Day 123 : No rest for the wicked
Lorne
High point : Feeding the cockatoos hanging out on our balcony
Low point : The temperature
No point : FTFE rest day to make sure we were fresh for Melbourne
Day 122 : Chopper Tastic
Port Fairy to Lorne
High Point : Hanging out of a helicopter filming the fire engine cruising down the Great Ocean Road
Favourite Bit of Rock : London Bridge
Blog Blockage : After 4 months of nagging every crew member to get their blog done on time I have fallen guilty of “blog blockage”, I can only apologise
Day 121: “What a great idea for a holiday”. Life on the road.
Robe to Port Fairy
Every so often you get a comment along the lines of, “sounds like a bit of a jolly to me” and the best to date which was said to me and Steve today, “what a great idea for a holiday”. I think on the face of it it they are very fair comments. Five people turn up in a fire engine with big smiles and lots of chat on an adventure of a lifetime. I myself have always jokingly told Steve on numerous occasions it is a glorified driving holiday which thankfully still just about raises a smile. However once you have explained what is involved the expression invariably changes from one of almost scepticism to a fascination and sometimes excitement and disbelief of what is involved. Read more →
Team FollowThatFireEngine Proudly Supports Movember
The three chaps on stage 5 (Perth to Brisbane) are proudly sporting awesome tashes for Movember. We have met many many tashes already in Australia so if you spot our fire engine and have an equally awesome tash, pop over for a photo !
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More about Movember..
Each year Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces in Australia and around the world, with the sole aim of raising vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and depression in men. Read more →
Day 120 : Acrophobia Not Vertigo
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…
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Day 119 : There’s a fire engine in my room!
Port Augusta to Adelaide
High Point: Staying in the beautiful Fire Station Inn in North Adelaide
Low Point: Getting lost around Adelaide and their endless amount of roads (or so it seemed)
No Point: Looking for bushes when it was toilet stop time
Meal of the Day: Lunch at the Port Dock Restaurant at Port Adelaide
Day 118 : Where are all the dead fish?
Coober Pedy to Port Augusta
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 →
Day 117 : The Don
High Point : Meeting a comedy legend
Low Point : Exploring an Opal Mine (only low because it was underground, it was awesome)
Auction Gift of the Day : Opal jewellery kindly donated by the Old Timers Mine
Underground Town of the Day : Coober Pedy
Mining panic of the day : getting thrown down a mining hole if you find Opal and are silly enough to tell anyone
Best accommodation of stage 5 so far : underground quarters
Quote of the day from Don : Disco Steve don’t advertise
Day 116 : Lou shares a room with Paul and Fuad and gets bugged all night
Yulara to Marla
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.
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Day 115 : Ants in my pants
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.
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Read more →
So far we have raised GBP £120,000
