FRIDAY 19th OCTOBER - TUMUT TO CANBERRA

OV1 - Ben & Julian's car was tagged - we know nothing !!!!

Mon & Josie's car fared far  much worse though -  

Does this mean Darren is guilty of something?

 

The girls of esCarpade - a brave band of girls throwing their support into fundraising for Camp Quality.

Such spectacular views driving out of Tumut.

 The morning fun stop by the officials was a "Love In" - free hugs and kisses for all.

Darren took the opportunity to get friendly with Ben .

 And Josie ...

 And Monika

After the hugs and fun of the morning break it was on to Jugiong for lunch .

The trip to Canberra presented some challenging roads , rough , winding and hilly.

 We made it - Team Afro at the rally point with all the other cars getting ready to parade  into Canberra

 

 

 esCarpade at Old Parliament House.

 

 6 bands - Darren's complete set of passed breath tests.

Trina's best friend Claire came with her children to see esCarpade arrive in Canberra. A great ending for esCarpade for Trina .

In true esCarpade style water was flying everywhere....

Darren got Trina , as the following photos show .

 Once the fun and games were over , we had half an hour to find our accomadation , get tidy and head back to Old Prliament House for dinnerat 6.30pm sharp. We were gettingreally good at co-ordinating quick changes of clothes ( maybe a super heros theme next year?) . 

We were not too late , even beating the officials to dinner . Graham arrived in his purple people eater costume , much to his team mate Tony's horror. 

Afro Rocket looking good before dinner .

A quick team selfie .

 

 Team Afro received their fundraising award - for $21,431.25 - awesome effort.

The final  esCarpade total - that means so many more children can be helped throughout their cancer journey. 

Ben , a CQ camper from Canberra spoke about his cancer journey which started on his 11th birthday . His journey had many ups and downs , but through out all Ben wanted to do was get back out on the footy field.  His doctors were not going to give any hope of footy again , but the final part to Ben's story is that he has been selected in the ACT Brumbies Junior Squad.

Ben reminded us thathaving hope and determination will get you where you want to be.

It was a great night , celebrating the journey from Newcxastle , reliving the stories and talking of 2013 plans. 

We went back to our apartment to pack for the last time and figure out which way to head home. We still couldn't decide which way to go , so the paln was to get to the T -section and decide then - left Newell Highway , right Pacific Highway ......

It had been an awesome week , full of laughs, challenges , heated moments , but mostly fun . 

Can't wait until next year - rumor has it esCarpade is coming to Queensland -  we'll see about that , but one thing is for sure TEAM AFRO will be there - maybe in disguise!!!!!   

  

 

THURSDAY 18th OCTOBER - WAGGA WAGGA TO TUMUT

Up early again for breakfast , today was hosted by Wagga Wagga PCYC - 

What an awesome BBQ - I'm sure a few copies are in the planning stages after seeing this cool BBQ.

Daz was up to hi-jinks - tagging a few official vehicles with Team Afro stickers.

Trevor already had his esCarpade sticker on his car .

Ben giving his morning driver briefing .

 On arriving in Culcairn for lunch - home of Health in a Hurry , the puppies were waiting for their owners.

 The guys with their newly returned puppies.

 Trevor found a great vantage spot for photos.

Adele from Health in  a Hurry , to raise funds for Camp Quality had her hair shaved to a number two blade.

 

For $50 , those donating could have a 'hack' at Adele's hair.

 Adele was saved by a professional hairdresser who finished off the cut .

 The children from Culcairn Primary and another school came to visit the esCarpade and watch the puppet show.

 After the fun of the school visit and puppet show - again we were off .
Onto Tumut - 

808 started the drive in spectacular , though noisy fashion. Their  exhaust had blown out - so they went through to Tumut the quick way around. 

Arriving in Tumut , we found  were staying  at the same motel as the officials, could this mean that some tricks would be played?

The theme for tonight's function was Hillybilly - Ross slipped right into character., all too well. He had Darren & Treen in stitches before even leaving the motel. Due to his ill fitting false teeth his was unable to say the letter "P" without his teeth falling out - it made all themore funny.

 

GIGGLE was looking ready for a hoe-down

What a honey - 

The best dressed team for hillybilly night - 

Father & Son ?

The QLD contingent 

 The officials - a great group of hard working people that made the week seem so seamless and smooth. 

Fundraising presentations were to be made after dinner , but it was decided  that the esCarpadians would probably prefer official photograph be taken NOT in hilly billy gear.

So presentations will be in Canberra on the last night at Old Parliament House.

 We had been donated two bottles of wine from De Bortoli wines for auction . The auction raised $145 for our tally.

That brought the night to an end ...well almost .

Stayed tuned to see what happened after getting back to the motel.....