16th August Day 1

What a glorious morning for our departure with the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge as the back drop.

Wanting to get an early start we left Macquarie at 6 am to go to the start for a good postition on the grid. It was then time to catch up with past Basher's and meet some of the Virgins. We had several of our friends and Brenda's family to come and wave us off from the Opera House.

It was then along the M7, M4 up to the Blue Mountains, through Lithgow and on to Bathurst. Passing through Bathurst we felt that it was an opportunity to revisit Mt Panorama as we drove around there on our first Bash. We stopped for some photos under the banner and continued on to Orange for Lunch.

There we had the BBQ lunch then proceeded to grant the wishes of the school. Being a Special school they were very happy to receive a catamaran and another sailing boat for the older students. Much to the delight of the wheelchair students they got the keys to a liberty swing. As we were about to leave there were a couple of boys swinging and laughing, they were so excited as it was their first ever swing.

After lunch it was onto dirt, dust and gravel. The countryside was stunning with the green rolling hills and a grey sky as the back ground. We had a small amount of rain as we stopped for our first fun stop with the Firies. It was there that we took advantage of the crowd and gave out pancakes (pikelets with jam and cream).

Tea was followed by an astronomer from Coonabaraban, he was quite entertaining with his knowledge. Then we had a few Elvis impersonators do some dancing and singing to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his death.

Then time to retire.