Shitbox Rally 2011 – Brisbane to Darwin launches

A whopping 4,000km, a kick off party in sunny Brisvegas, river crossings, the lost city, Kakadu national park boy do we have a treat for you this year! Registrations have opened on http://www.shitboxrally.com.au first come first served. Limited spaces available again this year so get in early to avoid disappointment.

Shitbox Survey

Rally Photos

Some great photography from our Rally Road Warrior Dan.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeywithagun/sets/72157623628845432/

Post Shitbox Blues

I know a lot of you are suffering a huge comedown after the shitbox rally and are wondering what to do with yourself. If you need some light relief from the daily drag back in reality please take a look at some of the photos and add some of your favourite quotes of the rally. Here are some of mine:

“No pump no drive, no drive no Alice” Alex after the death of rally car named desire in Copley.
“This is the best vacation ever!, is this really my life?” Cheese – William Creek Hotel.
“Do you want flies with that?” I think it was Pete that said it first, not sure.

Any more..

Goodbye Alice

Well its all over red rover. The car auction went really well and we sold every car, although there were plenty of people in Alice who received a great bargain and we were sad to see our cars being driven off. Kooks of Hazzard went speeding around the corner of the Lasseters hotel being driven by two surfer dudes on the way to Adelaide. Keep Gus under 100km guys or he’ll blow. The hoons that bought our shitbox left the casino by doing a burn out on the grass and then speeding off into the night. I was lucky enough to grab our fluffy steering wheel cover which will be coming along for the ride in 2011.

Dave Douglas a local businessman grabbed a great bargain with the Toecutters Volvo and plan to take it around the country in the next variety club bash. This lovely man and his wife also hooked us up with karaoke last night which was a perfect way to end the rally after the triple j one night stand party.

One of my favourite memories of the night was all of our shitbox rally drivers standing up waving their hands to Mel (Chier le boite) singing one of our rally songs “Love is in the air.”

We’ve had an amazing time on the rally and seen some truly spectacular countryside. We spent most of the day around the pool yesterday, gave away some very crap prizes including two garden gnomes to the Muff drivers for their efforts in daily dress ups that gave us such entertainment over the last week.

Now as i sit contemplating the last week and suffering a large bout of post rally blues i wonder what is next and when can we get started.

Dave gives us a lift to the airport in his 1950s fire engine

Day 7 – Yulara to Alice Springs

The last day of our rally and we are all very much looking forward to our hotel beds tonight. The sounds of silence dinner was great and we were happy for the vegetables and informative lecture on the stars. The staff were very accomodating and even invited us to an after party somewhere – it all got a little hazy so i’m not clear on details.

It was another annoying morning for my husband and team mate who had to deal with a fuzzy headed wife incapable of anything more constructive than having a shower. I think i owe him a few camping trips were i pack the tent and all its paraphernalia. But never the less we were packed up and just had enough time to scoot through to see Ayers Rock before heading out mid morning to Alice. The big red rock was breathtaking and something i will definitely be returning to see again. When driving back through the national park we actually saw a real dingo casually crossing the road, and no he didn’t look like he had stolen any babies. Our muff drivers who against all good taste decided to dress up like Lindy today – fetching white socks and white plimsols. Nice.

We arrived in Alice, all but one shitbox. A huge achievement for the teams and the old bangers they drove in.

We gave two radio interviews and a TV appearance which we hear has been seen in Adelaide which is great news. The car auction is tonight so we need to get a wriggle on if we’re going to sell these dusty old shitboxes.

Day 6 – Yulara – Ayers Rock

After our early start from Mount Barry Station we set off for our longest days drive 700km to Yulara in the Northern Territory. With the sounds of Arcade Fire – ‘Keep the car running’ we drove through the painted desert and headed back on to bitumen for the next leg to Northern Territory.

The road through The Painted Desert - Evelyn Downs, Copper Hill to Cadney Station

Our shitbox rally ladies were very pleased to hit tarmac again and the walkie talkies were alive with woops and cheers. Who knew tarmac could be so popular? We stopped in a Cadney Station to pick up some sandwiches and inflate our tyres back up.  Refueled with Farmers Union iced coffee (do you know how much fat and sugar is in one of those reduced fat iced coffees – no wonder they taste so good.

Cadney Homestead - 550+ km to Yulara

A frustrated Cheese covered himself with fly spray (not insect repellant)  to keep the flies off i’m happy to say he’s still with us but don’t try this at home kids.

We had some trouble keeping the cars in convoy when we were on the highway due to some of the speed demon antics from the teams and poor old Kooks of Hazzard could only travel at 100 kmph due to overheating issues.  We still managed to keep in groups of 5 or 6 and maintained CB radio banter to pass instructions and info back and forth in the cars. “This is team shitbox – Just stopping for a pee break  ..Over.”  - “Roger that Team Shitbox, over.”

There is very little coverage from about Copley to Yulara even on your flashy Telstra turbos, hence the retrospective blogging.

After we passed Northern territory borders we noticed a big flat tyre on our car and had to make a quick change. Team shitbox could probably challenge the guys at Bathurst for the speed with which they unpacked the car grabbed the spare, changed it then repacked the car.  We were racing against time as the pick up for the sounds of silence dinner was at 6pm.

Pitstop tyre change at Mt Connor

We then realised the time difference between SA and NT and gained an hour which mean’t we were ‘slightly’ less rushed. The ladies had a plan for dressing up for dinner and we were all in desperate want of a shower and a some cold water. Drinking warm water out of a dusty bottle in a dusty car can get pretty dull.

When at last we arrived i was surprised to see how busy the resort was its obviously a big hit with the backpackers and you can see why, the facilities were a welcome treat after a couple of days rough camping in the outback and i think we were all pleased to have a bit of phone coverage.

Showered, togged up and heeled ready for sounds of silence dinner overlooking Ayers Rock.

Day 5 – Arckaringa – The Painted Desert

It was a slow start to the day after our fantastic night at William Creek. Antipasto, chilled white wine and two up in the outback. So much fun. So sore head.

We made our start out on the Oodnadatta track for a hard days driving. No sooner had we left William Creek that we hit our first hurdle of the day. Morph Mobile team hit a huge rock and ripped a hole somewhere under the car – i have no idea about cars but whatever it was wasn’t good and they were dripping oil. We didn’t have our trusty mechanic Alex on scene so James and Ash got their hands dirty under the car with some kind of araldite glue thingy and put a fix in place. It held and within an hour we were on the road again.

I can’t tell you how beautiful the painted desert was so you’ll just have to look at the photos. We were welcomed by the lovely Sharon and The Arckaringa cowboys. We hooked into the cold beers after a hard days driving. Ladybugs had a bit of a problem with their suspension so hitched a ride up to the lookout.

When we were all together we were led back to the Arckaringa homestead for a barbie. The painted desert is very remote and visitors are rare for the station and its cowboys, i hope we entertained them with our space odyssey theme dress up but i can’t say that we were on best form since we were all so plum tuckered.

I wished we had extra time in this truly beautiful and special place as i would have loved to listen to everyones stories of breaking in horses and life on the huge cattle stations. However we arrived so late after our bumpy start and had just enough time for their lovely food, some songs and a camp fire before  slipping off to bed ready for our dawn start the next day.

Day 4 – William Creek

Its been a couple of days since my last post and the vast remoteness and beauty of this place can only be matched by the number of flies and mozzys.

After a very dusty and treacherous trek on the Oodnadatta track via Lake Eyre lookout we reached William Creek.  The William Creek hotel a welcome sight in the setting sun, we postponed any setting up camp activities for a cold refreshing beer.

All the cars had performed well, we dropped the tyre pressure down and drove quite slowly. With the amount of boulders hitting the underside of our cars it was a miracle no one had punctured a tyre.

The William Creek hotel is an amazing sight to see, it is decorated with thousands of business cards, hats, t-shirts and stubbie holders from all the visitors over the years. The publican Bruce (I know can you believe it) is a lovely man who kindly looked after us and didn’t seem to mind the thrashing of his juke box or the crazy dancing. In fact I believe he was encouraging us which would explain the number of casualties the next morning.

Stop off at Maree

Oodnadatta Track

Lake Eyre lookout

Our watering hole in William Creek

Hello Folks,

Long time no see, sorry we’ve been out of range up until Yulara. I have lots of stories to tell you but for now we’re fixing up a fuel pump on Chier Le Boite and getting ready for the drive to Alice.