Rainbow does ‘Cane Toads to Cockroaches’ Variety Bash

Andrea Hayes tracks her “adventure from sunny Rainbow Beach all the way to good ol’ Sydney town!” to help raise over $1.4 million – an amazing result for sick, disadvantaged and special needs children.

Day 1 We’re on a road to nowhere….   After loads of repacking and finishing off the boys tutu’s yesterday, it was an early start, more packing of the car, better get used to this I guess! Third car into the Brisbane stadium this morning, hmmmmm, I guess that means we are going to be nearly the last car to leave.. Lunch at Nobby (clowns on the bar) and a beautiful welcome to Millmerran!

Day 2: 21 with 19 years experience Good morning 40! I’m driver for today, happy birthday to me! Riverside camp tonight at St George.

Day 3: Done and Dusted Well what a day! Emus, kangaroos, baby goats and sheep, galahs, dead dogs hanging from posts and termites so tough (or desperate) they look like they are eating the rocks! At Wandilla Station for the night after a quick fuel stop at Cunnamulla. After40k’s on the dirt roads, you should see the dust on all our gear!

Day 4: Out the Back o’ Bourke Somewhere Beautiful sunset and meal at the station for our camp. The moon was still up when we left this morning. Another long day of dust, stopped at Wanaaring School which has 7 students who sang for us. A donation was made to fix the school pool which the whole town uses so their kids can learn to swim and also cool down in the summer. Plenty more wildlife (and deadlife) to be seen and as we had no service stations since yesterday afternoon, the jerrycans came into play to get us into Bourke.

Day 5: First FrostRefreshing start to the day today: ‘I slept great, it was the waking up that was the issue’! Visited Louth School with 4 children, then Tilba for lunch and Cobar for the night. Still very brisk weather, in addition to emus and roos today, we had plenty of feral goats. The sun is even leaving now it is so cold!

Day 6: ‘Gnome sweet Gnome!’ At our fun stop today we had to dress and behave as gnomes. It wasn’t hard – it was freezing and we ended up losing all feeling in our butts and feet! Called in at Nymagee and Variety presented two autistic boys with some very special items as well as a holiday for the whole family who have never had one. After Tottenham School for lunch, we were onto Narromine for Onesies night. Having a ball, missing Qld weather though.

Day 7: Happy Birthday to you, we are off to the zoo! Happy Birthday to Dean today! His last night’s onesie is labelled ‘HUNGOVER’, depending on how the day pans out, he may have to wear it tomorrow as a health and safety warning! Short drive to a delicious lunch at Dubbo Zoo before visiting the residents.

Day 8: Going for Gold We started with a visit to a lovely little winery just outside Dubbo, ’twas a shame there wasn’t a drop to be seen! More visits to a couple of little schools and pub (of course) with lunch at Molong State School. Our fun stop was a little gold mining area that has consistently yielded gold continuously since 1851 -some clown went for a swim. Then a quick drive across to Bathurst where I drove a lap of Mt Panorama (tick that one off the list!) and dinner at the Bathurst Car Museum.

Day 9: Sydney or Bust! We made it to Sydney! It started raining after we got to the motel and then bussed to our mystery dinner destination – Luna Park! Pretty special place, delicious dinner followed by Wilbur Wilde and Frankie J Holden:). A great night!

Day 10: Wet wet wet! Completely wrecked some poor school oval today with the bash cars, there will be one unhappy groundsman there tomorrow! Slow procession over the Harbour Bridge in the rainy miserable city of Sydney with all the Bash cars from all states. Moore Park for lunch, where they had organised 3, yes 3, food vans to feed a couple of hundred people, needless to say a lot of people just went back to their accommodation. Off to the National Gala Dinner tonight, should be a pretty quiet affair I would imagine. Home tomorrow!

See all of Andrea’s photos on their facebook page: Car 48 – XXXX Gold Variety Bash