Updates from the Road 2009
The latest from the road, as the adventure unfolds!
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Tuesday July 22, 2009
Days Six and Seven
Hello All, once again.
Hope you enjoy the photos of the creek crossing. They are actually from day 5, on the way to the ferry at Jardine River.
Phone service up here is extremely hopeless, and that is with our main Australian carrier. Any other carrier - forget it. So in saying that, I hope you have all recieved the updates. Check the day numbers, and if you may have missed one, let me know and I'll see if I can forward it again. When I do have a bar of service, it only seems to last a couple of mins, then drops out. We are truly in Never, Never Land. As I've found out, only the people who are with Telstra have picked up a bit of service on the event. If your loved ones have another phone carrier, they may have had no service since Mackay. Sorry about that, I didn't mean to lead you all up the garden path.
Seisia was a lovely, hospitable place. Lovely and warm and got a chance to wash the dust out and have a day off. Most people headed over to Thursday Island for the day, where they did the touristy bus trip. There was also enough time for crews to travel to the tip to get their pics. The ferry company who took us all to TI actually donated $1500 to Endeavour, so that was great. Rough trip home on the boat from TI - a few green faces when they got off the boat at Seisia. They washing machines were working overtime on the day off, so hopefully crews wont smell so bad when they get home.
The cars and crews that stayed in Weipa for an extra night to get fixed got to Seisa yesterday - except 2 cars that remained (they will catch up). The best thing is, they are all in good spirits and still smiling.
A couple of funny stories for the Idiot of the day:
Serenity from E2 actually asked if Thursday Island (TI) was part of Australia - yes Serinity, we went through quarrantine, not immigration. Rosie from car 177 was to take a photo of their group at the tip and got a lovely photo of herself - Turn the camera around Rosie. Cookie from 123 went on the bus trip at TI with Sno and after one stop, Cookie couldn't find Sno to get back on the bus, so the bus left, while Cookie rang Sno, only to find out that Sno was indeed on the bus, in the front seat.
Car 30 was allowed free use of a workshop while stuck in Weipa. They had a problem with the guard dog once the owner went home and left them alone. They were stuck inside the car, inside the workshop with the guard dog between them and the closed door. After an hour an a half of throwing gingernut buscuits and muesili bars into the dog's kennel, they managed to open the door and flee.
BJ from C1 was sitting on the beach the other night with a drink in one hand, phone in other. Next thing he saw a big croc heading his way - Big BJ almost shit his pants while trying to get traction in the sand. The drink went flying, the phone went flying and the croc kept heading towards him. Once he managed to get up and start running, he realised the croc was a palm leaf rolling towards him in the wind.
PC from C7 forgot to use his handbrake on the ferry and was busy taking photos when his ute start rolling backwards - headed for the river.
Last night the local community put on an Islander dance show. It was truly fantastic and it gave the locals a chance to show off some of their culture. There have been many comments about how polite and well mannered the locals were at Seisia. From the little, little kids, to the older adults. I'd be surprised if anyone didn't enjoy their stay at Seisia.
A few interesting stats on the Great Endeavour I thought someone maybe interested in. We have:
29 Cruise Cars
80 Rally Cars
7 Backups
20 Officials - including media crews and Endeavour Reps
1 Plane
1 Spares Truck.
The top ten positions are: (these are not in order) Cars 17, 61, 70, 74, 113, 122, 141, 205, 249, 308
The bottom ten positions are: (these are not in order) Cars 13, 27, 80, 96, 99, 222, 240, 304, 327, 321
Everyone else is in between!
We have 3 ladies crews on the Rally course. They are cars, 925, 20 & 82.
We have a heap of family crews which range from husband and wife teams, father and son teams, sibling teams, and our first 3 generation team of grandfather, son and grandson. Our family crews are: 241, 244, 250, 308, 333, 511, 88, 808, 911, 135, 177, 202, 240, 15, 47, 53, 70, 74, 86, 98, 109, 120, 122, 125.
In 1995, Allan Lawson took the Super Endeavour to Cape York. We have compiled a bit of a list that went then and again this year. They are (some of these we are only 95% sure of): Wayne Coleman, Allan Lawson, John Leadbetter, Craig & Sandy Wolski, Warren Southee, John Robertson, Alfie Kither, Jim Petersen, Jumbo Schefe, Trevor Peterson, Bradley Hudson, Freddy Iseppi, Sno Harm, Cookie, Jeff Schultz & Ed Pearson (?).
Just a note worth mentioning is that crews have been very sharing this year. There have been many stories of car parts getting around between crews and cars. This is truly the Great Endeavour Spirit when you see everyone helping each other out with anything they can. We are all in it together and we all want to see everyone on the road, and in good spirits.
On the way to Coen now. Typing again in the car on a dirty, dusty, windy, bumpy road. It is all good fun.
Till next time,
Michelle
