26 August

A cooler morning in Broken Hill. We went to the primary school for the best breakfast on the bash. They had provided 25 different choices for breakfast because it was the 25th Anniversary of Bashing.

John Howard was being interviewed on the local radio station and took the liberty to say " The Cupcake Girls were a few quid short" that called for revenge. We were able to get him to the cupcake car for a photo shoot then to the Key Stone Cops truck for a photo. He willingly got in the back so we tied the door shut.

When it was time to leave The Burns Boys had put ties through our door handles and some stainless steel ones on the diff.

We had to quickly get into the car as we were to be the third car out - we think that the Cricketers paid for us to get out early!...



We then parked the car outside the school because we wanted to get the 'Bash Bus' experience and so drove out to Silverton, a little mining town out of Broken Hill!....what a laugh!
Silverton was a great little town with lots of history. The boys were all pretty excited seeing the Mad Max car, even more excited to hear the roar of its engine. There was also another engine display that seemed to please the blokes as they could feel how cold it ran, or something of that nature.
We had a quick trip to see Pro Hart's Gallery and then prepare for the final dinner.
It is always a bitter sweet experience saying goodbye to our friends and snatching every last moment we have together to reminisce on the success of the Bash.
There are award presentations and the DVD is presented in two parts. Everyone is eager to see their car feature.
The Cupcake Girls won the Grovellers award. We are not too sure how we pulled that off as we avoided the officials most of the time. To grovell we thought that you had to give them wine etc and be nice to them.
The Flinstones won the Spirit of the Bash Award.
It was a great experience and we will always feel blessed that we had the opportunity to take part in such an adventure.

25 August

This is our last driving day on the Bash as tomorrow we are just driving out to Silverton for lunch about 25km out of Broken Hill. We left our friendly hosts and headed to the school. One of the cars left the queue from close to the front so we were in.

Breakfast was great... bircher, pancakes ...

During breakfast it was decided that Brenda would go in The Bush Cricketers Car and Joey would navigate in Candy.

We were all in our cars waiting to go when word got around that it was a reverse start. There was much jostling and turning around so Candy was up over the curve around the block along the path and out a driveway getting a relatively good start.

The road was fairly slippery with gravel so it was a slow drive. The triple three cars were having a fun day in the ruins of an old pub.

It was then on to lunch. It was all very relaxing. At lunch we visited a school with only 8 students..all boys! presentations were made and we were told that the parade through Broken Hill was on at 3pm. There was no way we or many cars were going to make the parade. It was definitely a no dirt afternoon, straight through on the tar. There were many cars limping into lunch as we were leaving.

The Burns Boys parked the nose of their Merc up to our bull bar and the Cavemen were parked right on our tail. However, because they wanted to go dirt they left before we even saw what they had done.

We passed through Cockburn so we got a few photos and wrote our names on the wall of the pub.

We were not at the muster for the parade but we caught up in town with the Basher's and all those who were with us. Towards the end there were Bash Cars wandering all over the place lost until we finally all got to the Show Ground.

There was a 25th Anniversary Dinner that was well catered for.

There were a few disasters today ...the Navy Team rolled one of their cars and several were mechanically not good. We are not sure how many cars have not made it into Broken Hill yet.

24 August

Coober Pedy what an incredible place, how wonderful staying in an underground motel. The weather has been stunning and so warm we are loving it. Breakfast was at the German Club. The children sang for us and the parents prepared a wonderful breakfast.
We had a great position once again with a little jostling with the cricketers and Burn's Boys. We drove out rather swiftly and then went to get on the Internet to burn our song onto a CD for Bash Idol. We were well down in the pack leaving town. Our first stop was to collect some rocks to make a 25th memorial to Bashing on the edge of the Oodnadatta Track.
We stopped at a wonderful little pub and petrol station at William Creek.
We then were continuing on to lunch. It was not far down the road when we saw The Bush Cricketers getting their car put onto a the tilt tray. We offered them a lift as seats were limited in the truck and they were then going to get another car to tow. Two of the Cricketers came with us. We made them honouree Cupcake Boys.
Lunch was in Marlee at the race track. We got there at about 4pm so it was a quick lunch then on to Hawker for tea and Bash Idol.
Hawker was incredibly windy and cold. We commandeered Dom, one of our pilots to sing in Bash Idol with us as the recording we had was of a male voice. There were some pretty interesting acts. The evening was won by the St Mary's League Club Boys who sang Country Road like you have never heard before or would want to hear again. It was all a lot of fun.
It was a home stay with a lovely couple, however we did not arrive until very late, they provided a lovely hot drink and a wonderful hospitality.

Random Pictures

22, 23,August

We have had difficulty with reception. Sorry about the lack of communication.

It has been a very busy few days. We had the National Rally with cars from all states participating in a procession down the main street of Alice Springs. There were about 600 cars that took part - some very interesting cars.

Breakfast was at the Transport Museum - we saw some excellent potential Bash Cars - some great food and entertainment. Dick Smith the founder of Bashing also spoke to us, to inspire us to cheat as much as we can and to break as many rules as we can - Thank you Dick.

It was then down to the banks of the Todd River for the infamous Henley on Todd. For the Cupcake Girls it was time to put their boat together with the help of our other two partners the Red Lea Girls. Thank to Team Toshiba we got the boat up and running. We did a few practise runs on the grass. It was certainly a bright little/large number. We then had to rest before the big race.

We were in the BYO Boat race. It was a parade around the arena and then the race. We certainly were the most attractive boat as the others were just frames with runners. At the start gun we were off, but crashed on the corner. Negotiating 4 m of boat around a drum proved too much. We won a $150 voucher for the best boat. Looking good is what it is all about... they auctioned the voucher for us and we got $190 for Variety

In the evening we had a National Dinner with Basher's from all states about 2500 - what a great night with excellent entertainment. A real credit to them.

Sunday was a big drive back to Coober Pedy, we all set off at our own pace as there were 3 routes you could take. We chose the Bash route which took us down many dusty roads finishing at the Breakaways outside of Coober Pedy.

21st August

It was an early start. We headed off to breakfast then to try and get our cupcakes. We were in a bit of a dilemma as there was a great place for us at the beginning of the line, but we did not have our cupcakes - in fact we could not find the bakery. After several trips through town we found the bakery - but it did not open until 7:30am and no one was answering any phone and we were due to leave at 7am.

We decided to try and get a pilot to get them and we would collect them along the track so it was off to the start. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. A friend was on his was to bribe the officials for the route instructions and to leave as close to the front as possible. So Robyn went with him - he got 2 sets of route instructions and requested that his car and 321 leave first - good man.

We did not do the bash route as we were saving our bash plate until we can get it fixed properly in Alice so it was black top today about 700km at 80-90km/ph that takes a while with stops.

We had a couple of buzzes from the helicopter. A few petrol stops. Early in the afternoon our cupcakes caught up to us so it was time to sell. The helicopter landed at the Cannonball Run Memorial with some bash cars so we sold off our cupcakes to Basher's and travellers.

The evening was at our own discretion so we cleaned Candy and caught up with some Bashes for tea.

On our way back to our accommodation we dropped some of the Toshiba members at their hotel.

It was then time for the Cupcake Boat to be put together.

20th August

Woomera welcomed us with a glorious morning a bit on the chilly side. We were able to have a more leisurely start to the day as breakfast was at 8 am and then it was into Armed Services day. Because we had destroyed another tyre and Woomera does not have any mechanics or tyre repair places, we thought that instead of partaking in the games we should enlist the help of the mobile workshop to put our spare tyre on the rim as it was an afternoon of tracks.
We were well positioned for the exit from the oval! So with our tyres all set we were ready for the rough terrain.
The first sheet of our route instructions were dropped from the helicopter so it was a mad scramble to get them, race back to the car and get ready to leave.
We followed the old Highway - what a road! ... huge bolders and rocks We moved over to let F 1 -11 past and went bouncing through a rather large ditch. Everything bounced even us... ouch.
Not far along the track we heard a dreadful scraping noise so we pulled over to find that the bolts from the back of our bash plate were gone. The Beach Bums came to the rescue and we were on our way again.
We bounced and jolted along the track. Coming around the corner we saw this magnificent lake, so it was photo time and time to off load some cupcakes.
Lunch was a packed one that we could eat where we chose.
The afternoon was more tracks, but very sandy.
We arrived in Coober Pedy and found our underground motel. What an awesome place, some of the rooms are from a disused mine.
It was tea and then a fairly early night as the next morning was to be early for a big drive to Alice Springs.