumes of smoke creating 'cloud' patterns.

I obviously managed to score a window seat again so could watch the changing clouds without seeming to be staring at another person.

That sun really did make rivers seem like veins. I guess water really is the life blood of the land.

The further south we went the smokier it seemed to get. I guess everyone is having fire problems at the moment.

The sun got lower and I waited, a little impatiently, for sunset to change the world.

The lowering sun started to highlight the clouds and turn the smoke orange.

I wasn't quite sure what was smoke and what was clouds as we were heading closer to an area that had been fighting slightly larger bush fires than what I could see further north.

Then the clouds and smoke took over, mostly hiding the sun.

We had to do a bit of a circle while waiting to land. 

But eventually we came in lower and lower, the lights of the city spread below us.

This time it was just a weekend trip, a meeting for Lone Guides (as in distance Girl Guides). It was so nice but very tiring and as much as I enjoyed meeting the other leaders, I secretly would have loved to see family too.