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Expedition Diary Final leg of the Trip, and Goodbye to everyone Fraser Island was a huge sand island with stunning beaches and lakes connected only by 4WD tracks which proved exciting but time consuming when each vehicle weighs around 3 tonnes. The first night was Sam's Birthday and we celebrated by having steaks and chicken cooked on coin operated barbecues (only in Australia). We camped on '75 mile beach' unfortunately amongst hoards of biting March flies which meant hiding out in our largest Khyam tent. During the day we explored the islands numerous sights; Lakes next to the biggest and easily the most beautiful sand dune in the world, clear lake Birabeem enclosed by rain forest on one side and whiter than white sand on the other. There is also the wreck of the Mareno, a Chinese ferry which sank in a cyclone years ago. It sits, heavily rusted, on the beach submerged to the hull in the sand. Toby and Noel spent a day fishing and although they managed to catch 3 fish, unfortunately Noel was stung by a blue-bottle jelly fish, luckily he survived and the pain wore off after just a few long hours. Crash On our way back to the mainland on the ferry, some English backpackers who had hired a 4WD asked us to give them a tow off the ferry - no problem, or so we thought. As Mutley slowed to a halt at the top of the ramp, the other driver jump started their car and promptly slammed into the back of Mutley. Mutley's back door buckled and the back window shattered, not too big a problem but unfortunately they managed to damage the Pashley Bicycles which were on the bike rack, on the back door. Needless to say Toby and Sam, our passionate cyclists were distraught. After a small delay, we managed to sort out the mess and continued on our way to Brisbane to meet Sam's sister Kim who joined us for the last week just to see what we were really up to. Brisbane is a pretty, relatively quiet city and, more importantly, home of the Castlemaine XXXX factory! Obviously, we made a pilgrimage to the factory where they have the capacity to store 10,000,000 litres of beer and this apparently only takes Australia 6 or 7 weeks to consume and 75% of that is drunk in Queensland! Imagine the boys delight when, at the end of the tour, they received free beer tokens! Poor Toby, having not brought the right shoes (feet must be covered for hygiene reasons....and we can understand that as far as Toby is concerned) sat sulking outside. Our next stop was Byron Bay was a lovely, fun little town with a campsite 10 metres from the beach with lots of cafes and trinket shops. While Sam sunbathed n his newly acquired surfboard (as opposed to its more traditional use), Guy, Noel and Jax went diving with the Wobegong and Leopard sharks. The others relaxed on the beach before the drive to Port Macquarie which is usually a singularly unspectacular town but this weekend there had been an influx of muscle men for the annual weight lifting competition......at last something for the girls! The only other mentionable event was Becca's spectacular fall into a large concrete ditch, where she managed to not quite break her nose but make an incredible mess of her face and fingers anyway. Luckily, nothing was ruined but her blood spattered shirt and now it is healing nicely. We spent the next morning on the beach; it is becoming a bit of a habit and then drove to Seal's Rock campsite where we watched possibly the most stunning sunset yet and had our last barbie, another of those coin operated ones but no shrimps I'm afraid. We did however have some champagne, chilled beautifully by our Tiso fridges, which Kim had very kindly brought from the UK, and then, as it was mother's day we all scrambled for the one call box to ring home. Our next stop was Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, home of some very good vineyards which we dutifully toured and tasted: a special visit was made to the Tulloch vineyard to allow Guy to sample his very distant relations' products. While Toby, Noel, Guy and Becca continued their wine tasting Sam, Kim, Jax and Will went riding near Wollombi through the beautiful valleys and across the winding creeks. On the way back we popped into the Wollombi Tavern for much needed refreshment, where we were invited by the mayor of Wollombi to stay in the Mayor's Lair - his guest house. Unfortunately we had to decline on this occasion but Sam promised he would return or indeed send his aunt and uncle out for the weekend! So, at 5.30am on Thursday 17th March, with all of us aching in various places, we gathered our kit together and packed up the Land Rovers for the last time. Sydney was just over 100kms away, it took just over 2 hours to reach the edge of the city where we were met by an extremely hard working Jo & Ko Oosterhuis (Sam's aunt and uncle), Fleur Rutherford and Mary Smith (Sam's mother and grandmother), Diana Tory (Anna's mother) and representatives of Sydney's Land Rover club. At approximately 11am, after 7 months and 20,000 miles, we crossed the harbour bridge and arrived in Sydney. It was quite a reception with balloons and champagne against the triumphant backdrop of Sydney Harbour bridge. We'd made it! That evening, we were taken for a celebratory harbour cruise in a steamboat in and out of the small bays that make up Sydney Harbour, past the opera house and under the bridge. We even saw the fantastic house belonging to the Prime Minister which would have made 'Princess Tony', as one paper calls him out here, green with envy. The next day was our official reception and we were met by the Deputy Mayor of Sydney and the Acting British Consulate General down at Circular Quay. Sam was interviewed relentlessly by newspapers and television crews; Channel 10 flashed our success on their evening news, our last team publicity appearance. In the afternoon we visited St Vincent's Hospice where we were shown around the extremely spacious building especially compared with 100 beds only 40 of which were occupied. The Hospice, unlike Trinity, is 100% government funded and has all the very latest equipment. We presented the hospice with our Tibetan prayer flags, framed with a photo of the expedition to commemorate our arrival in Sydney and our visit to the hospice. That really saw the official end of the expedition, all that was left was to strip the Land Rovers and disband. The next couple of days were spent doing just that, unbolting our boxes and either sending them home or packing them up ready to take. We had our dreaded finance meeting and were pleasantly surprised.........there may even be a (very) little money left! We believe we have raised between £8,000 and £10,000, so far, for Trinity Hospice although it is hard to say as many donations arrive at Trinity without specifically being attributed to us. We will, of course, continue to raise awareness and encourage support. We then set about exploring Sydney travelling extensively around the harbour by ferries, visiting the vast aquarium showing every kind of fish you can imagine from tiny prawns to enormous sharks swimming amongst gloriously colouful coral. Sam and Kim visited the world's largest screen at the IMAX Theatre to watch horror scenes from Mt Everest, most visited the healthy and well laid out zoo to see the orangutans, big cats, koalas, crocodiles, seals and platypus. Some of the team went to see 'Chicago' the musical which has just opened at the Capitol Theatre and of course there was plenty of marvelous shopping and many delicious restaurants to enjoy too. All in all it was an excellent week culminating in the celebration of Jax's 26th Birthday at Bondi Beach. Now everyone is starting their next phase: Noel, Guy and Becca are now in Cairns planning to do some spectacular diving off the barrier reef. Anna is looking for work at the Melbourne comedy festival and will spend the rest of the year working and exploring Australia. Toby is travelling and examining job opportunities for another month before he returns home. Sam is off to tackle Tasmania with his girlfriend Caroline before he starts another expedition - he is part of the support team for a walking expedition across Australia from Adelaide to Darwin, which is being completed by two British men one of whom is blind. Will and Jax are heading straight back to he UK to make preparations for their forthcoming wedding......yes, they were engaged in China and are getting married later this year where the team will be reunited possibly for the first time since the disband in Sydney. Finally, we would yet again like to express our appreciation to all our sponsors, to all those who have contributed in any way whatsoever to the success of this expedition and of course to all of you who have made donations to Trinity Hospice. Your kindness is very much appreciated. You can continue to e-mail us at team@lsoexped.com |