G'day
My Mates how the devil are ya?!
Well we fly
out on 6th March and land in Adelaide
Monday morning at 6.00am. Why do flights
always land early mornings? It's been
about 2 years since we first came up with
the plan to attempt this crossing of Australia
and its not been without sacrifices. Steve
and I have both lost numerous jobs, and
any careers that were beginning to unfold
for us have suddenly disappeared, mind
you no great loss there. Steve's house
has been leased out for 5 years and my
house.well I've got some nice tents. Anyhow
enough of that you want to know what's
going on.
Our camels
will arrive in Mannum just north of Adelaide
on 10th, 11th March where most of our
training will happen. Weíll be
based in Mount Barker about an hour down
the road from Mannum with my cousins Patrick
and Sandra Torrens, not forgetting James
of course, great kid. We have bought 3
camels for this trip all bulls and still
fairly wild at the moment. They have been
caught in the wild near Alice Springs.
Once down in Mannum they will be cut and
pegged. Nose pegs are put onto the camels
to give greater control. The reason for
cutting/castrating bull camels is that
wild bull camels in the bush are extremely
territorial, especially during the breeding
season the time we are walking through
the middle of their country. If a wild
bull sees any other domesticated (I use
that phrase loosely) bull or cow camel
they will charge and attack. You donít
want to be on the receiving end of a ton
of wild bull camel. We will be carrying
a heavy gauge rifle to defend ourselves.
Between March
8th and April 28th our leaving date we
shall be working with our camels almost
every day to make friends with them, we're
not walking for 4000km with 3 tons of
spitting, biting, kicking camel!
During this
'bonding' period we have other parts of
the trip to organise such as permission
to cross all lands whether crown, pastoral,
aboriginal land etc., sourcing main water
supplies, where and when we can pick up
further food and any extra/replacement
kit needed. We will continue to update
the media on our progress to get as much
coverage as possible for our sponsors
and to try and raise further funds for
the expedition and the RFDS (Royal Flying
Doctorís Service) who are benefiting
from the expedition. All in all a fairly
busy seven weeks.
That's all for
now folks! See ya in 2 weeks. |
