SUNDAY 14th OCT - MUDGEE TO FORBES

Sunday - day two.

Breakfast was at the Mudgee showgrounds courtesy of Mudgee Rotary Club, a hearty cooked breakfast on a cold morning was most welcome.

When we arrived , all the teams were advised that the whole group would be moved into a T shape to be submitted to TODAY show on channel 9 for their "Show us your Today Show T" segment.

Trip photographer , Tevor directing the T sign , easier said than done .

Team Afro - right up front with 808 . 

  

A small traffic snarl with a car getting a flat in the wrong place - then on to have some fun....

A quick stop for some fun , each morning and afternoon section we had FUN STOPS, because LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE and can cure car related tensions and navigation errors in a jiffy. Some of these fun stops feature throughout each days blog post.

This morning's stop was to complete a giant jigsaw - each car was given 1 or 2 pieces to fitted together. Great team exercise and gave a few laughs - grown adults trying figure it all out and wishing they had an edge piece!

 Each morning all the teams were given a collections list for the day - a list of 12 items to collect throughout the day in which points were allocated (and extras for bribes and creativity) to each team. The winner was to be announced on Friday night's celebration dinner at Old Parliment House.

One of many collections photos - a photo of your team with a statue , this one is in Wellington , the most photographed statue of the day. Also that day we had to get a photo with a policeman - due to some unknown problem Mario & Luigi got into to strife in Orange at lunch and ....

Those bad boys - locked up 

After a quick stop in Orange for lunch , it was back to it . A few cars , us included had difficulties getting on to the route for the afternoon section. This was due to the sign for the road to turn right into was after the intersection rather than before and caused much confusion. 

Onto Forbes ....

Another group dinner in Forbes at the sports club , a feast of pasta,pasta and more pasta.

Sunday night on esCarpade  , means one thing - EsCARpade song night - this is the time that the puppeteers reveal the song we were to sing at each of the school visits. This years song was to the tune of "They'll be coming 'round the mountain " , verses included "They'll be coming through the mud when they come - beep beep", "We'll all run out to see then when they come.- hurry up!" , and "Camp Quality is proud of what they've done - high five".  This song also has actions , as has been said before LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE" - great laughs and we all started to lose the nervousness and any shyness - this was all about having fun.

After dinner , bare foot bowls was the game of choice for many , there were a few stand outs in our group . Laurie , was a clear natural (no age related jokes!) , Ross and Graham made entertaining viewing with Darren as comic back up.

Darren continued his  fundraising efforts - selling wool for collections and by giving a very convincing sponsorship request to Simon (Simon would soon become wary of Darren) , complete with the credo and beliefs of Camp Quality - it was a winner!




 

SATURDAY 13th OCT - NEWCASTLE TO MUDGEE

Saturday - the first day of esCarpade 2012 .
 Team Afro were up and ready to head of to breaky and launch at Nobby's Beach Surf Club .
Luckily the weather had improved, so breaky by the ocean should be very nice.

The AFRO ROCKET packed and ready to go

Darren in the spirit of AFRO

Darren his first breath test of the trip - the ambo's breath tested all drivers at the beginning of each section ,morning & lunch . The driver was then issued a coulored arm band for the day to show their sobriety. Darren went on to collect the full set of  6 (to be seen in a later post)

Righy o then Daz - your ready to go then ....

Here is Darren and Michael  ( Micheal was originally meant to be Sharkmobile master , but due Sharkie being Land Rovered on the trip to Newcastle) - he turned into Luigi.

Ross dealing his sales pitch to trip photographer , Trevor. The sticker we devised as a fundraiser were a hit 

This became a trip motto - don't worry , it's esCarpade what could go wrong?

A beutiful day at the beach

Treen & Ross selling the stickers

The last sticker being auctioned - Ross managed to get $15.00 for one sticker. This is the first Team Afro's fundraising ventures on the trip.

Treen , now a true AFRO member , Ross named her AFRETTE , or should have been A THREAT?

Ben's first driver briefing

Breaky day one

TEAM AFRO - ready to esCarpade.

Some of the esCarpade cars lined up for lunch in Singleton. The first of many great country lunches.

Watch out .. Treen's at the wheel. After lunch on the first day , Darren threw Treen the keys and said " You're up, go get ya breath test and see you at the car!" 

Into Mudgee following "The Fun Police"

Dinner in Mudgee was sports stars theme, so of course Team Afro was obliged to show their state colours. We received a lot of flack about being Queenslanders, maybe NSW supporters are sore losers?

A photo of  a man taking a photo .

Daz and Mon comparing footy teams. As the Canterbury Bulldogs are a major charity supporters Mon & Josie were showing their support in special CQ jerseys.

Sports night brought much fun and frivolity , along with Darren gaining his first donation from Simon Rountree (Camp Quality CEO) . Simon was to be the proud owner of the one and only signed esCarpade sticker.

So that brought the end of the first day on the road - off to Forbes on Sunday.

Friday 12th Oct - Newcastle

The AFRO crew woke up to a freezing cold morning ... Treen saw that there had been snow falls in her old home town of Goulburn .. arghhhh! 
Despite the cold , we had to get out and about , so off to Maccas for breaky . Whilst topping up our temperatures with coffee , Tony from 808 called to see if we could pick  him up to go and get oil and sump plug seals as the Purple People Eater was losing oil at a steady rate. No worries , we went off and got the oil and seals for them before heading to scrutineering.

AFRO ROCKET looking good and ready for esCarpade.

Scrutineering was easy for Team Afro - Gordon checked off that the front tow ball had been attended to and the Ambo's to check the first aid kit which I am sure is equip t for minor surgery and we where given the all clear to get our entrant packs and the esCarpade Bible. The bible is the source of all things good and the route notes - this was then handed to Laurie to study for it was his job to get us from place to place without getting lost.

Nobby's Head - we decided that it was too cold and unpleasant to drive around and walk to the top.

Nobby's Beach surf club - the venue for Saturday morning's breakfast and esCarpade launch.

A piece of the Pasha Bulker that ran aground on Nobby's Beach on 8th June 2007. Trina saw a tv program about Newcastle just before coming down south , so she had to take a look for herself.

Running back to the AFRO ROCKET , after checking out the insignificant piece of the Pasha Bulker. It was COLD , really cold!

Ross kept trying to assure us that it was NOT cold - no ,in my opinion it was freezing and no crazy ideas from Ross was going change Darren, Laurie's or my opinion.

Darren & Laurie at Queen's Wharf tower. The info stated that there was 180 steps, so Ross set off to the top to count them all the way down.After waiting for seemed an eternity the rest of the Afro crew , thought he may have gotten on the pensioner tourist bus near the base of the tower.

After shopping and buying some extra warm gear, it was time to head to 808's accommodation for a drink. Looks like Darren is ready for the snowfields , not Newcastle in October.

Ross continued his first night esCarapde dinner tradition, that is "How to get his dinner roll to float to the ceiling?"

He just kept nibbling until......

it got right up to the roof. Many other things then started to float about the room. Until security pounced on anyone who looked as they were about to launch balloons skyward.

 

 

 

Though not much could be done to stop the squealing balloons being launched through the diners. The high kinks and joking had started - esCarpade was on!

Darren looking happy to be back on esCarpade.

 

 

 After dinner , we headed back to our motel to get a good night's sleep , before starting on the first of many early ,fun filled and exciting days criss crossing western NSW.
 

Brisbane - Newcastle - Thurday 11th Oct

An early start was called for by Yellow team captain Darren.
Team Afro (Darren,Trina,Ross & Laurie were met by 808 (Tony,Graham & Rob) and Julie from Brisbane CQ office at 5am....
Julie I'm sure has been scared for life by Graham's infamous penguin joke - an esCarpade classic revealed on the trip home from Bright last year.

Follow the trip with photos below:

AFRO ROCKET ,808 & SHARKMOBILE AT YATALA - Booger was there too ,somewhere.

Nice selfie Daz -

Through Coffs Harbour - there was no stopping for banana sundaes - on we went!

The QLD crew parked at lunch in Macksville - great hamburgers at Caltex roadhouse.

Between Port Mac Quarie Kew , a Landrover gave Sharkie a big problem . The Landrover hessitated comming out of an intersection and dealt the Shark Mobile a fatal blow. Micheal & Warren were Ok , thank goodness , but Sharkmobile was not going any further on esCarpade  this year. Michael & Warren's gear was shared amongst the other 3 cars , they jumped in with 808 and on to Newcastle to assess what to do next.

Down the highway we went until we saw .....

GIGGLE ...

Safe in newcastle - dropped Sharkie boys and their gear off.. Ross found one of the arms that came from the Sharkmobile to start the fun and games that were to come over the next 7 days.

It's all good in AFRO ROCKET ..Ross modelling his new driving hat.The first on many interesting hats and costumes for the week..