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Sunday June 2, 2002 Wirlinga
The trip begins in earnest….
The big day has finally arrived. And what an amazing sendoff!
After completing a street parade on Saturday morning for the hometown send-off, the Astor Hotel kindly donated a magnificent BBQ lunch for the team and supporters. Fine weather all round and everyone had a great, if not slightly emotional, time.
The Phegan family and friends was out in force to see the crew off. About 40 people were at "Dan-Mara Park" to wish everyone the best and formed a wonderful guard of honour as the convoy rolled out of the property. It was fantastic to have so many hands on deck at the last day or so to get the last of the trailer organised - Big thanks to Dave for his electrical skills, and to everyone who helped packing and stowing the mountains of gear needed to undertake a ride of this size.
First evening saw the team at Yass – only minus 5 degrees overnight and a thick old frost in the morning! But clear and icy is always better than wet and icy…
Monday June 3rd
The trip into Sydney was much longer than we thought. After fixing the flat tyre on the float that we discovered Sunday night, we had a tread part company with one of "Moby Dick’s" tyres at Narellan. We got into Sydney late in the afternoon and settled at the Sydney Equestrian Centre at Centennial Park with the horses – t he people contingent got to set up camp in Fox Studios (the old Showgrounds site).
Ian got the chance to catch up with his cousin, Stephen, and his family, and his best mate, Martin, from high school – all in the one evening. Yola also caught up with some old friends for dinner.
Tuesday June 4th
The big media launch is a little subdued by the late news that there again will be no television coverage. Thankfully, the print media were there in force and Sara Storer sang "Trail of Dreams" publicly for the first time (although suffering a bout of the flu’ she performed brilliantly!). Colin Munro of ABC fame hosted the launch and did a marvelous job. The Commonwealth Bank announced it’s sponsorship of the ride – opening all branches to accept donations from the public, and kick starting the account with an injection of $5000.00. Kevin Best, the artist responsible for many beautiful Australian bush and outback paintings was also in attendance to lend his support. Kevin is a true gentleman and his talent truly amazing!
The biggest laugh for the evening was Lucas and Dan going head to head on an arcade game which simulates horse racing at the Fox Sports Bar, where the competitors "ride" the machine. Dan "The Pumper" defeated the field, leaving Lucas "The Klumper" stone cold last! The boys also decided to have a game of ten-pin bowling – which again Dan won (although the challenge still stands with Ian when we next get a chance to have a game!). Someone in the team reckoned Big Col looked like a hippopotamus doing ballet… You will note that that person also wishes to remain anonymous!
Wednesday June 5th
We realise at this stage that Dan has no way of extracting the great photos of the trucks crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge from his digital camera, and a phone call is made to Warwick (Dan’s Dad) in Albury to send the driver disk to Roma Post Office for us to collect on the way to Darwin (see the Roma entry for the outcome of that!). After a hectic morning of dodging traffic we all finally made it out onto the Newcastle expressway. We managed to get all the way to Singleton (not a planned stop – Muswellbrook was the aim) where the local Council and showground caretaker really looked after us! (thanks Steve and Ken).
Col also had a go at giving himself a drenching from hell! He asked Dan if there was any water in the 20 litre containers in the back of the truck. Dan was busy on the phone and nodded his head – Col proceeded to fill his glass and almost gave it a savage quaffing, luckily taking a big sniff first… of metho!! After he managed to regain his breath, he reckoned Dan wanted to poison him and asked Dan if he wanted to taste the water (that might be a little off!). Only one small problem with storing water and metho in identical containers with no labels – big kids drinking the wrong thing.
Thursday June 6th
 Set out for Tamworth on yet another beautiful day and arrived in good time at Bruce and Nancy Hyman’s place. They are about three kilometres from town and enjoy spectacular views of the city. Bruce is presently fundraising to organise a life size bronze sculpture of the "Waler" horse that was used so successfully by the Australian Light Horse. In fact, Bruce’s father (Major Eric Hyman) is mentioned in the history of Australian campaigns during WW1, as he led part of the offensive at the Charge of Beersheba as part of the 12th Light Horse under General Cheval. Inspirational reading!
Friday June 7th
Dan, Ian, Jenny and David were very busy today attending to media and function engagements, as well as organising our next visit to Tamworth, during the country music festival in January. The horses moved on to Bingara, which the Tamworth team arrived after dark – and the weather was exceptionally warm. Bingara has a fantastic reputation with visiting backpackers and tonight was no exception – An absolute pubful of people from all corners of the globe! We conducted a great raffle and shook the tin around and raised several hundred dollars – the same happened at the RSL club. Great little town and has great facilities at the showgrounds.
Lucas fell off the horse today on his second ever unassisted ride - learned him a valuable lesson of not relying on anyone (Bek's) word that the girth straps were tight!
Saturday June 8th
Any wonder it was warm last night! We brought the much needed rain with us and it rained steadily most of Friday night and Saturday. We managed to get everything a little damp as most of the truck vents and windows were left ajar. We loaded the wet horses on the trucks and set off for Goondiwindi. Little did we know that this was to become a VERY eventful day.
The trucks were going along brilliantly until both drivers overshot the turnoff for Queensland at Warialda. Just after turning around about 5 kilomtres out of town, Col’s voice crackled over the radio, "S*%!, I got smoke in the cabin…real bad!…something’s burning!". It turned out that a wire had shorted back near the crate on the back and had burned an unfused wire right through to the back of the dashboard! Not only had that wire completely burned, but it also melted its way into most of the surrounding wiring loom. This necessitated a complete strip of the loom to find the other burned circuits, (the starter wire got burned through, causing the starter motor to burn out!), which kept Lucas and Ian up to their elbows in electric spaghetti for about four hours. Warialda does not have an auto electrician, but Ray Spackman (Bruce James’ cousin) is a local mechanic and he turned up to lend a hand and tow started the truck (well after the rest of the vehicles had set out for "Gundi"). Colin and Lucas made record time and actually caught up before too long. We all got to Goondiwindi well after dark (although Dan’s clearance lights shorted out along the way) and stayed at the showgrounds – which was smack in the middle of a Pony Club camp over the long weekend.
Long Weekend = No hope of getting a new starter motor until at least Tuesday!
Just to cap off the day brilliantly, when the power was connected to Dan’s truck, the accumulated moisture of damp horses in an enclosed environment, caused a short in one of the fridge’s resulting in a nice little electrical fire that thankfully went out quickly of its own accord. Trying times indeed!
We headed for the pubs as it was a long weekend – hoping that there would be fair crowd who would make some generous donations. Only one pub was really attracting a crowd and that was great, but the rest of the town was a little sleepy.
Sunday June 9th
Got the local auto electrician out to get all the electrical dramas sorted out – he did a fantastic job and sorted Col’s remaining gremlins (except the starter motor!) as well as tracing the problem with the clearance light short on "Moby Dick" (although Lucas had just worked this one out as well). He really looked after us as he appreciated the work we were doing for charity. Thanks again David!
Time to get on the road and head for Miles – thankfully no dramas today and we made excellent time. The showground caretaker was a little "eccentric" and let us stay without charge as he and the local show society had recently "parted company". Nice spot (with nice hot showers) to camp and the local watering holes will no doubt help us out a lot in fundraising.
Monday June 10th
Roma was not far up the road and we headed out about lunch time. Again no dramas and had a really nice spot lined up to camp at the showgrounds. We shared the ground with a heap of horsepeople returning from Charleville endurance ride. The winning horse covered the distance in eight hours – an average speed of 20km/h!! This makes our schedule of 20km/day look pretty shabby, but you have to remember our effort does not stop after 160km, but rather 4,500km!
Tuesday June 11th
Col and Dan went to the Roma cattle sale while the horse trucks were sent on to Augathella. Just by chance the ice-breaker (Col) said G'day to the right person at the sale. They ended up in half a dozen newspapers and two radio stations. The bloke he spoke to worked with them half the morning.
When leaving the sale they were cleaning their boots - the kind gentleman said to his mates, "These two blokes are going to ride right across the country on horse back for charity". He then pointed over and looked at them and said, "They just called in today to clean their boots!"
Thanks John Guilfoyle - very funny bloke.
While Col and Dan were still at Roma the rest of the team had taken the horses on to Augathella - it was about now they escaped into a 6,000 acre bush block. The horses were recovered just before dark - still cantering around the scrub! Toppy had managed to run into a really big burr with his nose and Ian managed to remove four really big spikes without getting one himself! The same burr spikes were found in Matty’s shin later and they were a little harder to remove…
12th June 2003
Headed out to Barcaldine – and today we assessed where our trucks were up to.
Between the two we have burnt out the loom in Col's truck from front to back. His starter motor got frazzled so we have had to push start him for the last 4 days (fully loaded with horses). One night was spent without lights that were also burnt out. Dan's truck has been shorting out from an electrical fault that is blowing all the lights.
For some strange reason the electric brakes no longer work (they were meant to be brand new).
The hydraulic tail gate seized (luckily not full of horses).
The water tanks have developed a large hole.
The starter motor for Col’s truck was sent 400 km's ahead to meet us at a town en route…
The team has pulled together and all the above have now (almost!) been overcome.
Thursday - June 13th
Moved on again from Barcaldine to Longreach today, and really noticed theweather starting to warm up. Liquid refreshments aren't cheap around these parts, so when we saw cartons of VB for $25.00 we got excited... Pity they were 285ml bottles!
We spoke to Steve Block from 2AY to give an update on where we are up to, and then rushed around Longreach doing interviews with radio stations and the local paper. The Stockman's Hall of Fame were very kind in letting the team through gratis - this is a must see for anyone interested in the rural heritage of inland Australia. As soon as that was out of the way, Col, Luke, Dan and Ian shot back to the showgrounds to fit up the new starter motor - it was music to the ears to hear the old girl fire on the first click of the key!
Horse feed is in pretty short supply around these parts at the moment and we hope that there will be some unseasonal rains in the next couple of months to help everyone around here out - and most importantly allow us to feed our animals on the side of the road on the way back!
We were really excited to find an internet cafe in town with a higher bandwidth than our CDMA connection, as we had to get hold of the drivers for Dan's digital camera. Warwick sent a disk to Roma for us (which we were ecstatic to receive) but sadly it was the wrong one and was no help at all!
Had a pile of emails to answer today as there was a bit of a rush (more than usual!) and everything is starting to feel as though it is settling into a groove... each member of the team is getting on well and we look forward to things progressing this way for the next ten months.
Friday June 14th
Today was a fragmented day as the crew was split up over several hundred kilometres along the Landsborough Highway.
The trucks set off early to make the evening stopover at Kynuna, but just as they were about to leave, Bruce tried to move his Land Cruiser and discovered no forward motion. A leaking axle seal had caused grease to fall on the rear brakes and this caused the wheel to lock up. A quick tear down and some minor brake adjustment allowed the car to move and the local Longreach Toyota dealer kindly assisted with repairs. Meanwhile Yola and John were aiming for Cloncurry Show - but being a Friday night (huge nights in the local pubs anywhere) they stopped over at Winton to shake the tin around the pubs for the evening. Ian and Bek stopped in Longreach until 9.00pm, keeping busy by talking to stock and station agents, dropping posters at many local shops and waiting for Oaten hay to arrive at the local Elders outlet. They also did a Billy Shake around the four local hotels and RSL , completely filled one billy before heading off down the road.
The land is so flat here that you can see the lights of Winton at night over 60 kilometres away, and Kynuna for about 45 kilometres.
Bek and Ian arrived at Kynuna at 1.00am after dodging a few Roo's and found the remaining crew in high spirits after having a very good fundraising evening at the Blue Heeler Hotel. Fruity (who knows how he got this name?) looks after the local campdraft ground and kindly let everyone stay for gratis...
Saturday June 15th
Yet another flat tire first thing in the morning, this time on the trailer! The weather is a lot hotter now and the mornings quickly get to the low thirties. We are really noticing how dry it is here now and the red dust is becoming more common - even termite mounds are becoming very common sights.
Cloncurry is the destination for today, as Jenny has arranged for us to ride in the Grand Parade! The trucks arrived in Cloncurry at about 1.20pm after battling headwinds and hills right into Cloncurry. The parade kicked off at 3.00pm and it was interesting to see the guest of honour was none other than Ben Darke of "Getaway" fame. The show here is very relaxed and laid back in the way things are organised and done, and there was some excellent exhibits throughout the venue. The show society was very kind in letting us set up a merchandise stall on the grounds, and we sold nearly $1000.00 worth of apparel! It was also a great chance to let the horses that have not been holding condition to get some good roadside pick into them.
We are staying at the Pony Club grounds which has excellent yards, pens, water and facilities. Tomorrow we head for Mount Isa, but the horses, Col and Lucas will be going on to Camooweal camp for the night.
Sunday 16th June
Well - it turns out yesterday was a bit of a record breaker. At 35.3 degrees, it was the hottest June day recorded in Cloncurry since 1963! Maybe this would explain why Ben Darke made a bit of a pest of himself last night after getting stuck into the grog...
After getting the horses on the road (Lucas managed to beach "Moby Dick" coming out of the petrol station, necessitating a tow from a passing local in a 4WD), the remaining team headed back to the show.
Dan, Ian, John Williams, Guy McLean and Yola got together to have a crack at the team ringers challenge, which involved a relay where the first person jumps off their swag, pulls on boots and hat, rolls the swag and gulps down a "breakfast" of cold baked beans and Sao biscuits before tagging the second person. The second competitor then saddles a station horse, mounts and then pens a steer, rides back and unsaddles, and tags the third competitor. The third competitor then knocks in two star pickets and rolls a round bale of hay into a pen, then tags the fourth team member who picks up a rodeo gate which is then used to close the pen. The last member of the team must then drink a can of beer... Yola got heaps of applause for finishing off the can as she was the only female competitor!
Ian got the team off to a slow start by not getting his left boot on fast enough, and then balking at the two Sao's at the bottom of the bakes beans. Dan got a good horse to ride, but the saddle slipped badly, although he managed to stay on and finish with the saddle beneath the horse (much to the amusement of the local ringers!), John did well on the pickets and hay, as did Guy on the pen closing. Yola finished off, but sadly we were just out of the places in fourth spot.
That was about the highlight for the day. We jumped in the cars about 3.00pm and headed for Mt. Isa. We found a great spot at the showgrounds, got set up, and then found out all the "showies" were coming to set up camp and we were right in the middle of their traditional spots! Needless to say that rather than get parked in, we packed up and headed for the Mt Isa caravan park - where they are happy to have dogs. Tomorrow will be a busy day of publicising the ride and getting more people helping on a local level, before heading off to the Barkly Road House for tomorrow evening (where the horses should be hopefully waiting for us...)
Monday 17th June
Mount Isa - lovely city and great caravan parks. Mt Isa Caravan Park put us up for the night and even dropped a donation of $50.00! As expected we had a busy day of running around putting up posters and doing media interviews. Bruce dropped the trailer tyre in for repairs so that Dan and Ian could pick it up later in the afternoon before catching up with the rest of the team at Barkly Roadhouse. Bruce even supplied a map to find our way to "Beaurepaire's" so things should have been easy. Sadly, the map indicated a natty little shopping mall where "Beau's" should have been, and Beau's was actually on the other side of town! We trotted off to Beaurepaire's where no-one had an idea about the tyre concerned. After searching high and low we finally found the "Bridgestone" outlet called "Andersons Tyre Service"and lo! there was the tyre!! - only a block and a half from the spot so carefully marked on the map!
Everything went well, except Ian missing the meeting with the Mayor looking for the tyre, and the remaining crew set off for The Barkly Roadhouse in the late afternoon. There were some great sights during the trip across, especially on sunset, and some near misses with some sizeable roo's after dark.
The Barkly Roadhouse has some really nice facilities, and the proprietors were kind enough to donate a couple of powered sites for the night.
Tuesday 18th June
Everyone was up reasonably early to make the run to Three Ways, only 187 kilometres down the track, but we made such great time, we decided to keep going toward Renner Springs, to make the distance the following day a little shorter. As luck would have it, we stumbled upon Banka Banka Station Camping Grounds along the way. As there were yards chock full of good grass across the road, we decided then and there to make camp for the evening. The camping grounds have been going for about twelve months, and there is wonderfully clean spring water available for drinking. Unfortunately, they do not have any electricity to spare, but we have generators, so no problems there! They have an informative slideshow in the evening, probably more appealing to first-time outback travellers or overseas visitors.
As a strange co-incidence, Ian borrowed Dan's copy of Tom Cole's Hell West and Crooked in the afternoon for a quick read, and believe it or not, Chapter 8 is titled "Banka Banka and the Barrow Creek Races". Bizarre...
The Banka Banka Barber (aka Dan) assisted Col in providing a haircut (to Col) with Col's horse clippers. Col thought it was a great job and was pleased as punch with the outcome, especially as there were no mirrors that were easily accessible. What the rest of the camp could see (and Col couldn't!) was the beautifully executed Mohawk hairstyle, which Col didn't discover until later - after his shower... Needless to say Col broke out the clippers again and removed the offending hairs - kind of reminded me of the Man from Ironbark.....
It was also at Banka Banka that Ian put on his best stunt yet.
Dan was trying to fix his reading lamp, which the head had fallen off whilst the globe was being replaced. True to "Dan the Tool Man" form, he soon got frustrated with the project and Ian offered his assistance, asking Dan if the light was unplugged.
As Dan had been sticking his fingers deep in the socket trying to fix the light with no ill-effects, his answer was "Yeah, no worries, old cock!"
Ian proceeded to reassemble the light, and was just screwing the assembly back together when he received a heck of a jolt and threw his arms and legs everywhere whilst uttering an unprintable expletive. After the initial shock he sat there looking into space, wondering where in blazes the kick had come from.
When Bek and Dan realised what had happened they had a really good laugh, whilst Ian nursed a few sore fingers from the 240v belt of electricity. It turned out that the light was still plugged in to the 240v inverter, and Ian had accidentally moved the switch on the light to the "on" position whilst effecting repairs. Mental note for next time - make sure the plug is out of the socket!
Friday 21st June
As expected, everyone was feeling invigorated after the wonderful afternoon dip at Mataranka. It is probably difficult to understand for those who are not with us, but looking after eight horses, keeping on schedule, and doing all the legwork with respect to our return visits to the towns on the route certainly takes its toll on the team members, both physically and mentally. Everyone has a little more spring in their step, and is looking forward to getting to Pine Creek for the rodeo tomorrow. All reports suggest it should be a big turnout, with some good stock.
We passed through Katherine around lunch time, refuelling and restocking the horsefood on the way through. Feed prices up this way are scary - $12 to $14 per bale of hay (more for lucerne) and $22 to $25 a bag for chaff!! We will certainly be looking for some donations of this type of food on the way back down the track.
As we closed in on Pine Creek, we had the opportunity to see up close up the preparation work for the railway link. Without doubt - a trip on the North-South line will be one of the greatest rail trips to be made in the world. If the line and system is managed properly, it will not only be a fascinating tourist journey, but also a fast and efficient means of transporting goods and materials from the top of Australia to the bottom.
The rodeo grounds were easy to find - all signs pointed there! Col and Ian decided to have a ride whilst the sun was still in the sky - the horses were a little overdue for a ride anyway. Col did some hazing for some of the roping competitors, who were getting in some practice before the event. Ian hung around the back of the chutes - riding bareback with just a halter, and met up with a fella by the name of Jay Jenkins. Jay was born in Charters Towers and works for a contract mustering outfit out of Katherine. Jay said "I ride a bit of roughstock and that..." and was full of good yarns about working around the stock camps.
Most of the camp turned in early - but Col, Lucas and Dan decided to go and do some fundraising at the local Pub. The fundraising was pretty good, and the locals most hospitable. A 3.00am finish did nothing to help the boys face a reasonably early start later in the morning...
Saturday 22nd June
One day out of Darwin and a rodeo is on ... whoohoo - the promised roughstock did their thing with a good lineup of broncs and bulls. There was plenty of good competition and all the sights and sounds typical of an outback rodeo - the only thing missing were the promised crowds. It turned out that the date clashed with the Adelaide River Races - the highlight of the year for that town.
Dan and Barto (Mark travelled up from Albury to follow the rodeo circuit a couple of weeks ahead of us) decided to head to Adelaide River to do the rounds and meet a few people who may be able to assist us on the return visit in a few weeks. This turned out to be a great decision, as the crowds were huge and were very receptive to the Campfires concept. Heaps of raffle tickets were sold, as well as merchandise and over $2000 was raised for the day.
Meanwhile, back at Pine Creek, Jay Jenkins had a couple of great rides but finished a little out of the money, Col's buckskin did a couple of laps of the barrel racing with one of the local girls, and Lucas and the rest of the team were kept busy selling merchandise throughout the day. The spill of the day did not belong to any of the riders, but the daughter of one of the sideshow operators. She was delivering lunch to her uncle who was running a small merry-go-round and went to step between the carts and got bowled head over turkey by one of the carriages.
As she got to her feet, dazed and confused, we heard her say "I've been walking between those things since I was five... I can't believe I just did that!" The funniest thing was that whilst she seemed to be maybe a kangaroo short in the top paddock, she was dressed to thrill in her best dress and shoes - which ended up looking a mess - courtesy of a swinging carriage and the dust, dry grass and prickles on the ground! They say that familiarity breeds contempt... guess she is a little more familiar with the ride now that she got a little too close.!
Night fell pretty quickly, and the finals went quickly with some good rides on quality bucking stock. After the presentations were made, it was time for some music and dance - which went on into the wee small hours - got a hopefully great pic of the dustcloud around the "dancefloor"... good old mother earth.
Sunday 23rd June
Sunday came as a bleary, overbearing hangover for some - whether they were at Adelaide River or Pine Creek. All the campfires crew fortunately were not in that situation... With the rodeo out of the way, everyone's focus is on getting to Darwin. The horses received their usual morning feed and then were loaded up to be on the road by 10.00am.
It was a great feeling to be driving into Darwin after more than three weeks on the road. The horses seemed to know that they had reached the end of the line in the trucks as well. We managed to get some really good video of them playing up after we unloaded at the Darwin showgrounds. There is some excellent dry feed here - which is a lot more than what is (and will be!) available when we get back to central Queensland. After the camp was set up, the decision was made for everyone to fend for themselves for dinner - at Mindil Sunset Markets. The range of food available is amazing and almost any taste is catered for.
We saw the mandatory red northern sunset across the water at the beach, and we imagined how cool it would be to ride the horses along the beach in the last evening light.
There are still quite a few biting insects around - and we discovered this all too quickly. The culprits at the moment are mosquito's and sandflies. Bek really got hammered when she left her swag open too long and received about 20 sandfly bites to the lower back. Painful and annoying.
Monday 24th June
Full steam ahead with publicity today - 9.30am interview with TOP FM and then checking the local knowledge for media contacts and procuring a local telephone book. The stop at the Telstra shop was a timely one as none other than Olympic gold medallist, Duncan Armstrong, was due in store later in the day. We seized the opportunity and caught up with Duncan (who is really funny and nice bloke!) to get a celebrity endorsement - you can see his picture and message on the celebrities page.
It turned out to be a long day for those on the road doing the media jobs. The latest media releases from Year of the Outback and Pegasus, as well as Dan and Barto's appearance at the Adelaide River Races seem to have made everyone up here aware of who we are and what we are doing.
Col and Lucas kept very busy back at camp sprucing up the truck and removing 4800 kilometres worth of road grime and dust - both inside and outside the vehicles. Yola and John went shopping and purchased a new horse, which Yola will take delivery of in a few days. In addition, they saw a lot of local politicians, and made contact with the Army to see if they would be able to help us along the way. David spent a bit of the day in town getting hold of a video recorder and TV set to use as backup to his growing pile of tapes of the trip thus far.
There is a large banner over the main street advertising our ride. That same banner will be used in all the towns along the route to announce our impending arrival.
We also had to a do a little fine tuning for the venue of Sara Storer's concert in Katherine. We have decided to have it moved to the Golf Club, as there is a slightly better venue, and they will help out heaps with publicity and liquor licencing.
Dusk fell and with it came the mosquitos and sandflies - but no matter - a few of us got to sit down and watch the news for the first time in over three weeks!
Tuesday and Wednesday, 25th and 26th June
Plenty of the usual media and running around for these two days and generally making sure the horses were well fed and happy.
Thanks to the initiative of Yola and John, we managed to get a few minutes with the former Chief Minister, Denis Bourke, who was able to help us with contacts for the new government. Denis is a great bloke and a genuine straight talker - one thing that seems to be a common trait in Territory politicians.
John organised Cooper's to donate nine slabs of Cooper's finest beer.
A few of the crew managed to steal a few hours to familiarise themselves with the layout of the city and catch some of the sights around town.
Thursday 27th June
Another friend of Yola's, Vaughan Mitchell, arrived at camp laden with items donated by his friends for auction on Campfires' behalf.
Mindil Beach Markets - what a great venue to have some fun! All the riders in the group are lucky enough to get down and have a ride on the beach - during the sunset! Unfortunately, during a canter along in the water, Jenny had a tumble with Colin's little buckskin as he lost his footing in the surf. Everyone else was laughing until they realised that Jenny was dazed and confused. She copped a heavy knock to the head, as well as the chest and leg. It looked like a "shiner" was brewing and there was no doubt that Jen would be paying the price in the morning. Dan reckoned she looked a little like Elle McPherson doing a beach shot as she emerged from the water, shirt torn open and all...
Yola sat on her horse, Lil, and accepted donations from passing shoppers, and at times did a great impersonation of a statue busker as Lil was happy just to stand there for hours... at the end of the night Yola had raised over $400! Lucas was very busy running the merchandise stall and sold nearly $2000 worth of stock.
Jenny and Yola had organised the Blue Heeler Bar, so Bek and Ian shot off early to do a quick auction - it turned out that HMAS Adelaide was docked and some of the crew were enjoying three days R & R before sailing again. Thanks must go to the Reverend at the Blue Heeler and to Paul, who made a very emotional speech about the loss of his father to cancer. The guys from the ship did an awesome job in supporting the cause and really dug deep to help us out during the auction. Thanks Guys - and godspeed to you all...
Friday 28th June
Jenny awoke sore and sorry for herself and sporting the biggest black eye she ever had. The fall on the beach had left her a little worse for wear.
Ken (Ian's brother who lives at Maningrida here on the NT) was expected to be in town this afternoon, after taking the day off. A family dinner with Bruce, Dale, Margaret, Ian, Ken and Bek was planned, after an afternoon at the races.
As the day was a warm one and Margaret had never been to the NT before, a decision was taken for the James clan to head out to Berri Springs to have a swim in the mineral springs. This turned out to be a interesting afternoon as the swimming was magnificent and it was amazing to look into the clear, deep water, and see Archer Fish and Barramundi swimming in very close to the steps leading into the water.
Upon returning to the car, it was discovered that there was something amiss. Both passenger side doors were open, and a closer inspection revealed that a few items were missing from the car. Someone had broken into the car and stolen Ian's clothes, a CD, the winch controller and some assorted tools. In the process they had also buggered the passenger side door lock. Not impressed to say the least, and upon reporting the matter to police, it was discovered that this type of thing is a regular occurrence on out of state registered vehicles.
As luck would have it, Katrina Ried, who hosts the only lifestyle television program in the Northern Territory, was master of ceremonies at the Annual Governor's Charity Fundraising Dinner, was looking for someone to provide a horse for her grand entrance to the Year of the Outback themed event. As the NT Mounted Police were short staffed and unable to assist, we were offered the job.
Ian took Matty to the Governor's Dinner and everything went according to plan, aside from Matty's impromptu fertilisation of the Governor's manicured lawn - Katrina was also happy to act as the MC for the departure on Sunday as well!
Nontheless, the James clan, along with Mat and Catriona headed down to Tim's on the Bay for some "all-you-can-eat" seafood and had a wonderful evening dining on sumptuous seafood.
We managed to get out to the greyhound races to catch up with Renee late in the evening, and caught Lucas and Col there - they had been conducting raffles and gaining donations from the racegoers.
Saturday 29th June
Shifted camp today to Robbie Robbins Reserve in anticipation of tomorrow nights camp after departing the Civic Centre. Colin, Lucas and Dan went to display the truck and sell merchandise at the owners and trainers day at Darwin Turf Club. Just a small turnout, although the track record was re-set for two distances during the course of the day. Ian, Bek and Ken went to the Police Station at Palmerston to fill out the necessary forms reporting the theft of items from Bruces car, and to get police confirmation of the damage to the door lock.
After doing the police thing, the three, along with Yola and John, went to the races and caught up with the boys. Ian, at this stage crawling with midge and mossie bites, was literally like a cat on a hot tin roof, so as a last resort accepted an offer from Colin of a liberal dousing of his torso with Methylated Spirits. Luckily, none of the metho found its way into Ian's undergarments, as he would have almost certainly set a new track record as well...
Yola and John did a lap of the bookies ring and secured $20 donations from each of the bookies - it's not often one can do so well in a bookies ring!
Colin also organised the donation of a racehorse to the cause, and although it cannot race again as it has been deregistered (because it was given away for charity purposes), it will no doubt make someone a fine riding horse. The story goes...
Colin was asking around, trying to find a bargain whilst at the races. Someone pointed him in the direction of a local trainer who had a black gelding in the next race. Col inquired as to if the trainer knew of any horses that may be coming up for sale to which the trainer replied, "Mate, I've got a horse in the next race..., if he finishes last, you can have the B....!". Taking that the trainer was a man of his word, Col promptly took a seat on the fence to watch the horse come home... absolutely dead last! He went back to the trainer and the trainer handed over the papers! Amazing but true!
Immediately after the races, the whole crew went to the Darwin Trailer Boat Club for the VIP and public launch. It was a great evening with guests from the NT Cancer Council, Telstra Countrywide, local media, and Year of the Outback 2002.
Bruce Campbell, chairman of The Year of The Outback, surprised both Dan and Ian by calling them aside and making them Ambassadors for the Year of The Outback, an honour bestowed on only 250 Australians (including the Darwin Lord Mayor!)
After the events of yesterday, it was quite an emotional moment that is certain to be savoured for a long time to come.
Entertainment for the evening was kindly provided by Jimmy Doc, and after Danny performed a particularly stirring version of The Man from Snowy River, Kaye (Jimmy's manager) offered to take Danny into her stable of performers, and wanted to organise his admission into the CMAA Country Music College at Tamworth next year!
Colin managed to get $20.00 from Bruce Campbell for a look at his new tattoo - anyone can see it - for a fee!!
Sunday 30th June
THE BIG DAY.....
D-Day has arrived...D meaning Darwin!
An early start this morning - 6.30am to start getting organised for the parade. Everyone had eaten breakfast, some a little more than others (due to staying up a little late at the Darwin Trailer Boat Club function), by 7.20am, including the horses. We loaded up all the troops and ponies and headed down to Darwin Civic Centre for the send off. The Darwin Lord Mayor, NT Cancer Council Chairman and Year of the Outback Chairman, Bruce Campbell, were in attendance. We were especially surprised to see a large contingent of the Australian Junior Athletics Team, who are in training camp here in Darwin prior to heading off to the "Worlds". Sarah Mullins, a cancer survivor and Commonwealth Games Team member, also had some kind and inspirational words to share. Ian got a real surprise when Katrina Ried (host of the NT lifestyle program.... and MC for the morning's send-off) announced that Delaney's Saddlery and Outfitters had donated a new pair of Wranglers to replace the Moleskins that were stolen at Berri Springs!
Bruce Campbell had yet another surprise in store for Dan and Ian when he presented a Proof Set of Year of the Outback 2002 Australian Coin Sets to each of them.
About fifteen riders were in attendance to send the team off, and almost the entire team rode. The Corryong Contingent, made up of Jill Cutler, Jan Lokker, and Paul from Corryong Auto Electrical, called in to wish us luck. It was great to see the "locals" thinking of us. Other riders included Betty and Wally Wheeler, Mark Sweet's (Telstra Darwin) two daughters, and three Parelli Natural Horsemanship devotees, Judy, Annabel and Singrid. Unfortunately, Danny's digital camera decided to go on strike due to a flat battery, so we did not get any digital images of the send off, however we should have some scanned images quite soon.
The sixteen kilometres were all done at the walk so we arrived back at Robbie Robbins Reserve in a little over two hours, we had a nice breeze all the way so it kept the conditions quite nice for riding. It was a great atmosphere sitting down to a late lunch knowing that we are now truly on the road.
After lunch, Jenny and Catriona headed off to find Dr Harry Cooper (of Harry's Practice fame) who just happened to be opening a veterinary clinic down the road.
Danny, Col and Lucas borrowed Bruce's car to head down to Palmerston to have a quick look at another horse that Col had been offered. They never made it. A short time after they left we received a phone call at camp from Dan saying they had been involved in an accident. Bruce, Ken, Bek and Ian piled into Ken's car and drove to the scene and were amazed at what they saw... The passenger side front door skin from Bruces car was tangled in the bullbar of a Hilux twin cab's bullbar, which was parked at an awkward angle just off the right side of the road. Bruces car was sitting off the left hand side of the road with the side bar (off the bullbar) sitting out at right angles, the passenger side front guard was stoved in and the door skin was completely missing! Upon closer inspection, the door speaker still worked and the window was intact, although now acting as the doorskin! even more astonishing was the mirror was still intact on the doorskin - in front of the headlight on the car! There was now obviously no need to replace the door lock that was damaged by the Berri Springs thieves, as it was no longer attached to the car. Jenny, Catriona and Mat arrived as well in Danny's car after hearing of the accident back at camp - they had not had any luck with Dr Harry; he was on a very tight schedule and was leaving Darwin almost immediately after his commitments in Palmerston.
It turned out that Dan had gone to overtake the other car. As they drew level, the front car turned, without indicating, into the side of the Bruce's car and forced the boys off the road in a four wheel slide, almost rolling into some very unforgiving looking trees. Thankfully the car stayed upright, speared across the road again on two wheels, and stopped.
Both cars were driveable, so we drove around to the Police Station (the same one as yesterday!) and organised the police incident report for the accident. They found no fault, so it looks like the insurance companies will have to sort it out. Bruce's car appears to be a write-off as the front pillar has been bent and the damage to the engine bay is fairly significant.
Talk about highs and lows...
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