ride4acure

5 am, very crisp, foggy no frost equal great conditions for the trek.  Have just ducked outside to greet this new day and was blown away by the clarity of the night sky, a gazzillion bright stars shining their lights for us.  Clancy our little Jack Russell, foxy, Chihauha cross sleeps inside with us, Hamish (Hannah’s Jack Russell) was tied up last night outside (with a sheepskin bed to sleep in) his night on guard and mouse duty under neath the truck, cleaning up mice as we’re travelling through a cronic mouse plague area in the Riverina.  Clancy just went beserk outside chasing mice around, it is unbeleivable, I have met people who are catching hundreds of mice a night in their homes. Heard a story a few days ago where mice ate their way through a 20kg bag of dog food in 48 hours! All I can say is I’m glad we have our hounds with us as they’re a great help in keeping the critters out of our ‘home’.

Esther, Joe and I went to Narranderra Rotary Club last night and I was guest speaker.  I have such a heart for Rotary, a fantastic community organisation with a strong vision for community.  It is such a pleasure to revisit Narranderra Rotary a year on from being here with the pack horse trek.  We were made to feel very welcome. A big thank you to John Foster for being the contact and taxi driver.

Meg, Lofty and Titan had a ripper rest day yesterday, lazing in the warmth, fed to the eyeballs.  We started our day with a delicious bacon and egg breaky cooked by Joe on the campfire, making ‘toad in a hole’ (cutting a hole in a slice of bread with a mug and cracking the eggs in to cook) and bacon.  Delicious after weeks of weetbix on the run! Renee from Mirrool gave Joe the bacon the other morning to cook up…Yum..

Visited Grong Grong Public School on Tuesday, great to be back, the kids very excited to met upwith Esther and Joe.

Esther, Joe and Grong Grong Public School students with 'Hugo'.

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We’ve finally got our solar and 12 volt system sorted on the truck.  Craig from Narranderra Auto Electrical came down to camp on Tuesday afternoon to problem solve for us (had trouble with lights and fridge not charging properly) and he came back yesterday for about four hours and worked solid to get it right for us.  Our batteries were very ordinary and a little ‘charging box’ was cactus so got that sorted and we’re operating to full capacity!  Incredibly grateful to Craig as he donated his labour to do the job.  Thanks so much.

People are what this ride is about. Meeting and sharing stories.  Met a man two days ago who has lost five of his immediate family to melanoma. Five.  Met a lady who was a special needs carer at a hgh school I was presenting at who had just lost a 19 year old neice to melanoma. A 15 year old boy diagnosed with malignant melanoma, his mum carries the photo of his biopsy with her to remind herself how precious life is and how lucky to get a diagnosis early.  A couple of days ago when Esther rode through Ardlethan (just by down the Newell, Joe and I ducked into Ardlethan and picked up hot pies for lunch) many people shared with us Wes Bonny’s story, he came from Ardlethan.  In the ten minutes we were pulled up in the main street in our ride4acure truck half a dozen people made donations and shared stories with us.  (I have a link on the side bar under resources to Wes’s story). Wes like Hannah was young and lost his life to melanoma in 2010.  Every day for us there’s more stories unfolidng around us. Stories that need to be shared, told, listened to.  My hope is that the ears of those who can make a difference, our politicians,  government organisations that disseminate research dollars, and most importantly people young and old, can understand what they can do to make a difference.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 at 7:42 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.