FRIDAY 21st OCT - OR LAST DAY ON THE ROAD....

“Good Morning Sunshine the world says hello” and out of bed at 6 for getting ready for another day.

Went to breakfast and muster at warning Gardens in Deniliquin.

Bacon, egg and sausage and baked beans begs the question, "Who is going to suffer in the car today? Not nice for sure.

The road was in fair to good condition with the odd surprise bump, ditch or muddy patch, nothing to get excited about at all.

As we got out of Deniliquin, it was obvious that this is a wheat sheep town, they were everywhere

We all know what the Missus, kids or grandkids can buy Loz (Laurie) for Christmas—an Animal Sound affects and amplifier for his car.

I just realized that I had failed to mention that throughout the entire trip Laurie had fallen in love with the barking or is it yapping dog sound made by the “thing”

He would belt out the sound at any poor dog on the foot path, in the yard, in the far corners of the farm and any poor person that looked like they need cheering up. What about the sheep, boy did they get a flogging!

It is safe to say that he got to do the sound at every opportunity. At times he even created the opportunity. We had to laugh. It was fun.

Onto the dirt road, we could see endless fields of wheat and to irrigate these paddocks they had the biggest darned sprinklers you can imagine, the bloody things were over 120 metre long!

We were constantly on and off the bitumen and dusty, rough roads. The road was almost the same as yesterday,

We had a short “comfort” stop at a township of Katunga. This town is on the Murray River.

I think I better insert this humorous bit here—there really isn’t any proper place for it so here will do

.

As you know the car had a siren and air horn operating.

Ok then, this morning Darren inadvertently discovered that if/when he pressed the Microphone button that the siren or air horn would cut out. You have no idea the level of enjoyment he and Ross got out of this knowledge.

Rob was driving, as usual Laurie was navigating. At some point they activated the siren and Darren started to press and release the mic button causing the thing to start stop blurt stop start, blurt and really sounded weird.

The boys in front were very perplexed about the sound stopping and starting etc.

We offered the proposition or suggestion that the wiring must be loose and that’s what caused it.

Sorry to advise yo folks of this- but this went on for over 20 minutes along the highway, Darren and Ross in the back seat were crying with laughter. It took until mid afternoon when Rob was in the rear of the car to identify what was doing—called a few choice words—but hey Darren and Ross really had a great time at their expense.

 A little further we found out that we were in Victoria again ; what with all the turning left, right and right again etc, we had forgotten we had left NSW about a day or so ago

As per instructions at muster red group (us being part-thereof) was asked to attend the Monichino Winery for a school visit. This is strange we thought, bringing buses fulls of children to a vinery and there meet a bigger bunch of crazy men in silly cars, what the??

At the winery about 200 kids from the Katunga South and Invergordon Public School had one of the biggest days in a long time.

Ross spoke to one of the teachers who told him the kids had Wednesday off as it was  the Katunga Show day and this “outing: this morning will put them right over the edge on proper behaviour.

Ok then let me tell you of another secret, the other day somewhere between some place and other (Lord only knows where) we discovered that silly sheep will stampede at the sound of the loud and intrusive air horn.  Much to the merriment of the crew we all had turn in seeing who could startle or get the biggest stampede going. It seems that fat sheep on green pastures will stampede easier that the ones chewing on the dry stuff that grows in this area; but enough of that.

This morning we also went to another school- Numurkah Public School.

At this school (as with all others) we traced some of the children’s hands on the guards with their name, grade and school. They liked the idea of us (and them) messing up the car.

Hey look up ahead—it’s the “Big Strawberry” who wants to have a look?” Nah, but I would like a photo opportunity if possible. Naturally as we came up to the place, we went of the main road and took a few photos of a giant strawberry, wow the excitement (I am saying this with a large degree of sarcasm).

We travelled for some reasonable time through Broken Bossy State Forrest. Dry, dusty, and to a degree boring (as far as scenery goes)

Wow, what do you know more wheat and sheep field, must be a popular farming practice in these parts.

As you can imaging, being in a vehicle for over 5 to 6 hours per day, the drivers and passengers try to pass the time away by humming or singing tunes. None of the team can sing. It became all too apparent that none of the team knew any songs fully; all we know is the chorus. It would appear that after 6 days the whole repertoire of the entire team was night exhausted, but we try to find new song. Ross even tried a few Italian ones but the rest of the team didn’t think this was such a good idea at all.

Continuing on we went into and through (didn’t sneeze or blink) the township of Tungamah. The road was rough and that is being polite—it was bad, but we smiled and continued on.

More wheat and fodder (the stuff they make hay and chaff out of) fields.

We then went through the Mt Bruno area (not actually through the town we had to turn off before the town) Mt Bruno is a Cherry growing area (so the sign said)

As we went to the school we were running a little late, so when we got to Wangaratta for lunch, it was quick zip into the hotel, order steak meal, wait for it to be cooked, sit down and scoff it as we needed to be out of there in the next 25 minutes if we were going to be anywhere near on time for the festivities in Bright at end of he day.

Ok so we all ate what we could (and it was a fantastic feed too let me tell you) raced to the car, Ross drove and we were out of the place in a total of 45 minutes flat. Not fair, not fair at all!

Along the dirt and bitumen roads we arrived at Eldorado. Ross poisoned the boys mind when the name of the town reminded him of the theme song from the TV program” Bonanza: and started singing/humming/destroying the song and all joined and much o his delight (har har) they couldn’t get the thing out of their heads—har har some more. Not that you need to know this but at Eldorado we all needed to stop yet again for another comfort stop. The town has a general store that doubles up as a hotel and that is also the post office. Oh did you know that is only opened between 8 and 12 and 3and 5 and some Saturdays only. The milk and papers are on the back table, obviously the proprietor uses the "honour" system--I hope it works

Moving on into the high country, through some seriously winding roads that offered very spectacular vistas obviously for everyone but the driver as the precarious drop off the road was not something the boys wanted to experience.

                     

As we drove into the high country we came into Beechworth. I am sure that Beechworth has many attributes it can boast about, but apparently according to Laurie, Beechworth is famous for its honey. Yep, the honey is known all over the place. Ok we believe ya—let’s keep going.

At some point on the drive through the high country we received a weird message over the radio that advised the following message not once, not twice, no not even three times but I am sure that we heard it 100 times before we turned off the bloody radio. Apparently the wind was blowing at 6 knots and was coming from a Northerly direction. The weather was fine and the blah blah blah—oh my God why do we need to listen tho this.

We again came across the highway again and at that point we agreed that after getting into town late every day, and as the last leg of the dirt road was going to take too long we chickened-out and went via the bitumen.

We finally .got to Bright—the end point of the trip.

As arranged we went to the marshalling area, booked off, and joined the parade through the main city/Town centre of Bright, dusty cars blaring sirens and horns etc, squirting water and smoke etc either entertaining or annoying locals and visitors.

The was a reasonable number of spectators there and this sort of egged the “hoons” in the parade on and they did more noise and more smoke

After the parade we agreed that we would return to the Welcome to Bright sign at the entrance of town for the obvious photo shoot.

Got there did up a THE END sign, stuck it on the car and took several snaps. Everyone was happy, now lets to the accommodation.

Go to the Bright Chalet booked in. We got two rooms with 2 beds and 2 bunks in each for the price of 1 room, “Not bad we thought”

Got showered, dressed in 90’s homey boys and parole officer theme and went to dinner and last night presentations etc.

Got to the large white marque on the banks of the creek where the final dinner and end of Rally function was to be held. Tables all set up looking very formal.

Again the Queensland contingent sat at one table. It was almost comforting that in most cases at dinner the table was set for 10 and that there were 10 of us made it all so chummy (oh phew)

During the evening various awards were presented to long serving Camp Quality Volunteers and helpers etc.

Also an award/certificate was give to each member of each team.

The awards were based on the amount each team raised.

Team Afro - Car 51 was called and we all went up to receive Certificate and a bottle of wine.

Ross received his Certificate issued in his real name—the announcer could not pronounce it causing much mirth for the Qld contingent- not funny guys.

To add a little trivia info here, Ross who had desperately tried (very unsuccessfully) to get the assembly to join him at Bendigo on the first night in the chant and reply – “Aussie Aussie   ---   Oi Oi Oi” chorus could not resist and did it again, this time to a spontaneous response and enthusiastic participation by a vast majority of the gathering. Yes! (The esCarpadians must have finallt figured Ross out - he is a great patriot to this fair land of Austtralia).

The hard by the entrants was recognised and it was amazing how much money was raised by some of the teams.

The highest amount raised from team 222 (by 1 tem of 6 men) was $222,000. NOW THAT’S A LOT OF MONEY!

Total amount raised on the 2011 Escarpade was $1,406,865 it was so obvious that everyone was very pleased with this.

After the presentations were done, we went to the Chalet and all went to bed for a well earned rest.

This concludes the Team Afro 2011 Escarpade, but as we still have to get home I shall do another page at our Saturday night stop.

It is our intention to return home in some form of convoy with 3 other cars from Brisbane Booger Mobile, 808 and Sharkies.

Whilst it may sound corny we all are anxious to return home to our loved ones and our jobs.

Please see the blog for the last day—thank you for being with us or following us on our journey and I hope that the information I/we have presented has been entertaining and of interest to you.

All of Team Afro, Darren, Rob, Laurie and Ross want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers over the past 8 days-----Thanks.

We all got up refreshed after a good night’s rest we loaded up the Snot Rocket and headed of to the Mildura Tennis Court (on the Murray) for breakfast and muster.

Breakfast was just dandy, bacon and egg burgers and fruit and juice and cereal and the general “in the park” type breaky.

Got on the road,  stopped for RBT by Ambos and radio check. In the process the navigator was giving directions, others were also advising route and radio check and slow down, turn left, watch out, where you going, watch the turn here & a little dummy spit. Prize given. OK enough guys, one driver, and one navigator.

On the highway and minor local roads lead us onto and out of Mildura.

We chose to do the dirt road, after all anyone can drive the highway, let do the different thing on this trip as much as we can.

Onto the dirt road and following all route notes turned left in a lane/track. “Hey watch those low branches?” Hey keep left!” Whoa!  watch that one seems that all the trees in this section of roadway or trackway (is there such a word?) were out to get us. The Snot Rocket is 2.5 mtrs high and it truly seemed that some of the trees were only 2.55 and ready to knock the top of the old girl.

As we travelled along the road it was interesting to see the miles and miles of grape vines (vineyards I think they call them) the rows seemed endless and the farms seemed to blend into one another and ever .

As advised we needed to stop in a national park and individually open and close the rabbit proof gates

.

It appears that a section of the National Park has been selected for vegetation regrowth and the need to keep rabbits out brings about the need for the new fence (and gates) there is a full time Park Ranger that ensures the gates are closed and the fences is in good order to keep these “Wraskelly Wabbits out”.

At the muster we were instructed not to zip tie the latch on the gate as whilst it may be funny to you at the time but the car following or the park ranger may not, so please do not zip tie the gate. You will note there was no mention of applying million mile an hour tape was there. So we decided to stuff everybody after us by using about a meter of tape to “secure” the gate. Hehehehe.. (I’m pretty sure I know who’s idea that would have been – the team master of mischief)

Just as a point of interest apparently when changing gears in a manual vehicle it is necessary to ensure that the clutch is engaged before moving the gear stick, well it would appear that the driver (Gull) forgets this at times and ends up all too often grating the gears when changing down from 5^th to 4^th. He claims that the gearbox and syncromesh is sloppy—the rest of the team do not believe him…. But then again others did it to - Dog

Moving away from the vineyards we encountered acres and acres of wheat fields. The golden heads swaying in the breeze looking oh so pretty (now isn’t that just so poetic- Yuk)

 Here again were acres and acres of water ponds that were very shallow as the birds were standing in it. Rice fields (or what Ross thinks were rice fields) also were there. A very different type of field growth and land locked water causing one to believe that they were growing rice and that is a very plausible belief.

As a point of interest paddy melons were growing wild along the side of the road for miles and miles. We eventually stopped and had to have a look to see what they actually were, we did play a little roadside (and even on road) bowls. They did the trick really well. Several of these fruit were harvested for errant actions by Team Afro at a later point on some of the other drivers or cars.

Along this section of travel we noted that there was un-natural vibration and clunking coming from the tail shaft when changing gears or accelerating. “We gotta look at the tail shaft; I bet it’s stuffed again”

 We arrived at Swann Hill for lunch. After lunch we sought help from one of the Rally mechanics, removed the replacement tail-shaft, whacked out the rear universal and put that in the replacement shaft.

The old "uni" was totally done in. The bearings were crushed and bits and pieces of steel was all that was left. We would not have gotten home on them at all! (lucky the guys had carried the old tail shaft and relevant bits all the way around with from Melbourne)

The whole procedure only took 45 minutes. Regretfully the need to address this mechanical necessity meant that we would not get to our school in the afternoon, a disappointment but “such is life”

 On the road again,  this time minus one of our team members Rob. The Escapade photographer lost his navigator. All cars MUST have a navigator (2 occupants) and Rob agreed to join another car whose navigator went with the photographer—are you confused?

The dirt road was very smooth (not) and manageable—although it was extremely dusty. When one of the other cars passed us the trail of dust made it absolutely necessary to really slow down.

Cabanossi stop (a what????) and rest. This spot was on the Murray. Some of he guys went for a dip. Also one of the Twisted Sisters also went for a dip—fully dressed in her Nun’s Habit. The whole scene was really weird I tell ya.

At this “Rest Spot” there were a couple that had decided to stop and have a rest for a day or two in their caravan, not thinking that a bunch of noisy Escarpade  maniacs would be stopping right outside their door (poor buggers),

Finally got to Deniliquin town. Had to stop for fuel. We were very low and anxiety was starting to set in.

As part of the grand entrance into Deniliquin Town Centre we were asked to make lots noise and “lair” it up a bit. This being a reasonable request and an excuse to let off steam and show-off a little we all willingly obliged...

Stopped in the heart of town took a few photos of the last half of the cavalcade of cars as they drove past. Whist we were there we were approached by a lady reporter from the local rag, she got a short story and information from us  regarding Camp Quality and the Escarpade and took several, photos with intention of them being her story in the Deniliquin Times. Let’s see if we make it in the local rag. Let’s see if the Editor approves.

Theme night again Bogan night seems to be appropriate for the town that has the Ute muster every year, so off to the RSL club dress to the nines (not).

We once again looked the part. Dinner was nice and the awards we handed out from best car to best driver etc.

Headed back to the motel for once again a nice rest as for another adventure will start yet again for the last time on this Escapade.

WEDNESDAY 19th OCT - a day off YEAHHHH!!!!

After a well deserved sleep-in all the boys were looking for a bit of a feed.  Off we headed to Mackers.

As we were in the City Centre we went for casual stroll through the heart of the city centre of Mildura.

 Mildura is rather large city. All the traditional boutiques and assorted services shops and business show that the city is prosperous town.

Set on the banks of the Murray the town used the river for moving all transport until the railway came to town in 1920 (something)

For the morning we lounged around and chatted with other Escapadians.

Knowing that we needed to attend to the electric issues with the Snot Rocket we went to business of doing that.

Ah-ha upon close inspection it appears that the main electrical cable which is zip tied to the side of the roof rack, managed to vibrate and get caught between the roof tray and support bar. These cables carry power to all the rear lights had been squashed and with the vibration on the road wore through the plastic and exposed the raw wiring.

The exposed the wire touching the metal rack continued to short out--

Having identified the problem and along with a few last minute alterations to the electrical configuration we (think) we fixed it all. Let’s see as tomorrow and the next brings.

After lunch we went for a drive to the Mildura Winery. One of the first wineries established in the area. There we sampled a few Merlots, few whites, and Shiraz and eventual bought a few to take home.

Did nothing late afternoon, got dressed and went to dinner.

As usual the Queensland contingent Shark Mobile (from Gympie),Booger Mobile (Damien And Jo from Brisbane) and car 808 (Tony and Graham from Brisbane) 10 of us sat at same table and as usual ribbed each other.

The meal was mediocre (not worth bragging about) but it was dinner so that was that.

After dinner we all walked up to Great Australian Ice creamery for desert. What a sight it would have been, 10 adults sitting on park benches slurping on ice cream, not a pretty sight at all I am sure.

Walked home, got ready for tomorrow and that’s it.

Ready to rock and roll for the next big adventure…………..

TUESDAY 18th OCT - heading to Mildura

“Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across our head” in case you didn’t know, that’s a line from one of the Beatles songs off Sergeant Peppers and that’s exactly what we did before going to the Naracoorte Show  Grounds for breakfast and the mornings muster. Route notes explained and schools allocated.

Course coordinator Ben giving his morning talk.

Due to changes in the program we were not required to go to a school today.

Ok, so of we go on the highway out of town towards the next stop.

At the briefing cars were given the choice of dirt or sand. We agreed to go dirt. Great we thought, lets see what’s in store for us today.

Several kilometres of dust and then several more kilometres of more dust and moderately boring scenery made the journey somewhat ho-humish.    Darren was driving and that in itself was cause for concern. Apparently loose surface on roads requires constant awareness.

At a point along the dirt road we realised that we had crossed into South Australia. What; no signs, no border gate, no nothing only a broken down rabbit fence.!

As per route notes on the rally sheet, at one point we travelled into private property. The farmer kept his kids home this morning just so they could see the parade of Escarpade cars come through.

As were drove into the farm/station, we stopped and gave them some special Blue Light stuff (teddy,lollies,chips,etc.). It looked to us like all the other cars just went past, made a lot of noise, waved and drove by. We had already agreed that we would stop and give the kids a few treats and give-aways etc. I am sure that we were the fist car that actually stopped and gave them anything. The kids were happy, their smiles and gleeful faces made it just like it was Christmas come early. Great stuff, the genuine look of apprehension made it all just right.

Some distance further on, we were supposed to look for a road or track to the right, but the navigator missed it. Oh-ho I think we just drove past the dirt road turn off, looks like we are doing sand. Let’s see how it goes, more of the same as yesterday. This may be fun or it could be bloody terrible.

In reality not all that long past the farmer”s gate we hit our first taste of sand. This was not too bad, but no that was not to be, the sand got deeper and deeper and the track got harder and harder. For the Snot Rocket all it will take is a snappy quick stop, whack on the 4WD locking hubs and put her in high ratio 4WD. The old Snot Rocket had no problem at all.

The furrows on the track/road were at times so deep it felt like we were driving a roller coaster.

As we suspected, over the radio comes the call “cars stopped” obviously someone had gotten bogged in the sand.

After a brief stop one of the Escapade Mechanics 4WD that was about 5 cars behind us came along side and towed them out. Off we go again for about 500mtrs only to hear the call to stop due to bogging again.

This time a push and a shove by other drivers managed to sort the situation.

At one of the turns, at a rather sharp ugly, soft and sneaky right hand bend one of the cars overshot the corner, and due to the sloppy sand that had been flicked or spun to the left and had become lodged on the high side where all sand had been thrown from many cars over a long period, got stuck. Thankfully the Camp Quality 4WD was there waiting for a problem and again came to the rescue.

After this we waited until about 6 other cars came past and on learning how and where to travel on that section all issues regarding the bog had ended.

At that point the shifting deep and boggy sand had become much more user-friendly.

We went along this sand track/road for 45 kilometres. All along this road the old rabbit fence was there.

I am sure that it is of no longer any use as in many parts the fence was in a bad state of disrepair and non existent. The road was almost gun barrel straight, it seemed to go on forever.

The only interlude was the occasional dip, bump and softer sand.

We stopped at the end of this road/track (45 kilometres) to rest and review where we had just travelled.

This was a perfect opportunity to unlock the 4WD hubs, have a comfort stop and a well deserved cool bottle of water or coke (no alcohol)

The sign at the end of this track advised that it was called Red Bluff Alley—45 kms – 4WD ONLY. Well that was wrong as over 35 family sedans, wagons and assorted non 4WD had already been along it.

We continued on for another 60 km along a fair to good road through desert country. The tallest trees were shrubs and they all were no more that 1 metre high.

No hills, no valleys except for a few minor elevated sections. Along this section of travel it was interesting to see the regrowth of the Saltbush

All along this road we were travelling through a National Park (name unknown)

It was noted that all along the sandy road and the man made dirt road almost no Native Wildlife was seen except for a few small birds and the occasional lizard.

At various points along this road that offered intermittent sealed and unsealed section, we activated the rotating flashing lights and rear light.

Suddenly the interior of the car was starting to fill with smoke from the control box

(same problem as we had encountered at the time of the vehicle examination at Bendigo). Urgently all lights and electrical equipment was turned off.

We were compelled to continue on our way without any rear warning light. Thankfully no one was following.

We then hit the bitumen and highway and onto Pinnaroo, a very small local town that was a grain and sheep growing area.

With the knowledge that we needed to fix the electrics, we had a quick lunch and went about fixing the problem

We could not actually fix it but did manage to isolate what we think is the problem. We had lights, but they were not the best and may potentially break-down again.

We were advised that from Pinnaroo we had the option of taking the 258 kilometre trip on highway etc or take the 238k dirt road.

After all the hassles of yesterday and this morning along with the fact that our lights may cause a problem and further that we were tired of getting to our destination point late every day, we agreed to go via the highway.

A short distance out of Pinnaroo we crossed back into Victoria, but due to vandalism or whatever the "Welcome to South Australia" sign had been smashed. Ross was disappointed as he missed out on perfect photo opportunity; perhaps another time.

We continued through typical Australian outback type country, lush farmland, cattle and sheep grazing paddocks, assorted mallee and gum tree growths. Through several rural farming towns and at about 6.15 pm (Vic time) we arrived at the check-in point at Mildura.

Went to the motel, booked in and prepared ourselves for dinner.

The theme for today was Beach Party. We had all our outfits prepared, dressed in board shorts, team Afro printed T-shirt and a Hawaiian shirt.

Went to dinner and sat at a table with 3 other Queensland cars.

During dinner there was heaps of discussion regarding the trip to Mildura.

At end of dinner karaoke was available to those who thought they could sing.

Ross went up on stage and after coercing and edging the gathering got them to join him in singing “House of the Rising Sun”. All the “oldies” knew the song and many joined in.

Later he convinced Team Afro and other Queensland cars to sing the1960’s hit by Del Shannon “Runaway”.

Some of the would-be singers knew the song and some didn’t. Ross had all the gathering (well some) singing along also.

Some time later we all went home for a well earned sleep with the knowledge that tomorrow being a lay day, no alarms and a sleep-in was very much on the agenda.

Wednesday is “day off” at Mildura, so not much info about the may be offered—lets see what tomorrow brings.

 

MORE PICS AT

BOOGER MOBILE

MONDAY 17th OCT

Awoke to a fine day in Warrnambool got ready and set of to the morning muster.

Set off to breakfast in the park. Pancakes and cream for breakfast yum yum.

Today was our first day to visit to a school.

After quick wash the Snot Rocket looked much cleaner than end of day yesterday.

As part of the red team we attended Warrnambool Public School.

Most of the cars (us included) looked nice and spiff and as instructed we made lots and lots of noise, sirens horns, and assorted noises were blaring from all car as we paraded through the town towards the school.

When we got there the children were all standing and eagerly waiting for us to get there.

The children were let loose and they mixed with all the Scarlatinas and the cars. Some of them seemed interested and admiring the variety of names and special colouring on the cars.

A great quantity of sweets, chips and other giveaways were handed out to the children. I estimate that there were about 200-250 children joined us.

As part of the original Team Afro plan we selected 2 children (1 boy & 1 girl l) to have their hand traced onto the bonnet of the Snot Rocket. The children were thrilled to be able to assist us in this.

After about 35-45 minutes we went into the gym and there the children were treated to the Camp Quality Education Puppets; Kylie, Dean & Melissa.

At the end of the puppet show all Escapadians were invited to the front stage and there the children and puppets presented the Camp Quality 2011 Escarpade theme song—“The WHELLS ON THE CAR GO ROUND AND ROUND”

After the school Rob drove the morning section of the day along both sealed and unsealed road. The road took us trough typical Southland forest and bush. We drove past green (like you can only imagine) farms, pastures and crops with many grazing cattle onto Casterton

At Casterton we had lunch at the Casterton Sports field.

Nice meal. Several cars attended to minor mechanical needs.

After lunch Ross drove the afternoon section of the day.

We drove for a short while on sealed road and hen turned off onto dirt road.

We progressed approx 5 kilometres and then all came to a stop.

One of the cars in the Escarpade became very bogged in sandy mud creek crossing.

A second car attempting to pass them also become stuck, our car was about the 15^th or so car in the line.

All of the cars were asked to move over so that one of the Escarpade Mechanic vehicles could pass.

It eventuated that they forged a brand new track around and away from the bogged cars.

After getting past these cars the track the track became very sandy.

The sand had been shifted and moved and dug up by all the previous cars that had gone over it earlier that day.

After a very short space of time one, then two and many of the standard 2 wheel drive cars came to a sand locked stop on the track

We—that is - the Team Afro Recovery vehicle came to their aid.

The sticker was put on 12 vehicles to show our participation in their recovery.

We managed to put one car out and all was ok unfortunately a little while after that more and more cars were becoming stuck in the sand.

In this convoy there were three 4WD vehicles this being the Camp Quality mechanics, the Ambos and of course us.

Due the length and depth and width of the soft shifting deep sand it seemed that every car became lodged in the sand.

For a time the three 4WD were doing a type of leapfrog, pulling one car out moving forward a short distance and then stoping only to pull out yet another victim of “The sand pit”

A section of roadway or should I say track or even go as far as saying path totalling about 15 kilometres took us all over 3 hours to travel.

Regretful along the way some of the drivers who thought they could continue at speed or perhaps lack of skill or whatever ended up in real grief, breaking parts and one poor pair of Escapadians ended up hitting a wall concealed sawn off stump of one of the forest pine trees.

This will cost him plenty and possibly make him pull out of the Escarpade.

 As were reached the end of the sand we stopped and waited for serval cars to pass. Boy talk about bad luck, one poor car was almost out of the sand when at a distance of no more than from safety 25 meters became bogged. That was the last tow for the day for us—we were off.

After all the confusion of the Sand Pit we found ourselves on  solid ground again moving onto sealed road and eventually stopped for a beer at the Dergholm Hotel.

It was at some pint during the “Sand Pit episode “that we were informed that we had moved from Victoria into South Australia.

Arrived at Naracoorte, a small rural township of some 5700 inhabitants. Oh, I failed to tell you that we actually got there at 8.20pm Victorian time which is 7.50pm South Australian time. Whatever—it was still late.

We all had very quick showers and put on our outfits for the Caveman Cavewoman theme dinner at the Naracoorte Town Hall.

Meal was nice, music sucked and auction did not achieve the expected result.

Needles to say after such a busy and hectic day we were all tired and were in bed early and sort of anxious for yet another day on the road.

So far all of us (Rob, Darren Laurie and myself) all agreed that the whole trip and today had been and immense learning and different but enjoyable experience and very glad that we came on it.

Again more great pics from the day at www.boogermobile.blogspot.com 

and trevorpix.tumblr.com/post/11567928136/escarpade-casterton-to-naracoorte-was-all-about

SUNDAY 16th OCT - WARNAMBOOL here we come.

TEAM AFRO LOG - It's esCarpade - not STAR TREK Ross..

Sunday 16 Oct 2011

Alarm was set last night for a 6am start, but who forgot to change the phone time from Queensland to Eastern Summer Time??

Ross woke with a glint of sunshine through the curtains. Looked at his watch saw that it was 6.30 and panicked, jumped out of bed, called others to quickly get up. He then looked at the alarm to see why it didn’t go off and saw that it was only 5am, said “Sorry boys go back to sleep I am an hour early” Then he realised he had made a chronological error and changed the process again and told all to get out of bed-now!

Packed the Snot Rocket and set of to Port Phillip Bay for breakfast.

Wonderful food was set for us. The bay is also the marina for Geelong, lots of fancy and expensive boats were moored there.

Ross drove. Breathe Tested and sent out.

As we left the parking area a convoy of 3000 or more bicycles were crossing our exit.

Left Geelong and out into the highway. Today the road was a reasonable amount of sealed road at the start... After a few short detours along local roads we found ourselves in the Ottoway National Park.

.

As it had rained the night before there was no dust but the roads were wet and a little greasy. Caution was mandatory.

Following all route instructions were managed to get along quiet well.

Our navigator Laurie was getting better at calling the reference points and we\ were all getting good and looking for and finding the various point of instruction.

On the very first day of the Escarpade, the marshal told us not to instinctively follow the car in front as it could be very possible that they may be lost and you too could get lost. 

Sorry to say at one point along the road wee were following the Booger Mobile and at a certain reference point Laurie sad “Turn left at the next roundabout over the bridge” we saw the roundabout, but Bogger Mobile continued straight ahead, we trusted him and well he was wrong so we also went a short distance along the wrong road too. A lesson learnt here, that is - Do your own navigating!

We had the experience to stop at and look at the famous Victorian surfing beach “Bells Beach”  We looked, took some photos and left.

 

IS THIS THE ONLY TIME ROB WILL GET NEAR THE FAMED BELL? 

 As I said before it rained last night and some of the rain created some larger pools of water on the road.

Ross at one point drove through a hugh patch of wet dirt and water causing the whole car to be sprayed with brown dirty water. The boys were not amused.

 

After a few hours we finally arrived at Warrnambool Winery for lunch.

As we walked up to the restaurant, we asked others who were leaving,” what the food like?" 

(remembering yesterday’s poor effort)

We were told hot roast beef and vegies and gravy-, we didn’t believe him, but as we entered the restaurant we could clearly smell the wonderful aroma of freshly roasted beef or pork and vegies, yum that was a promise that we were looking forward to.

After lunch Darren at the helm on both sealed and unsealed roads through the Warrnambool Valley and local area.

The wonderful green and pleasant scenery was very easy on the eye and truly was a pleasure to see.

Part of the journey required us to drive along the famous Great Ocean Road. This is really a fantastic piece of roadway built after the 1^st World War.

This road was part of the Australian Government’s effort to boost the economy and was specially built so the men returning from the war could get jobs.

The scenery along this road of the Great Australian Bight and through the township of Lorne. This secion of road was truly magnificent.

As usual there was assortet banter on the 2 way radio regading road conditions and potential hazards (a necessay thing in this type of driving!) At a point somewhere along the road in the afternoon session, one the vehicles following us called over the 2ay radio asking if they could pass us, not a problem and at a safe point along the road we slowed down and let them pass, another car also passed, as the second car passed, the driver accelerated and caused a great shower of road dirt and stone to fly up at us. We did not appreciate this at all and over the radio told them so. (This car now now named 'Speed Racer")

A short time after this as we turned off the sealed road, we came across this ('Speed Racer')  car off the road and half on its side and in the swamp. A little natural justice we thought.

As we could not pass this car we decided to go direct along the bitumen road to the Apostles.

This took a little longer than we thought.

As we got there the sight of the fantastic rock formations (the twelve or so Appostles) standing in the middle of the Great Australian Bight was absolutely fantastic.

Of course we stopped and went along to the observation point to see this wonder from the best possible view. Ross being Ross decided it wasn’t cold and took off his shirt and ran around the windy condition stating he wasn’t cold. (There is photographic evidence but I will not scare or scar you with that image)

 "Poor Japanese Tourists!" we thought, not the sight anyone wants especially in the afternoon.

Oh look out; the Japanese Tourist approached Ross to get their photo taken, Ross of course said no worries, bet they were saying silly Aussie….(Only if they knew!)

It was windy but many photographs were taken. Sadly as time was against us we had to leave sooner than we probably would have liked to.

The Apostles are free standing rock formations left over after the ocean had eroded the land and smaller stones or rocks away. One of these rock formations was so eroded that about 15 years ago it fell into the ocean.

Leaving the Apostles we scurried onto to Warrnambool. A speedy check-in and no showers and snappy dress up for a “Night at the races” theme dinner at the Warrnambool Dog Racing track.

And this is only the start of the theme nights ... there ar many more crazy costumes from TEAM AFRO to come

Met and saw a lot of fellow Escarpade who had also dressed up.

Darren had already made sure we had our dog- to match what he though our look or personality.

It turned out that we had been driving our little friends around since the start after they had endured the trip to Melbourne on their own. Makes you wonder what else in the costume bag , doesn't it?

 We were all dressed a bookmakers and even if I do say so myself we looked rather dashing and daggy at the same time.

Had tea and came home with the courtesy \shuttle bus.

All prepared for sleep. We all agreed that there would be no need for lullabies at all tonight.