Pictured right: John with some of his fellow Bashers and some students from a local school along the way

John is so hooked on the Bash that rather than miss it this year, John and Meg made a detour from Croppa Creek and headed for Kingaroy for the night and then on to Gympie for the Gympie Muster. Then it was straight back to join up with the Bash again at Lismore. Thankfully the ute was running perfectly, as once we left the Bash route there were no mobile workshops to help us out if we broke down! One major rattle was diagnosed at Kingaroy and but we were able to fix it ourselves. (Amazing!)
The final figure raised by the Bashers this year for the special needs kids of Variety was somewhere in the vicinity of $1.2 million. Thanks to our supporters and sponsors, particularly the family owned Aussie company 333s(MightyMite), Old Man Emu Suspension (ARB), Adelaide Caravan Park, EMI Music and Southern Cross Ten. John can now say he's done four Bashes and for Meg it's number twelve.

John made this letterbox which stands outside the gate of his old farm 'Tralee'. John left the land after the success of 'Old Man Emu' to pursue his music career full-time. The rest is history...but he still has one brother on the land between Moree and Goondiwindi, who is keeping up the family farming tradition.		Croppa Creek is the small village closest to John's old farm 'Tralee'. The locals claim that the general store at Croppa Creek is where John first performed 'Old Man Emu', so it was quite a trip down memory lane for John on this leg of the Bash.

Car 70...ready to roll...	Fan's signatures on the bonnet...

A magic start from Bennelong Point	On the road Day One

Day One: Sydney to Parkes
After a spectacular start from Bennelong Point, which was the starting point for the first Bash 25 years ago, we were away. (Meg is dressed as 'The Emu's Missus!) It was not all smooth sailing on Day 1 (as it often isn't). It can be a day of sorting out teething problems for a new car! By the top of Mt Victoria we were in need of Mobile Workshop 3 and a number of other Bash cars that stopped to give their advice. It turned out to be rubbish in the carby. Lunch was at Anson St School in Orange where the Bashers not only enjoyed a delicious lunch but also seeing the student's art exhibition. The highlight was the handing over of the key to the Liberty Swing presented to the school. This was Bashers' fundraising at work.

Day 1 - Not all plain sailing	Liberty Swing, Anson St

Matthew from Hilston Central School	Drew, Jesse, Montana and Rebecka at Hilston Central

Day 3 - Leaving Hay after Breakfast	John sang a few impromptu songs at Ouyen in the Mallee

JW and Mobile workshop John Haak	Now Johnno's doing the repairs solo

Young fans at Jamestown school on Day 4	Sunset coming into Woomera - Day 4

Day 5: Woomera to Coober Pedy
After breakfast at Woomera, we were assigned teams for the traditional 'Armed Services Games'. These are just a bit of fun and never to be taken too seriously as handing over a large bribe cheque will ensure your team wins. Which, in this case, was exactly what happened. The games were won by the Navy team but not until after some of the Bashers, led by the 'Hippies' disrupted the games completely with their 'No War Games' protest, much to the amusement of the children from the local Woomera School who were invited to watch! We were last to leave from Woomera after a suspicious rattle made us have a look under the car to discover that the muffler was missing and the exhaust pipe had come loose! After some assistance from the mobile workshops and repairs with fencing wire, having to pay some Bash Bucks for get our muffler back and to bribe them to keep quiet about it (someone had picked it up off the road the day before and handed it to an official) we were on our way again.

Glendambo Roadhouse	JW and JPY

We stopped for lunch at Glendambo. I had a chance to catch up with John Paul Young, who is also a Basher. This morning's drive was very rugged through restricted land belonging to the Defence Department. The Bash had special permission to travel along the track. It was certainly not a road! With no air-conditioning in the car, it was an extremely hot and very dusty trip. After a long and dusty day we stopped just outside of Coober Pedy, where the Bush Cricketers had set up a bit of a party and a game of outback cricket.

The car was definitely in need of a wash so we found the only carwash in town and waited in the queue for our turn. All soaped up, it was time to rinse off when the thing broke . . . much to everyone's horror who were still waiting in line. The ute was a mass of froth and bubbles. Bashers to the rescue, the repairs took a while, but they fixed it enough to keep on washing. At least we were able to rinse the soap off . . . sort of . . . as it was quite dark by this time.

Somewhere along the road from Woomera to Coober Pedy	JW in action just outside Coober Pedy

Sunrise at the Coober Pedy airport	Kulgera Roadhouse on way to Alice

National Transport Hall of Fame	Campfire breakfast at National Transport Hall of Fame

Later this morning Meg and I attended the wonderful Acacia School, where a presentation of a Liberty Swing was made to students and staff.

John at presentation of a Liberty swing at Acacia Hill school in Alice	John with one of the special children at the Acacia Hill school

Our National Bash dinner was a celebration of 25 years of Bashing in Australia. Collectively all the state Bashes have National Bashes that have raised over 100 million dollars for Variety since the first one. One of the NSW cars, the Bush Cricketers received the award for being the highest fundraising car with an incredible $349,000 raised this year! Dick and Pip Smith were the special guests and the evening was topped off by a concert similar to that performed for Alice Springs country and pop music fans last night.

Day 8: Alice Springs to Coober Pedy

We head back to Coober Pedy again. We had a choice of roads. The black top (as we call the bitumen) all the way; the Finke River Road (which we decided against as it's really tough going and hard on the cars) or the Hugh River stock route. We chose the Hugh River option. This headed out past our friends', Jan and Bill Hayes, station 'Deep Well' which is where Ooraminna is. It's magnificent country with red sand dunes and desert oaks, which you'll find mentioned in several of my songs. Meg and I love the country out here, so it was a treat to drive this way. Once we got past the boundary of Deep Well, the road was pretty tough going but quite spectacular. Just before reaching Coober Pedy our route instructions took us to The Breakaways (pictured right). They were quite spectacular but it was windy up there!

Day 9: Coober Pedy to Hawker

The utes were the first cars allowed out from breakfast today, so we became the third car to leave. The first car pulled in for fuel and we overtook the next car quite early so then we had the road to ourselves and no dust in front of us. What a change that made! We were told that the officials would be waiting for us at a point about 158K along the route at two intersecting roads (one being the Oodnadatta Track) and before we got there each car had to stop and collect six rocks.

These photos (below) show some of the work on the monument the Bashers built to commemorate our 25 years of Bashing. I was in my element as building stone walls is a favourite past-time up in the Springbrook mountains.

Start of the monument	Monument in progress

We walked in to lunch and what a lovely surprise to see Debbie Oldfield from Clayton Station helping out. We stayed with Debbie and Shane Oldfield at Clayton Station (about 80k along the Birdsville Track) when we were filming the doco back in May. Lunch was at the race track but the kids were brought in to meet the Bashers. The kids were more than happy to each get a jar of Mighty Mite from one of our sponsors, Three 3s, a good Australian company which we were proud to support. In fact they filled the back of the ute with boxes of Apple Sauce, Pickled Onions, Green Olives and Mighty Mite, which we distributed along the way to kids and to the many schools that we visited.

Day 9 sign - Dust Hazard	Lunch at Marree

This is our final day of real driving which finished with a street parade through the main streets of Broken Hill. The morning's drive was quite different to most of the past 10 days as we were driving through the south Flinders Ranges. Traditionally the cars with triple numbers, such as 333, 555 etc (we're Car 70) organise a fun stop but because a couple of them were having car troubles they weren't able to get out early and set up, so we volunteered to become a triples car (as we had sponsorship from Three 3s). The fun stop was at the site of an old hotel called the Waukaringa Ruins and to make it interesting this helicopter dropped in to stir up some dust on my bowling game. Can you guess who this is (pictured right) having a go at our Triples Fun stop activity? It's John Howard of 'All Saints' fame. He didn't manage to bowl the stone the furthest. The prize was a box of Triple 3s pickled onions . . . very popular on the Bash!

Helicopter drops in to fun stop	Triples fun stop

Our breakfast at Broken Hill North Public School this morning was an absolute feast! They had 25 different things for us to eat, in keeping with our 25 years of Bashing. There was everything there from fresh fruit salad to Toad in the Hole to pancakes to freshly-made damper, to our usual bacon and eggs. Young Luke was a big fan and sought me out amongst the rest of the Bashers. The local radio station as broadcasting live from the school, so I did a live-to- air interview with them as well as the local ABC radio. Broken Hill went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Our final 'official' engagement was to attend the opening of a second Liberty swing in a park in Broken Hill. It was well attended by local dignitaries and media. It's hard to capture such a moment on camera but if you can catch a glimpse of the pleasure on this young boy's face, having his first ever swing, you'll understand why there were many Bashers who shed a few tears. It's one of those many moments in the past eleven days which make you feel extremely proud to be a Basher and to have contributed to making the lives of the many special children we've met during this time just a little bit easier.

Breakfast with Luke at Broken Hill	Liberty swing, Broken Hill

So this is it, folks. These final two photos are at Silverton, where we made a presentation of a Sunshine Coach to a small indigenous school. But who looks more relaxed here? I think it means we're glad to have made it to the end safely and what a time we had! Thanks to all of you for your support.

John at Silverton finish	Meg at Silverton finish

2008 NSW Variety Bash - Blacktown to Batemans Bay The NSW Variety B to B Bash is a fun event organized each year by Variety, the Children's Charity for special needs kids. The Bash is not a race or a rally and speed is not important. This year hundreds of cars with hundreds of colourful characters were partaking in a 10 day drive from Blacktown to Batemans Bay. The Bash started at 8am on Thursday 7th August from the Westpoint Shopping Centre carpark at Blacktown and finished at Batemans Bay on Saturday 16th August. The 3,976 kilometre drive took participants to West Wyalong, Mildura, Murray Bridge, Mount Gambier, Warrnambool, Bendigo, Wangaratta and Cooma before arriving at the final destination. This year, apart from entertainers such as John Williamson and John Paul Young, there were people from all walks of life who were giving up their time to make this event a very special one. En route the 'Bashers' called in at local schools and community groups to raise awareness and funds for this important charity. The accompanying pictures show John and partner Meg in her 1964 Humber Super Snipe at the Blacktown start. We wished good luck to all the drivers and their supporters!
The Variety Bash continued on its merry way. Here are a couple of pictures taken during the first two days of the stellar event as the cars travelled through southern New South Wales...
Thursday 7th Aug - lunch John performed some bush ballads for the kids at Boorowa Central School	Friday 8th Aug - afternoon John and fellow Bashers kindly disposing of their fruit before entering the fruitfly-free zone at Mildura
Taking part in a Variety Bash is not always a walk in the park, John and Meg had continuing struggles with the Humber breaking down. One of the most important people in any Bash is the Sweep. His is the last vehicle, which has to be behind the last car to make sure that everyone gets into town and no-one is left behind. These pictures illustrate some of the inevitable problems...
And 'Sweep' (aka Greg Lynch) is now saying to John ". . . No, we haven't sorted the fuel problem yet, John. Now let's try replacing the fuel filter . . . again!"
"John Williamson may not be going back to the tractor driving days way back when he wrote Old Man Emu, but he was behind the wheel of his rally car, which he calls 'Hillbilly Road', doing his bit in the 2008 Variety Bash. The Bash spanned almost 4000km, starting at Blacktown and finishing at Batemans Bay. The rally started on August 7 and came to a close on August 17. Entry in this annual event is restricted to vehicles of pre-1970 vintage. Other well known personalities involved in the bash were '70s rock star John Paul Young and John Howard - no, not the ex-prime minister. Try the actor from television's Sea Change instead." (Bundaberg News-Mail). The Eurobodalla Shire Independent has written an excellent summary of this year's NSW Variety B to B Bash. Although the weather was not always kind, a great time was had by all and sundry! "More than 100 Variety Bash cars pulled into Batemans Bay on Saturday - and with them came hundreds of people keen to experience the party atmosphere. Saturday's event was the grand finale for the Variety Bash, which left Blacktown 10 days earlier and covered the many hundreds of kilometres to Mildura, Mount Gambier, Bendigo, and Cooma before winding up at Batemans Bay. The 400-strong touring party this year included singers John Williamson and John Paul Young among its drivers and gave away $65,000 worth of equipment to communities they travelled through ..... The Bash raised more than $2.5 million for children's charities, one of the better efforts in the 24 years of the event." Pictured above: The Variety Bash drew hundreds of people to Clyde Street, Batemans Bay, last Saturday. (Story and photo courtesy of the Eurobodalla Shire Independent)