Into The Rising Sun - Departure

Well all the preparation is now over and were off today.

Its been very novel over the past month and I can only say that if this trip was on a boat then we really should be prepared to sink very quickly. Thank goodness for solid ground - hard to fall through that!

The Camel Whisperer - Chris O'Hora - the owner of the camel farm and our camel mentor, has a saying that is used at infinitum "Prior preparation prevents piss poor performance" - due to no other reasonable alternative this has been modified by the group to "Winging it works". We'll see which is true.

All of the other guys have serious safety concerns due to the magnitude of the trip, the terrain and the enormity of the undertaking. To date I have not shared this view as I was sure that all that we had to do was to carry sufficient provisions and keep walking towards Melbourne. I am now changing this opinion and feel that any reasonably competent psychologist would instantly certify me insane based on the last month's preparations. It has not gone smoothly due to a total lack of understanding of what we have to do by all of us. However we have gotten to departure day and we are going with a sense of relief to get away. Any additional things that we need we are going to sort out in the next two weeks so by then we should be a well oiled machine.

I woke early this morning to write this email and felt both euphoria and trepidation and on the way to the computer room I saw an omen. As I walked passed our camel's paddock with our three "Automated wheelbarrows" lying down chewing their cud who were blissfully unaware of what they are about to be subjected to, a beautiful fully coloured rainbow opened up above the camels with the rising sun and framed them perfectly in the sky. This should be sufficient to save the chicken that we were about to sacrifice to check out the entrails for the portends of the future. I can comfortably now confirm that someone is watching over us and the chicken is going to live after all. I actually think that the big fella in the sky is rolling over with hysterical laughter and wants us to go on the trip so that he can watch a new soap opera of life on a daily basis. This is sufficient reason for me to feel comfortable and happy about the journey. Keep the TV tuned to Channel Camel God, there will be plenty of installments coming up that will give you a good belly laugh.

Yesterday we had the film crew on site and they captured the first attempt to load the camels.

They seemed perplexed that we have 4 Chinese made travel suitcases that we bought from "Red Spot" - the WA equivalent to "The $2 Shop". When we explained that we ran out of funds to by suitable cases for these camels they laughed - we laughed too. All be it that the two laughs were certainly not the same type of laugh none the less we were all jovial and we walked away to pack the camels and they stood still and scratched their head in bewilderment.

Imagine 3 camels that are unused to the new saddles (made of steel and look very much like an 18 foot skiff with big outriggers on the side) being packed with 1 ton of equipment. I must agree with the camels that in the same situation I would not be all that happy. Well they weren't. They bucked and kicked but eventually they settled down and we managed to take them for a 15 minute walk before the sun set. This was all captured on film by professional who do not miss anything that could be construed to be embarrassing, funny or dangerous. Great day! In between our last minute preparations we were being interviewed and asked all sorts of questions about ourselves, the group and the trip.

Anyway were off and that's what's most important.

Day 1 is a brisk 8 km jaunt to the Mundering Weir Pub where we'll stay tonight and then be interviewed tomorrow by the TV show "Today Tonight". Nathan has got his own publicist on the go so we may well take two years to get to Melbourne as we will have media responsibilities all along the way.

Due to all of the media excitement Damo, our BFG (Big Friendly Giant) has gone out and bought himself a dress. We all thought that this was a good idea as this would be the closest thing to an Arab outfit that is available from and OP-shop. Well Damo got a bit excited and he bought a tightly fitting evening dress - red of course, made specifically for the well endowed woman who wants to show off her cleavage. Got to love Damo!

Stay tuned for the next installment. Will have photos then so you can see the progress.

Brad