{"id":4030,"date":"2010-11-08T12:07:57","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T12:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/?p=4030"},"modified":"2017-07-22T14:33:31","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T13:33:31","slug":"day-113-just-another-manic-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/expedition-updates\/day-113-just-another-manic-monday\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 113 : Just Another Manic Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laverton to Warberton<\/p>\n

High point: Driving through the stunning outback at sunset<\/p>\n

Low point: An introduction to one of Australia\u2019s larger eight legged friends in the camping block<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Lou and I are still working on our tashes<\/p>\n

Pee point: Lou and Amy are now Shewee professionals, boys go one side of the road, girls go the other, job done<\/p>\n

Roo count: A disappointing one roo spotted<\/p>\n

Dish of the day: Beef Bourginon with tinned potatoes and baked beans, mmmm<\/p>\n

Pink thought of the day: The girls are trying to introduce a tiered \u2018no swear Friday\u2019 scoring system after Lou was unfairly crowned princess potty mouth.\u00a0 Boys are much worse than girls, everyone knows thatToday was a biggie, with over 600km of outback to cover.\u00a0 We left Laverton campsite, notified the police we\u2019d be heading out into the bush (giving them our sat phone number for emergencies) and hit the road.\u00a0 Only 30 vehicles a day drive the Great Central Road, which runs from Laverton to Uluru, for a good reason. \u00a0As we pulled onto the GCR I thought we\u2019d taken a wrong turn \u2018this can\u2019t be it\u2019, \u2018what really?\u2019.\u00a0 The road is unsealed which means its surface is made up of red sand and gravel.\u00a0 It was going to be a long, bumpy, dry, hot, sticky and dusty ride through this vast wilderness, but we were ready for it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Once on the road we only came across 9 other vehicles.\u00a0 At one point a truck stopped to warn us of a cattle grid and traffic ahead.\u00a0 There were two cars.\u00a0 We did however see 88 broken down or burnt out cars abandoned in the bush.\u00a0 The more remote we got the more wrecks we saw.\u00a0 We soon realised the outback is where cars come to die.\u00a0 This didn\u2019t bode well but we headed further into the red centre, in the name of Follow That Fire Engine, slightly concerned we might never be seen again.<\/p>\n

<\/a>10 hours later, tired and covered in red dust, we arrived at Warburton Road House, having stopped only for driver changes and to quickly enjoy the packed lunch Lou and I had prepared the night before (cheese, ham and salami sandwiches, crisps, a cereal bar, a banana\/apple and a diet coke).\u00a0 I find I\u2019m not very good if I\u2019m hungry, I can\u2019t concentrate, I get moody and I\u2019m generally not very nice to be around until I\u2019ve eaten.\u00a0 Back home I would read the crew\u2019s blogs with horror as they talked about eating one meal a day and lunch being a luxury.\u00a0 Joining the crew in Australia I thought I\u2019d be in trouble.\u00a0 However since Lou and I joined the trip the boys have been complaining of the opposite.\u00a0 Being natural born athletes their bodies are temples and they don\u2019t appreciate the \u2018recreational\u2019 eating we have introduced.\u00a0 Surely three meals a day plus elevenses and afternoonses isn\u2019t extravagant?\u00a0 We are explorers, we need to keep our strength up (I might not be saying that after a few months on the road when I\u2019m carrying my own spare tyre).<\/p>\n

As it got dark we really got a feel for exactly how remote we were.\u00a0 If we were ambushed by a gang of hungry kangeroos who would know?\u00a0 Would Martha end up in the wilderness graveyard?\u00a0 Who would look after fireman Sam?<\/p>\n

We were lucky to bump into a local teacher as we arrived in Warburton.\u00a0 He invited us to his school the next day which is an absolute honour as people aren\u2019t usually invited into aboriginal communities.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking forward to meeting the kids tomorrow but will have to hit the sack now, it is a school night after all.<\/p>\n

Amy<\/p>\n

[flickr album=72157625353752038 num=30 size=Square]<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laverton to Warberton High point: Driving through the stunning outback at sunset Low point: An introduction to one of Australia\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates","category-perth-to-brisbane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4030"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4047,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4030\/revisions\/4047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}