28/10/2026
Day 7: Windorah to Winton
We woke up cool and completely buggered after 5 hours sleep 😆
I’d like to announce that my mattress rolling up skills are improving so much that it slips into the bag with ease now!! We packed up like a well oiled machine and put on our dress up for the day.
Today is Honour Day where we honour someone who is fighting cancer, is a survivor or someone we have sadly lost.
Michelle dressed as Elvis in honour of her Aunty who is living with Thyroid Cancer. Elvis is her idol.
Marie dressed as her Dad, Malcolm Meaney and wore his old oil stained work shirt, hat and John Lennon glasses! It was much more comfortable than yesterday’s costume!!
A 6.30am brekky in the hall followed by the news that we would get a bit of dirt road today, and mud after more overnight rain.
Buddy Group 14 was second to leave because of Shear Madness being the 6th highest fundraiser. We were also asked to be lead vehicle for the day - a bit of an honour!
Our first stop was Jundah for a code yellow, and a code green to check the Kanga Bangas radiator. All good thankfully!!
Just out of Jundah, the police set up a RBT and had a chuckle breath testing Elvis in a Magna 🤣
On to Stonehenge, population 10, that was underwater a year ago! The little pub and street suddenly filled with cars and people much to the publicans delight! A few shenanigans later we had to shift some gear onto the roof rack to fit Harvey the social media guru in the back. Harvey took some footage and chatted about his dream job and we loved having him come for a ride with us!
Out of Stonehenge we turned onto a dirt track with numerous washouts and a challenging rocky road with patches of mud. Teams littered the side of the road with breakdowns. Then we got the news that S**z & Gigglez had broken down but mechanic Joe sorted it quickly with a relay that had disconnected.
We decided to stop where there were some trees for shade to have lunch and wouldn’t you know it? The trees vanished to an open plain that went on for miles. Oh well surely there would be some trees soon? We eventually stopped between Mt Felix and Mt Flat Top that funnily enough had a flat top with a strange ni**le hill next to it to the delight of S**z & Gigglez 🤣
The Mackay boys showed us how to change a tyre in 2 minutes and elevated themselves to legend status!! Go Tony & Neil!!
Harvey did an interview with us all then hopped in with S**z & Gigglez. We played leap frog with group 19 who had a car with a broken alternator from using their coffee machine, so the afternoon was slow with washouts, mud, dust, Brahman cattle and bumpy grids.
Our next stop was the turn off to the Lark Quarry Conservation Park.
This is where a terrible thing happened!!! Shorn lost a leg 😢 We had to put 2 Jerry cans of fuel in and off we limped with 3 legs!
Very naughtily we went (off track) to see the Dinosaur Stampede National monument…and to find a toilet phew!
We pranked Joe so he said “THE WORD” (mine) so he had to do 10 push ups 😆
Getting late we had 100kms to Winton. Last in line we had tail end Charlie behind us as we watched the sun set in our mirrors. An absolutely stunning drive with spinifex grass, the odd Buzzard and gorgeous northern cattle.
We rolled into town late again, fuelled up more quickly because there were more fuel stations then found a spot at the Winton Showgrounds to set up camp. Another great feed thanks to the awesome Winton people, then a much needed shower with some friendly frogs.
We stupidly sat around de-sweating in the slight breeze trying to convince Bashar that he didn’t need to chip the mud off the underside of his beloved Saab, instead of going to bed but we are only here once! Who needs sleep anyway!!
Brilliant day again!
Mystery Box Rally
