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Long Way Across for Childhood Cancer

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Day 16 Dions Lookout to Charleville

Rats.....Bloody Rats.......this is not 400 Country

The day after the night from hell.

We got as far as Dions’ lookout yesterday and as the sun had set we thought it would be a great spot to camp up on the rocky outcrop some 200m up on an escarpment and get an early night. We got some great photos as we were waiting for the cars and then we caught a few glimpses of some rodents scurrying around the camp shelter. Word around town was a rat plague was due to the huge amount of water around Birdsville and the abundant food the floods bring. We soon discovered that the picnic shelter slab was riddled around the perimeter with rat holes and as we stuffed rocks down their escape routes we could hear thousands of the pesty little fellas trying to chew through the rocks and escape. Troy was absolutely petrified of rats, nearly as much as Tony with snakes. Time to plan an attack!

After the sun had set and dinner was finished we were sitting around the table taking our daily ‘on the bench and in the bush’ video interview when a dastardly rat run straight up Troy’s leg and he nearly hit the roof. Troy has a heart condition and we thought that we were going to have to get the defribulator out of the Nissan and restart his heart to an acceptable beat. His eyes were dilating and he then was starting to hallucinate and we were all concerned that the close confines of his swag tonight would bring on an uncontrollable anxiety attack. As we were really concerned for his wellbeing Robbo though it would be a good idea to put a big dollop of peanut paste on top of his swag after he was put down to sleep for the night.

It was GOLD, we all awoke to Troy screaming that there were rats on his swag fighting!!!!!! Really, are you sure we all asked? He started to scratch himself and wanted to take a shower to clean off the rat poo that he thought had got into his swag. Poor bloke didn’t get another wink of sleep all night because at around 10pm a 300knot wind came from the East and I swear I have never been in worse camp in my entire life. The wind was so strong it blew over the 400 EXC off its side stand and we were worried it would actually blow us and all our gear off the 200m edge only 15m from where we were. The wind blew the same speed until sun up and then slowed to around 100 knots and this was the head wind we rode into for the next 2 days. The poor 400EXC was nearly going backwards at a few points throughout the day.

The mighty 400EXC once again was going nowhere fast about 50km from camp. It chewed the spline right out of the front sprocket and without drive she was parked up until Nissan 2 rounded the bend and fitted a new 14 tooth and she was again back up to the task of lugging Statt from the Indian Ocean all the way to the glistening Pacific Ocean at Noosa.

A quick refuel and lunch at the thriving metropolis of Windora and we have our sights set on Charleville for the tonight’s camp.

The road into Charleville was getting busier, lots of cattle and other wild life lining the road to keep your thoughts on the road and the right finger ready to apply the Brembos’ at an instant.

We made it to camp at around 4pm and headed for the second caravan park for the trip, a steaming hot shower and off to the local for dinner and a beverage.

Rat infested slab and Troys Swag which is soon to be coated in peanut butter