The first flight, we did some makeshift formation flying. That was definitely challenging and kept me on my toes, and I flew nowhere close to others compared to what the 2 best pilots, did:

morning pre-flight briefing

cute pink plane

formation takeoff

I was so happy to have a G1000 to show me where other planes, were.

'traffic alert, traffic alert!' :)

well done, guys

We then resumed our regular flight to Windorah, our lunch stop:

there were watering holes for cattle

Windorah had a small airliner from Regional Express (REX) that links the small australian towns that are a bit too far to reasonably drive in between:

we had to hold our planes when it left to make sure we didn't get blown over

We then resumed our flight to Birdsville, the gateway to the outback:

arriving at Birdsville

the hotel was walking distance from the airport gate

We then got a tour of town and to the Big Red, a nice sand dune. Birdsville has a big horse race once a year, which draws crowds from all over Australia, and requires days of driving for many, on outback tracks, kind of a rite of passage, apparently a bit burning man like in some ways:

I think I found some bilby holes

And that was it for Birdsville, we had dinner in their restaurant, and slept on location too, dodging the super annoying and plentiful flies that seemed to be everywhere.