5/5/99
Expedition Diary - part one introduction
The intention of the expedition diary
is to keep you up to date with what's
happening on the Hotfooting Australia
'99 Expedition. Ben and I will be sending
in text and pictures on a fortnightly
basis throughout our journey. The purpose
here is to bring you up to speed on what's
been happening since we first had the
idea for the expedition some two years
ago.
So what have we been doing for the last
two years? Perhaps you should have asked
an easier one. But trying to sum it up
we have spent a great deal of time looking
for sponsors, gaining media support, working
on logistics, and convincing our employers
that we were committed to them as well
as Australia.
Finding sponsors for an expedition is
extremely hard and it takes perseverance,
enclosing proposals to company after company
until one says yes. In our case we gained
several kit sponsors in Berghaus, Terra
Nova, Sky Stream, Cobalt Systems Silva,
Auslig, and Burton McCall. Cash sponsors
however were a lot harder to find but
we have now been supported by the Sturt
family, Australian Geographic and talk
about the eleventh our The Churchill Memorial
Trust gave us £6,000 two weeks before
we were due to fly out to Adelaide.
The media was slow to come on board at
first but we are now picking up support
and although there are other expeditions
happening around the world they like our
approach and I suppose I have to admit
some of them have supported us because
I'm registered as blind. This last point
about the blind bit hasn't always worked
in our favour though with some taking
the line, and in my view rightly so, that
they don't want to do another triumph
over tragedy story. I want the media support
to reward our sponsors and perhaps gain
us enough publicity/money to allow us
both to go on and do yet more expeditions.
The last thing I need is some out dated
approach to disability and I am quite
pleased when the media comes on board
because they are interested in what we
are doing and what we have to say about
it rather than to do another super-crip
story. In the year 1999 it is perhaps
about time we looked at people as people,
in all walks of life. Is it that spectacular
that a registered blind man wants to walk
across a desert? Okay that's my personnel
rant about disability out of the way,
I promise I'll not be going off like that
again in these diary pieces (well unless
something specific arises).
Logistics, well that's yet another thing.
As you will find out a little further
down the page it is the make or break
of an expedition such as this. I'm not
saying sponsorship or media are not important
and intrinsic to the success of an expedition
but if the practical side is lacking such
as re-supply, communications, the correct
maps, etc it'll never work. We've spent
an in ordinate amount of time getting
a route we are happy with, finding a support
team that can do what we need them to
do and making sure that we have all the
right equipment to walk the miles we need
to walk each day.
During October last year we came out to
Australia to complete a reconnaissance
for the expedition in which we drove some
of the route, spoke to lots of people
about where was the best place to buy
camels from and who could train them and
us for the walk. Its hard to explain to
people why it has taken so long to get
to where we are now standing two weeks
away from the start of the walk with most
things in place. But a great deal of this
time was talking to people about possible
sponsorship, media support, listening
to advice on camels and meeting a lot
of dead ends. A reasonable amount of time
is needed to plan an expedition, allowing
for replies to letters most of which happen
to be negative. But its also important
not to allow so much time that the project
becomes tiresome, or worse still it becomes
just a far off dream that keeps on getting
put behind other things that need to be
done.
In an attempt to explain what we've been
through I will talk about just one of
the aspects of the trip, that of buying
and training the camels. We started talking
to people as far back as early '98 about
what on earth we needed to do to get hold
of camels and prepare them for a walk
across Australia. There were wide ranging
views, not least from the Camelier community.
Each had a unique view on what a good
camel should be like and interestingly
enough had an awful lot to say about all
other Cameliers in Australia (the top
and bottom of this being that they were
good and most of the others were "shit
heads"). We very quickly became known
as the "poms" who listened to
everyone but went ahead and did our own
thing anyway. I'm certain there are Camaliers
out there now calling us "Shit Heads".
By January of this year we thought we
had bought three good camels from a place
near Alice Springs. We had also organised
them to be transported and then trained
not too far outside of Adelaide. After
two weeks in Australia we didn't have
any camels and no obvious directions to
go in. This is a long story involving
a disaster that we've not yet come to
terms with. The person we were buying
the camels from had asked two of his friends
to come up in a helicopter and muster
our camels in readiness for transporting
them to South Australia. On the way up
to the station the helicopter was caught
in a dust storm, crashed and killed both
men. The person who owned the camels then
didn't have any means of mustering them
and was understandably taken over by the
whole event. Its still difficult to describe
how we felt when we heard the news but
one thing was clear we still had camels
to buy, from somewhere! We have now found
some other camels, bought and trained
them but it has taken a lot more time
than expected and a great deal more money.
Due to the problems mentioned here and
a few more besides, there has had to be
a complete rethink of what we are going
to do out in Australia. There is now not
enough money in the expedition account
to allow us to walk from Adelaide to Darwin.
The decision has been made to walk across
the three deserts on our original route.
We decided that if we had set off from
Adelaide with the money we have we would
not have got half way. So by going up
to the deserts and redesigning the route
to spend longer crossing them than was
originally planned we are going to have
an expedition rather than one that peters
out because of lack of funds. This has
perhaps been the hardest decision Ben
and I have ever had to make and despite
a new expedition to look forward to, I
personally can't help thinking I've lost
a walk.
So as you can see we've already had quite
an adventure and we've not even got to
the start line. Taking into account the
fun we've had training the camels I'm
betting there is going to be a great deal
more once we get out on our walk. Oh yes
one last thing for all those that believe
a camel in hobbles can't run very far,
you are wrong!! The other day we had a
three hour jog before breakfast to bring
our camels back to the camp. When we actually
caught up with them they seemed a little
surprised to see us and managed to throw
one of us into a bush and took the other
on a skiing ride until he managed to throw
a rope around a passing tree! We'll be
in contact again in two weeks with more
photos and a report of what we've been
up to. |
