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Show of hands – who knows an ambidextrous, mirror-writing, German Ninja Warrior/body building CSIRO scientist? We do – her name is Sonja and she is incredible! We caught up with Sonja on Sunday, who Kate knows from her uni days in Armidale. We had the delight of trying to complete parts of Sonya’s Ninja Warrior obstacle course training area in her shed. We mostly failed, but definitely felt the part applying liquid chalk to our hands and celebrated by eating Toblerone afterwards.
We spent the first part of the week becoming locals of industrial Dubbo, camping out in the shed at the Aussie Helpers depot. Spending time with depot coordinator Katie and her mum Merrilyn, we had a great time getting to know these two incredibly generous and kind-hearted women. Our gas cooker threw a hissy fit on Wednesday night, meaning dinner was downgraded to tinned soups we have carried around for a good 40,000kms, and brekky the day after was microwaved porridge where the Goldilocks tale very much played out. Fiddling round with ratios of oats and water for the microwave, first up it was too runny, then too clumpy, but third time lucky!
Our main trip out of our cosy shed earlier in the week was to Girilambone, just past Nyngan. We spent the day teaching the Girilambone school students and visiting students from Hermidale, how to line dance. They were a very energetic and well-behaved group, and an absolute highlight of the trip. It seemed to be a day of swapping skills – while we may have taught the kids how to boot scoot, the pair of us got well and truly schooled at handball during lunch time!
On Thursday, we headed north to Coonamble for our hoedown at the Bucking Bull Hotel that night. This was hoedown number 70 for us, and it didn’t disappoint – there was a disco ball, fun lights, the chicken dance in full swing, and a guy called Corey taking a mic to finish the night with a bit of karaoke. He was amazing – someone needs to tell him that karaoke singers are supposed to be shocking! Thank you very much to Jenny, Scott, Jeremy and Bree from the hotel for putting us up for the night, in the comfiest queen beds ever!
We drove east to Tamworth on Friday, gearing up for our big NSW event on Saturday night – the Dungowan Do Si Do at the incredibly beautiful Dungowan Station. It had been a long time coming to meet SITC founder and all-round incredible person Shanna Whan and her jack-of-all-trades husband Tim, and we had a great night – wrap up post of the night coming shortly.
This week is our FINAL week on the road. We’ve had to cancel our Fifield event due to floods, but we will be teaching in Newcastle on Thursday night, before we hightail it to Brisbane, ready to head back south to Melbourne for the Shine Awards. It’s been a crazy ride, and we’re nearly at the end… less than two weeks til we get onstage with Keith in Brissy (hopefully).
Yours in bootscootin,
Kate and Claire.