Stuart Highway North

Thanks to Ben, Emily and Lexi for the $20 fuel donation

Go and say good on ya to Frank, who worked us in some drains for $30 fuel and some food and cigarettes

Say Hi, to Jack Harries at the Hi Way Inn, Daly Waters for the $30 fuel we earned for siliconing the roof and sweeping the forecourt.

Just go to the famous Daly Waters Historic Hotel and meet Lindsay, Robyn, their Rodeo King son Paddy, daughter Kate and staff Jess and Brian. It’s famous because, as Lindsay says, ‘everyone knows about it, that’s why’. Good answer from good people. We worked, got fed, given drinks, raised donations at the bar, and had, for the first time in, it seemed like for, for, forever, an airconditioned sleeping quarters.

Good on yer Marilyn Starr

The Dutch fellers, John, Rom and Mark, who donated to our pot.

To Steve Toms, of Top End Explorer Tours in Kakadu, who we got chatting to at the bar in Daly Waters, who donated to the pot too, and who was a thoroughly decent chap into the bargain.

To Barry and Anne, who run the Pink Panther Roadhouse and Pub at Larrimah, and Samantha and Snappy Time the crocodiles who reside within. We worked, got fed, found a bed, and they chucked more than a penneths worth into the charity pot for us. Thanks to you.

Tenant Creek

Our second stop at Tenant Creek and we had another $20 fuel from the fine people at the BP.

Tenant Creek Food Barn donated some groceries to us. Thanko mate.

We stayed at Tenant Creek Caravan Park didn’t we, owing to their munificence.

Wayne at Leading Edge Computers didn’t bat an eyelid at some free internet time.

Mick and Sue Adams joined in with the spirit of things with some work cleaning and paint stripping at their Central Service Station for some fuel and charity money. Working so hard that when a Redback climbed over Anne’s hand as she cleaned she batted not a lid at it, gesticulated like an Italian with her other hand, and called it a weak-ass lilly-livered sorry excuse for a poisonous creature, and to not waste any more of her time! It went away, scolded and said not another word all day.

Ti Tree

Thanks to Ronnie and the Tongan lads at Red Globe Table Grapes. Given a days work we were lucky to arrive at the weekend, drank Cava, Tongan beer with the collective there, who donated $300 of their hard-earned wages to us, to add to the $300 for Book Aid the next day in wages. Overwhelming stuff.

Alice Springs

Thank you to J9 Staunton, who gave us wwoofers some work and donated very generously to the charity, and put up with us as we raced around town looking for work, talking to the radio, and newspapers and that malarkey. A very talented and lovely person she is too, despite not telling me as I sat on the red been-bag the dog uses for ‘personal pleasure’ that I may be more comfortable elsewhere.

Thanks to Ian and Pam Lue, J9’s visiting relatives, for the donation to Book Aid. It was a great beard you had Ian.

Thanks to Jo George and the team at The Rock Tour, Alice Springs, who had no compunction offering us a three day tour down to Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and Kings Canyon. And to Craig, our tour guide, we thank unreservedly, for the excellent way he ferried a bus load of people around and made it fun, informative and easy. An excellent time had by all, I think. Yes, I do think that.

Thank you Wendy at Toddies Backpackers, for working us in the garden and donating the wages to Book Aid. Then fed us steaks at night. Top job.

Thanks to the well-intentioned people at Caltex Alice Springs for the full tank of fuel donated to us.

To Chris, who made us a coffees and a b.l.t each and sat with us at his fine establishment the Red Dog Café, on Todd St mall.

Thanks to the Centralian Advocate for running a story on us

Thanks also to Rowan, the afternoon DJ on ABC Alice Springs who interviewed us.

Hello and thanks to Cousin Jo, Gareth’s effervescent relative, for the donation to our cause. Top bananas cousin jo.

Thank You Andrew Lake and Rob Evans, at the YHA Hostel in Alice, for letting us stay there in exchange for some work.

Thank Derek Goh, at the Tea Shrine, for the fried rice.

Thank you Richie at Rocky Hill Table Grapes, who offered us work picking grapes (I know, grapes, in the desert, but apparently so) and despite only getting a day out of it due to the torrential rain, (I know, torrential rain, in the desert, but apparently so) we appreciate the effort nonetheless.

Thanks to the girls at Gloria Jeans for the breakfast coffees.

We love you April at Wicked Kneads, not only for the breakfast buns, but for the tea time pastry box later on that day. Phew!

As James Blunt sang ‘you’re beautiful’. So we sang in honour of Shelley and the girls at Haven Hostel for the stay there. Happy to work for our beds, and to answer such questions as ‘do you guys like beer? We have a load of cans here, leftover, you want em’ We went week at the knees. Sincerely.

Sorry. To the fella who, as we were being given our box of beer, was asked, over our shoulder, to pay $5 for that can of Pepsi he wanted. He audibly frowned. Fair play, I thought.

Thank you to Tony Dodds at Target, who donated to us our video camera tapes.

Double Dutch! Thanksh to Ed and Girde from Holland who left some beer for us and a pouch of tobacco.

Bonjour! To Yuri Iizuka and Juno, from Japan and Korea respectively. Rovery people.
Thanks to quintessential Chris, from Norwich, for the hat he donated. Very dapper it is and much used in the interim. Obliged to you kind sir.

He may just be the mechanical equivalent of the man whose name he almost shares, come forward Richard Hawkins, Wicked Camper mechanic, top fella and author of The Cog Delusion.

Goodness gracious great balls of fire! Russel at Alice Scrap and Metal, who gave us an afternoons work, sorting through scrap aluminium, de-casing copper wire and generally getting mucky and burning stuff. The wages, of course, went to Book Aid.

Stuart Highway South

Thanks to Edsei Nememo at BP Tenant Creek for the $20 fuel donation

Big hugs to Big John Duncan, who we met while camping at the Devil’s Marbles campsite, who took it upon himself to get us as drunk as drunk could be, fetching drinks from the fridge in the back of his 4x4, played us songs in the 4x4, made us sing to the Kinks in the 4x4, recite Slim Dusty, and generally rocked out with us until the wee hours of the early morn.

To Kersti at Wauchope Hotel and Roadhouse who donated $20 fuel to us.

To Lew Farkas at Wycliffe Wells (Aliens from Outer Space Themed) Roadhouse for the $20 fuel donation.