Antechamber bay Kangaroo Island

[Guest rxbrumby]

On Sunday my Daughter and I flew down to KI to check out a new cafe and airstrip that is about to open at Antechamber bay. We tried to call the owners but got no answer. We decided to check it out any way. There has finally been a lot of rain here in the last few weeks, so I was just going to over fly the strip and check its condition. So after a nice hot bowl of homemade soup from the adelaide biplanes cafe I worked out our flight plan, got the life jackets and epirp organised we set off. There was some low cloud along the way, but by flying along just off shore we were able to keep plenty of vis. Once we got to the wind farm near Cape Jervis we were able to climb to a safe crossing height of 4750'. When we were safely across I had to orbit over Penneshaw and descend to 1700' to get under a cloud band. I then proceeded to fly east along the northern shore for 6 to 8 Nm until I spotted the air strip. There were some sheep down at one end of the paddock and a couple of wallabies as well. I descended to 1000' AGL and joined downwind. I over flew at about 150' to check the ground condition and clear the wallabies. We climbed back up to 1000' AGL and prepared to make a landing. While flying base a ute turned off the road onto the homstead driveway. By using a fairly good slip to get a good steep aproach to clear a couple of obsticals we touched down right on the threshhold for a nice short shoft landing. While backtracking the runway a ute pulled up by the fence and the owner came over to greet us. We were treated to a nice hot cuppa and some nice biscuits and cheese while chatting the the owners. They had just got back from staying in adelaide for a couple of days while buying the last few needed supplies for the cafe. They are also going to do cellar door sales of local wines, and I even got given a bottle of local red to try(Im not a drinker but my Father in law does enjoy a nice red and announced it to be very nice). The cafe will officaly open on the second weekend of September, and I recomend every one that can to visit. It is only a short flight of 25 to 30 minutes from Aldinga. You only have to walk 5 minutes to get to the beach. Or if you want to camp, at the other end of the airstrip there is a council camping ground on the edge of a river with a gas BBQ in a shelter, an eco toilet and rainwater. The owners are happy for you to tie down there over night. Here are a few pictures my 7 YR old took, I will also post a video on youtube when I work out how to.

 

Scott