Page 65 of Outback Secrets
‘Okay,’ he said as he turned into the small car park adjacent to Geraldton Air Charter, a tiny terminal not far from the actual airport. ‘That’s fine. Do you want to get out and try or shall we just head back to Bunyip Bay?’
There was no indication of pressure or defeat in his voice, but Henri didn’t want to disappoint him. And deep down she wanted to try for herself. If she couldn’t even get up in an aircraft when someone else was at the controls, then she’d seriously need to seek professional help.
She sighed and blinked as tears threatened. ‘I want to try.’
The smile that erupted on Liam’s face was so damn beautiful and hit her right in the gut.
He parked the Hilux and then came around to the passenger side and opened her door. Not that she usually expected or waited for men to assist her, but she found herself frozen in the seat.
‘It’ll be okay,’ he promised, offering her his hand. ‘We don’t have to do anything you’re not comfortable with. The flight’s all paid for, whether we take it or not.’
Until that moment, she hadn’t even thought about money, but private chartered flights weren’t cheap. She frowned as she accepted his hand and climbed out of the car. ‘I’ll pay you back either way.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ The door clunked shut behind them. ‘I told you, I want to do this as much for me as for you.’
Henri wasn’t sure she believed him but decided it was an argument they could have later.
While her head told her to get back in the ute and do anything but what they were about to do, her body somehow allowed Liam to lead her to the building, where they were met by a very chirpy young woman called Erika, and Glenn, the pilot. The latter looked to be in his mid-fifties, with a good head of salt and pepper hair, thick black glasses and smiling eyes that reminded Henri of her father.
He greeted them with a warm handshake, and she swallowed the urge to apologise for her sweaty palms. She didn’t know what Liam had told Glenn, whether he knew she too was a pilot, so she decided not to mention it. Yet.
Erika went through some quick paperwork then fitted them with lifejackets. ‘In the unlikely event of an emergency.’
‘Right, let’s go,’ Glenn said, gesturing to a glass door that would lead them out to the waiting aircraft, which looked to be a Gippsland Airvan, GA8. Henri mentally approved the choice—the single-engine aircraft was made in Australia and extremely reliable. ‘Would you both prefer to travel in the back or would one of you like to sit up front with me?’
Liam looked to Henri. ‘What do you want?’
‘Both in the back.’ If she was going to do this, she wanted him right beside her every step of the way, and she also wasn’t sure she could handle being so close to the controls.
Glenn nodded. ‘Righto.’
He and Liam made small talk as they climbed into the Airvan, but Henri didn’t register any of it. Her hands were shaking so bad it took three attempts to fasten her seatbelt and she could feel her heart beating in a way she never had before. Was this what it felt like when you were about to have a heart attack?
As Glenn did his final checks and then started the engine, Henri shook her head and launched for the door. ‘I can’t do this!’
The seatbelt slammed her back into place and Liam reached for her hand. ‘Can we take a moment, Glenn?’
‘Sure,’ he replied, turning his head and giving Henri what she guessed was supposed to be an encouraging smile. ‘These small girls take a little getting used to.’
Henri looked at Liam—he clearly hadn’t warned Geraldton Air Charter about her issue. Weirdly, this took a bit of the pressure off.
‘Okay,’ she said after a few moments. ‘I think I’m ready.’
No, she wasn’t ready, she thought as Glenn picked up speed and then launched the Airvan into the air. The toastie she’d eaten churned in her stomach and she squeezed her eyes shut, not daring to look out the window or into the cockpit just in front of her. Her only comfort was Liam’s fingers wrapped firmly around her own.
Once they were properly airborne and flying at what had to be about 2000 feet above sea level, Glenn began to narrate the sights below. They flew north first, towards Kalbarri, so they could look down over Hutt Lagoon, more commonly known as the Pink Lake. Henri might not have been to the Abrolhos Islands before but of course she’d flown this coast and did not feel the need, or desire, to look down.
‘Wow, I’ve seen the lake from the ground but it’s so much bigger than I thought,’ Liam said.
‘Yep,’ Glenn replied. ‘It’s about fourteen kilometres long and over two wide. Big pink natural beauty that’s for sure.’
‘It’s not as pink as I remember either.’
‘The actual colour of the water changes depending on the levels of algae and also if there’s a high concentration of brine prawn,’ Glenn explained. ‘Hutt Lagoon was named after William Hutt—a British MP who was involved in the colonisation of Western Australia—by explorer George Grey, who camped along the eastern edge in the 1830s. It was during the wet season and Grey thought he’d found a large estuary. When another explorer, George Fletcher Moore, went to investigate the following year, he couldn’t find this estuary because the waters had gone down, and the mouth of the Hutt River was dry.’
After the Pink Lake, they turned and headed south-west towards the 210 islands that made up the Abrolhos archipelago. After listening to Glenn talk about the history of the three main island groups—Easter, Pelsart and Wallabi—and the ‘graveyard of ships’ that surrounded them, including the famous Batavia that ran aground here on its maiden voyage from the Netherlands, Henri finally found the courage to open her eyes.
As Glenn spoke about the mutiny that happened on the island, killing about 125 of the shipwreck survivors, Henri—still clutching Liam’s hand—leaned towards her window and peered down.