Here comes the Desert
BoardFree Oz has been very random and brilliant so far! Over the past few days we have slept in a school, been hosted by nickel miners, camped in the bush and tonight we have accommodation in a 4 star hotel, for free!
The generosity of the Australian public so far has been astonishing. So many people have been pulling over to hand Dave money. Everyone has been so friendly too and many hostels and campsites allow us to stay for free. The thing that really hit me most though was after we stayed a night in Kambalda West high school (in the Home economics room). The headteacher, Russel, allowed us pretty much free reign of the school, even all the sports equipment in the gym! The next morning, Dave gave a talk to the pupils of the school, first to the older children in the high school, then to the junior school which was adjacent to it. After the talk to the juniors, a girl from the high school chased after Dave and promtly handed him a $50 note saying, "I didn't have my purse on me earlier, I've only got $50 so here you are!" $50 AUS dollars is about 20GBP and for a girl that young to be handing over so much money really blew us all away.
The next day we were invited to stay for free at a local mine site! They provided us with beds, free food and also had a whip round for us, raising over $200 in a bucket! The next morning we were treated to a tour of the nickel mine (the 1st people to ever be given a tour) and it was absolutely amazing. We went down over 500m below the ground and saw a few of the guys working. This was all set up by a guy called Paul who passed Dave skating the day before. He, and all at the mining facility were so hospitable and he even gave us a new battery for our vehicle after it failed to start.
Dave was on the front page of a county-wide paper the other day as well as featuring regularly on radio stations. This publicity has opened peoples eyes to what we are trying to acheive and the majority of them have been bending over backwards to help us in any way they can. It really restores your faith in mankind!
We in Norseman until sunday morning now. A rest day here is scheduled before we hit the nullabor plain! Norseman is the start of the desert and it is very exciting to be here after staring at it on a map in Dave's study.
We are off to do another talk in Norseman High school, then its off to our 4 star accommodation! Today it was raining and I think we deserve some creature comforts every now and then!
Signing out for now....
D
The generosity of the Australian public so far has been astonishing. So many people have been pulling over to hand Dave money. Everyone has been so friendly too and many hostels and campsites allow us to stay for free. The thing that really hit me most though was after we stayed a night in Kambalda West high school (in the Home economics room). The headteacher, Russel, allowed us pretty much free reign of the school, even all the sports equipment in the gym! The next morning, Dave gave a talk to the pupils of the school, first to the older children in the high school, then to the junior school which was adjacent to it. After the talk to the juniors, a girl from the high school chased after Dave and promtly handed him a $50 note saying, "I didn't have my purse on me earlier, I've only got $50 so here you are!" $50 AUS dollars is about 20GBP and for a girl that young to be handing over so much money really blew us all away.
The next day we were invited to stay for free at a local mine site! They provided us with beds, free food and also had a whip round for us, raising over $200 in a bucket! The next morning we were treated to a tour of the nickel mine (the 1st people to ever be given a tour) and it was absolutely amazing. We went down over 500m below the ground and saw a few of the guys working. This was all set up by a guy called Paul who passed Dave skating the day before. He, and all at the mining facility were so hospitable and he even gave us a new battery for our vehicle after it failed to start.
Dave was on the front page of a county-wide paper the other day as well as featuring regularly on radio stations. This publicity has opened peoples eyes to what we are trying to acheive and the majority of them have been bending over backwards to help us in any way they can. It really restores your faith in mankind!
We in Norseman until sunday morning now. A rest day here is scheduled before we hit the nullabor plain! Norseman is the start of the desert and it is very exciting to be here after staring at it on a map in Dave's study.
We are off to do another talk in Norseman High school, then its off to our 4 star accommodation! Today it was raining and I think we deserve some creature comforts every now and then!
Signing out for now....
D
posted by boardfreedan at 6:20 AM
0 comments
