Last day - Nyngan to Gilgandra

It was an easy drive today, well relatively, just some gulches, gullies, dips, corners, tree lines roadways, creek beds and potholes today. Plus some trees. Trees after days of dusty infinity and scrubby underbrush made for a picturesque vista. Trees with rough bark and wispy branches, ancient looking, a little spooky but a comfort after endless horizons.


Onwards to Gilgandra. The esCarPARADE through town - all 50 plus vehicles - was an amazing sight. Onwards to the Speedway at Gilgandra.


An itch many esCarpadians wanted to scratch? Getting on a Speedway with our cars? You kidding. Every kids dream with a hotted up car. A great way to finish for the team, with WAR FM doing a live broadcast and Prime coming to film it all.
And on the Speedway for a lap before being entertained by drivers practicing with their stock cars and fender-benders.

All the esCarpadians!!

A final lunch. Some goodbyes. esCarpade drawing to a close...

Night in Nyngan

Fresh from our car washes, the esCarpade crew rolled through Nyngan town with a blazing parade of around 25 vehicles who were patient enough to bunch together on the outskirts of town. Cranking the noise and smoke once again, the esCarPARADE made its way down to the helicopter outside the Nyngan Museum for a check in with our trusty frontrunners and professional check in guys, Andy and Laurie - the best looking dudes in all of Northern Victoria. See them at work, below.

Our evening was effectively the last night all esCarpadians would be together... a fine blend of joy and melancholy captured the vibe of our dinner at the Nyngan RSL. However, this final Friday night of our trip was also the night that fundraising efforts were revealed. Considering the circumstances of the financial crisis that has plagued most of this past year, expectations were low. There is little to describe the incredible, uplifting, tear-in-the-eye moment when it was revealed that the esCarpadians had not only raised a combined figure of over $1million but that they had broken what was assumed to be the unassailable record fundraising of the previous year.

It just doesn't get much better than a moment like that.

With the nuns jumping out of their seats, a little emotion from Josh our fearless leader, general whooping and hollering, back slapping from the car 224 boys and raised glasses from all and sundry, the esCarpadians' tireless efforts from the year were validated by this moment. It's humbling to remember that esCarpadians do their own work, then follow it up with epic fundraising for Camp Quality.

Just one more drive tomorrow and it's over for another year. Sigh. Gilgandra Speedway calls us...

Macquarie Marsh Car Wash Part 3

Probably best not to get that bit of your car wet...

Queueing up due to wet car bits and car stalled in middle of water crossing.







Good to see the lead official car OV1 showing us all how to really get the crossing done... Nice work Ben.

Macquarie Marsh Car Wash Part 2

Yeah. Could be the water in the air filter...

Macquarie Marsh Car Wash Part 1

From Carinda the road took us along some more dusty roads and broad open space before heading straight through the Macquarie Marshes.

Finally things started getting green, reeds and wetlands dotting the landscape before we turned through the dead centre and came across a water crossing. Gotta love a water crossing...

This was a very exciting moment for the esCarpadians, with only one casualty from some exuberant driving.

The following two blog posts have some more action pics...

On the Carinda Trail

Great morning in Bourke with a river side breakfast feast at the Historic Wharf before heading onto the Bourke Primary School for a puppet show and general mayhem. The cars were blaring noise and attracting attention as the procession moved to the school yard.

Once again the people of Bourke turned it on for the esCarpadians before our departure with more donations and general good will coming our way.

Time for the road with more of the straight, dusty stuff flying around. I caught myself yesterday opening my mouth imagining I was swallowing the thick dust that was flying towards our windshield as we tailed some of the leading cars and was able to realise this dream by taking photographs road side again.

Lots to look at with a huge terrain change as we skirted the Macquarie Marshlands. More trees now skirt the roadway.We had an action packed 'fun stop' along the way - a nice broad patch of dirt to show off some of our cars' abilities...

We arrived at the village of Carinda, population just enough to fit the town hall. The whole town greeted us and the school of one class of 24 kids was joined by neighbouring (40 minutes away) Marra Creek school which totals 4 kids only! Carinda is a charming town with a real country friendliness, one wide dusty main street with the obligatory post office and pub.

The P&C, assisted by many locals, put together a great buffet lunch and importantly a range of 'sweets' baked and cooked and created by locals. The heartfelt generousity of Carinda went a long way and our last puppet show was a blast.

This was a most enjoyable stop and a worthy town to visit in the area.

Goin berko in Bourke

It was a great run through some seriously rough terrain that brought the convoy to Bourke this afternoon. After the hot, red, dusty roads we had experienced from Glengarry, we turned off the rough roadway onto an even rougher dirt track.
The drive had cars dipping into river beds and bouncing from pothole to ditch so the esCarpade crew was ready for some well earned relaxation.
The afternoon's heat had a lot of people eager to get to our Mad Hatter's themed dinner. The Back O Bourke Exhibition Centre were hosts this evening, and the new facility has some seriously eye catching design going on, plus a great indoor/outdoor function space that easily accomodated the esCarpadian hordes.

Greased Lightning

Another great brekky, this time in Lightning Ridge. The Rotary club of Lightning Ridge were the providers, and eager esCarpadians scoffed the offerings before heading to the Lightning Ridge school. The puppets were on fire again, delivering more action, pathos and comedy before we once again hit the road.

Today was our longest drive clocking in approximately 480 km. Our journey took us to Glengarry's opal fields and the World Famous Glengarry Hilton. The esCarpadians packed the alfresco bar space and locals turned up in droves. To our joy and surprise the locals had organised a raffle and auction of goods to help raise funds for Camp Quality. Locals known as Smurf, Ozzie Dave and the-guy-who-usually-has-a-galah-on-his-hat were all winners of prizes.

The Glengarry Hilton is one of Australia's remotest pubs and our circuit had us skirting the Queensland border today. We were driving in true outback locations, stations dotting the landscape and minute towns spaced at huge distances between it all. Part of our route had us driving through the private land holding, Golden Plains, owned by wonderful hosts David and Nicole Currey who greeted all the cars that passed through. That's David and Nicole's shed below.
Lunch was at 'The Hilton', and we arrived at the remarkable pub via a series of remote, broad, dusty roadways. The town itself supports between 200 and 500 people depending on the season with most building homes on opal claims. A unique sight with various styles of housing with discarded dirt mounds punctuating the landscape. Peter, proprietor of the Glengarry Hilton was a generous host, as were the ladies who served us our delicious lunch. Many thanks again to the good people of Glengarry for their hospitality.

Today was hot hot hot. Temperatures have been pushing 40 degrees so it's time to get on with it, hit the road, get to Bourke.