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We’ve travelled a good 2500 kilometres this week down the west coast, kicking off from Broome on Monday last week. It was midday when we set off, so rather than lunch, an entire block of banana and caramel snack chocolate followed by polony/devon/fritz seemed like a good way to kick things off.
After an overnight stop in Port Hedland, we took a detour out to Exmouth to see the famous Ningaloo Reef. We very frantically drove round the coastline, trying to see as many beaches as possible in half a day listening to the only six ‘coastal chill’ songs Claire had downloaded, on repeat, for four hours. We haven’t listened to coastal music since. Thanks to Claire’s relatives Glenda and George who let us stay, spoiling us with brilliant company, guides to the reef, and the best butterscotch pudding we’ve ever had.
As we headed out to Mellenbye Station Stay on Friday, we spotted a gigantic orange conglomeration of tractor, trailer, plane, boat one, boat two and dog about 10ks out. Call us detectives, but we were pretty sure it was Sam The Travelling Jackaroo, so called up on the UHF that he had two homeless bootscooters fast approaching. We drove the last bit of road together, somehow managed to miss the driveway despite travelling at the breakneck speak of 30km/hr, and finally arrived at the station. A surreal feeling to finally be there after months of planning our big WA event there, and a ride on a monster truck out to the lake that afternoon was the perfect celebration.
We’re quite used to radio interviews by now, but Saturday morning with ABC Mid West would have to be one of the most memorable thanks to some service difficulties. Picture us standing on the second top step on the way up to a shipping container tuned rooftop bar, at sunrise, with Claire’s puffer jacket as a windbreak, hoping our one bar of service would carry us through the interview. It did!
Next up was teaching a group of people in giraffe onesies how to boot scoot – most coordinated giraffes ever – and after a lovely afternoon of painting trees with Kendall from Blue Tree Project it was time for the night event. We are absolutely blown away with the success of the entire day, raising a total of $7200 to be split 50/50 between us and The Travelling Jackaroo in support of our respective charities. Thank you to everyone who attended, from as far as Esperance, Newman and even the Sunny Coast (Claire’s Dad Rick), and to Shelly and the crew from Mellenbye for all their work leading up to and on the day.
We’re currently gearing up for our Mingenew Hoedown tonight, before our Geraldton event tomorrow night, down to Perth on Wednesday, and then across to Gladstone, QLD, for the Aussie Helpers Hats Off To The Farmers ball on Saturday night.
Yours in bootscootin,
Kate and Claire.