This travel tales will be a relatively short one. I can say that one of the great highlights of the last little while is the welcoming of our major sponsor Akta-Vite. Akta-Vite is the only Australian owned milk supplement on our supermarket shelves and next year is its 60th anniversary. We are very proud to be associated with a company that is still Australian owned and we thank Tony Myer for his time and efforts in offering his company for our support.

On the weekend of the 1st and 2nd of December 2001, Sarah (Bears Daughter), GiGi (Sarah's friend) and I attended the Steven Jeffreys horse seminar in Corryong. Steve was the lone horseman in the opening ceremony at the Sydney Olympics who raced his horse out and reared up while cracking his stockwhip. He is a terrifically talented horseman and the whole weekend was a great learning experience. The below photo shows Steve taking time out of his busy schedule to join in a photo with GiGi Cardwell, Sarah Cox, Alice Paton, and Kimberley.

Bears second eldest daughter Pip returned home from 12 months in England just recently, and Saturday night 22nd December 2001 was a combination of welcoming her home and another fundraiser at the Tooma Pub. Nicole is Bears eldest daughter who was also home so together with Rob and Sarah, it was nice to have full attendance from the Cox household. This night was the first time I have met Tony Myer from Akta-Vite, so it is good now to be able to put a face to the name.

Once the formalities were through we didn't spill too many drinks. Jim and Carmel from Classic Country got the dance floor rockin' and it wasn't long before everybody was in fine voice - including Roger Paton and myself who are next years hot favourites for Tamworth's 'drunkest singers hall of fame'. Good on ya Rog! I reckon we sounded pretty bloody good!

It is only about 2 weeks now until a few of us hit the road for a couple of weeks to do the route to QLD and back, to mark out all of the travelling stock reserves, holding yards and water holes. At that time it will be the Tamworth country music festival also - so we are chalking out a couple of days out of the schedule to go and watch a few of the shows and get ourselves organised for later next year.

Thank you very much for everyone who continues to support our worthy cause, without your help it would be impossible to do what we are doing. Thank you also to the e-mails we are receiving right across Australia and even the world.

Today is the 27th December 2001 and I hope everyone has had a great Christmas. Next week will signal the 6 month down hill run to our departure and the whole Campfires team and I look forward to the challenges of next year…maybe we'll see you on the road somewhere.

All the best
Danny
PS - Go and buy a can of Akta-Vite…you'll like it!