Approaching Abu Dhabi’s Al Bateen airfield with the spectacularly lit Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque under the flight path.
The customs and immigration staff at Lake Como in Italy are chiselled from the same mould and as stylish as any in the world.
The Aero Club Como’s flying boat museum has a letter from the inaugural Qantas flying boat trip.
The Southern Sun arrives at Lake Como, a confluence of fantastic flying and famous movie locations.
Anne greets me at Damyns Hall Aerodrome in London, which was meant to be my final destination.
The airspace over the Thames River is one of the most crowded on the planet.
I was nervous and thrilled.
Anne at Winston Churchill’s birthplace, Blenheim Palace, outside of London.
She encouraged me to keep going.
The Southern Sun being greeted by her first aerial plane spotters in Sligo, Ireland.
In Iceland’s Reykjavik, the Sun nestles under the wing of a PBY Catalina, the world’s most awesome flying boat.
The icefloes between Iceland and Greenland stretch so far I initially thought they were cloud.
The fjords and glaciers on the southern Greenland coast are some of the most spectacular terrain I’ve seen. The weather was perfect too.
Flying over Greenland, I’m no longer a short, balding, middle-aged businessman but a daring and resourceful pilot skirting the Arctic Circle.
An iceberg between Nuuk and Goose Bay. It’s so big it generates concentric circles through the water.
Botwood honouring me with an old Newfoundland initiation known as the ‘Screech In’ ceremony.
The Sun is the first flying boat to fly from Foynes in Ireland to Canada’s Botwood in thirty-seven years.
Flying around southern Manhattan. It was one of the thrills of my life, but I was still recovering emotionally from the incident at Goose Bay.
Hannibal, the birthplace of writer Mark Twain, who inspired my Mississippi adventure.
A river carpark at Hannibal, where I left the Sun while I rushed to inspect locations that appeared in Huckleberry Finn.
Sleeping on the bank of the Mississippi. I had to spend the night in the cockpit because of the swarms of insects.
The great Mississippi narrows to the width of a creek near its source, Lake Itasca.
The State Theatre in Traverse City, Michigan. Its restoration was spearheaded by documentarian Michael Moore.
The inside passage of the Alaskan coastline. Even though Russian permission hadn’t come through, I decided to keep going.
A beautiful day in southern Alaska. The weather could quickly turn bad, forcing me to hole up in isolated towns.
The Aleutians are a chain of small islands and extinct volcanoes. The amazing views belie the huge swells that would swamp the Sun if she landed on water.
Adak, the most westerly civilian population in the United States, and my home for three weeks.
A Cold War–era bunker designed to house eighty-four people.
Quad bikes are the transport of choice on Adak, home to an indigenous population of Inuits. I’m about to meet Ruth, one of the school teachers.
Although isolated, the eighty-person community on Atka has a thriving economy.
The withdrawal of the federal government from the Aleutians has left many buildings on Adak abandoned.
A moment of calm and beauty in the notorious Bering Sea.
I couldn’t present to a seaplane conference in Sydney in person, so I used Skype from an Adak classroom.
Every child and teacher from Adak’s school farewelling me. I left behind a final letter to my family, just in case.
Cloud, low light and rain: the flight from Alaska to Japan, one of the most dangerous of my life.
I had stashed fuel on Attu, an uninhabited island with a Cold War–era runway I found on Google Earth.
Buying fuel at a petrol station in Japan.
As I return to the equator, the Sun starts developing electrical problems that could have her stranded on a desert island.
The sunsets in the South China Sea are beautiful, but flying at night without using instruments is dangerous.
A very intimidating Seahawk helicopter from the Philippine Navy, which I photograph in case something bad is about to happen.
In Rio Hondo in Zamboanga, the public transport is BMX bikes.
Never drink from the red bottle.
Finally ascending the boat ramp at Williamstown. I’m relieved to be home safely, and so pleased to see my family.
The circumnavigation is completed at the Qantas museum in Longreach, which I rushed to against my better judgement.
My inspirational grandmother, Jean Smith, is part of the welcome-home party.
The rising sun on the roof of the Sun Theatre in Melbourne is a motif for my life.
The setting sun, an inspiration for my adventures, past and future.
Voyage of the Southern Sun Page 29
