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Downunder 2000!
November 23, 2000 Back to Thunder Downunder 2000 Chase Reports
It was a comical start the morning – I wanted to go to the toilet but couldn’t – a ghecko had climbed into the toilet door (it was a sliding door), and I wasn’t allowed to shut it until the ghecko was safe and sound! Meanwhile I was nearly resigning to hanging a towel over the door, but fortunately we found it and was able to close it. And the circus didn’t end there, I was going outside – only to be greeted by a cane-toad sitting on the front step! I closed the door in disgust (I didn’t want it to come inside!) And we pondered the best way to get rid of it. It did move a little, but we wanted to get rid of it – they’re poisonous and can squirt poison through their skin. Also, they’re a pest in Australia and something that kills our native fauna, so we were actually wanting to kill it. We had to get it in a different position though, so a few stones from the carpark got it running away from the motel rooms. However, Matt Smith got first prize – he threw a stone that hit the cane-toad on the head – to which it made a hollow “donk” and the cane-toad made a funny head action which had us all in hysterics and stitches laughing! Today was going to be a driving day, the trough was advancing north into the tropics, and there was the possibility of another system entering NSW in the next day or two. We went back down the highway through the detour where we had lunch at Theodore. Theodore had mobile reception, so we thought it’d be a decent place – it wasn’t too bad, but it depends on your definition of mobile reception. If there were more than three of us using the mobile – the line would drop out for all of us! It didn’t make much sense, I’m not sure why it happened but certainly it wasn’t built to cope with such a heavy load (ie, 3 mobile users). We decided to stay the night in Toowoomba, so we booked accommodation and got takeaway for dinner, having a quiet and early night as we were all very tired after the past week of constant chasing and driving! However Matt finally got what was coming to him – he had pizza for dinner that night, and of course – got an upset stomach afterwards! Macca and I had no sympathy for him though – he had it coming! Report by Anthony Cornelius & Andrew McDonald |