2018 esCarpade Day -1 - Drive to Bathurst

An early start was on the cards for Damian - up at 3am, in the car by 3:30am to pick Angus up at 4:00am (Qld times), ready to head down to Bathurst for the start of the 2018 Camp Quality esCarpade!!

Only 15 mins late on hitting the road...

High beam works a treat though!!

After picking Angus up (still 15 mins late), it was out through town and onto the Western Freeway...

As the sun started to rise, they headed towards Warwick to collect 808...

Past the plane on a stick at Amberley...

Sunrise... Angus looks thrilled!

Out through the gap, it was fog central...

At the Caltex at Warwick for a coffee and to catch up with 808...

Heading towards Goondiwindi through Warwick...

Angus having a quick nap!

Through plenty of small towns...

A quick pit stop... the coffee wanted out again!!

And eventually crossing into New South Wales, where clocks were set forwards an hour!

What else would you do when stopped at roadworks on the highway other than get out and take a photo?

Into Moree for a fuel stop...

Time for Angus to have a drive...

Plenty of grain silos on the way...

Hey Brett... we saw Uranus!!  ;-)

A T-intersection on a major highway... because why wouldn't you?

Saturn... looking a bit flat on one side!!

Into Coonabarabran...

After lunch, about 5 minutes out of Coonabarabran Retro Rock-It's temperature gauge went through the roof... then the battery gauge went through the floor... recognising the signs of a dropped belt, Damian pulled over...

Yep, the belt is gone...

Well, tangled around the pulleys, really...

And what's worse, there was a broken pulley!!

Damian phoned the RACQ who sent the NRMA (through a partner agreement) to look into the problem... in the meantime, Team Alex arrived and offered to lend a hand...

Damian looking pretty happy given the situation...  The following three photos courtesy of Team Alex...

Check it out - Damian had a spare pulley in the back of the car!!

Getting down and dirty...

Plenty of people offering expertise and plenty of good natured ribbing!!

One broken pulley...  Apparently this can be fixed by replacing the pulley on the broken end - Damian decided to keep this as a spare...

And back on the road again!!

As the sun began to set, the boys along with 808 continued to plod along towards Bathurst...

Finally arriving in the dark...

 

 

After a great adventure for the first day, the boys arrived safe and sound in Bathurst around 8pm NSW time (7pm Qld time), about 2 hours later than they had planned...

 

After a few celebratory drinks and a quiet dinner, Angus hit the sack while Damian wandered up to the officials hotel to say g'day to some of the teams who had already arrived...

 

Once the blog is posted, Damian will be heading to bed also...  Day -1 is done and dusted - the car went well, the boys had a good time and apart from a minor debacle with the fan belt and pulley, all is good with the world so far!!

 

Saturday brings scrutineering, a relaxing day and the official welcome dinner.

 

esCarpade 2018 is finally here!!