High Point: Coming down from a 40m hydraulic ladder.
Low Point: Being 40m up in a hydraulic ladder.
After the last few days of sleeping with bugs, staying in a dodgy motel where the windows where boarded up with steel shutters and generally having a miserable (sorry I mean awesome) time, it was a real pleasure to wake up in the luxury of the Fire Station Inn. I’m sure you’ve seen the videos already so I won’t bore you with the details again. Also, for a change, I’m going to stick to the script this time and try to stay away from the nonsense…
High point: Beating the boys at their own game of Risk (just the once)
Low point: Port Augusta. Quote from the Lonely Planet ‘it is a sad and tatty place’
No point: Fuad opening his book to read it and remembering he’d finished it on the plane
Quote of the day: Paul Barham “Where are all the dead fish?”
Dish of the day: ham and cheese toasties
It was sad leaving Coober Pedy, it really is like nowhere else we’ve been or probably will go again. Apparently the name Coober Pedy means ‘white man’s hole in the ground’. Sleeping in an underground dorm in bunks made for little people the place really did what it said on the tin. Read more →
A busy morning for the crew was followed by a long drive south down the Stuart Highway to Marla where on arrival food and sleep were high on the agenda. Marla is a truck stop and hugs the highway like a UK service station, and is no bigger, so after a check in process that seemed to last forever the crew were finally given keys to the only motel in “town”.
On inspection it was clearly still under construction as the attached video shows but there was no option. It was the last room. I thought it was wonderful and didn’t know what the fuss was about. Bathroom doors are overrated.
High Point: A cheeky beer in the Uluru Fire Station
Low Point: Ants in my pants
Quote of the day: “Paul, do you know where our window is?”
We woke up in the middle of nowhere. You might think this a bit of an exaggeration but we were roughly 500km from the nearest bit of civilisation. Civilisation in this case was the Docker River community with a population in the low teens. We had just spent the night camping on a dried up river bed. It was us, Martha and what seemed like a billion busy little biting ants. Todays plan: head into the Uluru Nation park and explore the big rock.
High point: Driving through the stunning outback at sunset
Low point: An introduction to one of Australia’s larger eight legged friends in the camping block
Mo point: Steve looks like he should be in a Will Ferrell movie, Barham would be at home commanding an army of soldiers on the battlefield and Fuad resembles a Mexican sombrero seller. Lou and I are still working on our tashes
Pee point: Lou and Amy are now Shewee professionals, boys go one side of the road, girls go the other, job done
Roo count: A disappointing one roo spotted
Dish of the day: Beef Bourginon with tinned potatoes and baked beans, mmmm
Pink thought of the day: The girls are trying to introduce a tiered ‘no swear Friday’ scoring system after Lou was unfairly crowned princess potty mouth. Boys are much worse than girls, everyone knows that Read more →
HO, HO, HO!! Nearly half way through November…it’s time to start writing your letters to Santa! But more importantly it’s time to start writing your Christmas cards! We’re pleased to announce you can now purchase specially designed, beautiful FTFE charity Christmas cards – so you can spread some Christmas joy AND do your bit for Charity! Find out more by following the link below…
Bonfire night arrived dark and rainy but there were definitely no damp squibs at the Follow That Fire Engine Fabulous Friday Night! Many months of hard work were topped off with a last few mad hours of all hands on deck, getting Glaziers Hall all togged out in FTFE colours and making sure everything was ready to play host to all the lovely guests attending. And what a night was in store for them!
