Prostate Cancer Rally – Made it to Marree
We packed the cars ready for our journey to Marree on the Birdsville Track for Day 6 of the Prostate Cancer Rally.
We met for today’s drivers briefing, the schedule said an 8am departure but it was changed to 9am due to concerns regarding the exit road, as more water had come from the North and had caused major flooding.
Joel from the 80 series Landcruiser ran around camp telling us all to get moving, they had changed the schedule for a third time. It was 8:30am and we had to be leaving. We gathered the third vehicle and sent the owners on the way as they were flying north to see the head water and meet the rally in Marree later that evening.
The water was high so we proceeded with caution until everyone made it over safely. The road was closed we were lucky that the police officer Stephen let us out of Birdsville. We regrouped on the other side of the river for a quick head counter and the Vintage Adventurer team were radioed to be at the head of the convoy.
The scenery was a reminder of vast land while the wedge tailed eagles circled above. The road was rugged with truck ruts over crests and in dip, we radioed back giving the others fair warning.
We stopped at Mungerannie Hotel 322km from Birdsville for half a burger with a side of chips. The main attraction for the Vintage Adventurer were the old drilling rigs and winch truck relics of the famous postman Aussie, Tom Kruse, a man of many talents.
We pushed on towards the day’s final destination Marree, pronounced Mar-ree, a little town in the middle of no where, just a pub, fuel station and caravan park with no signal for their TVs.
Rod’s phone wasn’t working so he walked down to the Telstra box, a pay phone on the town’s one street. He notified his wife that we had made it to Marree safely. We ran into the owners of vehicle 52, the one we had bought down for them. They had just been picked up from the airport in their Range Rover – of course they had a car waiting. We finished the night with a meal at the pub, the story will continue on in the morning.
