One more day in the Best Western

Lying on my bed in the Best Western Hotel in Norseman I look back over the past year and see how far we’ve all come. I’ve only known these guys for 7 months and I’m just about to cross the Nullabor Desert with them having spent 3 ½ weeks with them prior to doing so.
So much has happened since February; from my getting accepted onto the team; to two of the team being unable to come to Oz; to two more people getting accepted onto the team.
Sure the times may be stressful for us; Dave especially. But honestly, everything’s brilliant. I couldn’t be happier. I know that my happiness isn’t what this is about but it sure as hell helps the task in hand if everyone’s smiling!
Kate, Bev, Becki and I have just had a girly evening. Last night was spent at the road side in a little lay by and at the end of the night Kate joined Becki, Bev and myself as Becki plaited kates hair, I put mascara on everyone and chatted. We don’t get to do this everyday so it’s nice when we can. We’re all usually split up on the road, each member doing a different thing. Then this evening we decided that the girls should go out for dinner and have a bottle of wine between us. What an excellent decision that was!!!
After we asked for the bill, the owner of the Best Western Hotel came up to us and told us we don’t have a bill….because….wait for it……the boys had paid for us!!!!!!! We’d seen Dimitri and Dave walk into the reception but we thought it was to have food delivered to the rooms……what a lovely surprise…thanks lads! It means an awful lot to us boardfree chicks!

Anyway, yesterday was interesting. Whilst having a shewee, Kate discovered MASSIVE ants!..Soldier ants I think they’re called but I reckon they’re monster ants. About an inch long and vicious little critters!!! The boys were poking away, provoking the big insects with their camera’s as I sat sensibly in the back of the Jackaroo…I saw Dimitri drop his camera and move away as all of the ants had climbed on it and were attacking his fluffy!!!! Now I know Dim quite well when it comes to his camera equipment and he’d never put it down in mud without just cause!!! Then I heard ‘Holly, come over here, Dave wants you to take photo’s of the ants’…..so I rolled my eyes and reluctantly made my way over to the area of commotion…I saw one big ant and wondered why everyone was making such a fuss….THEN I saw hundreds of them all running (somewhat more quickly than I realised) towards me….I got a few snaps of them but didn’t want to get too close as they were trying to reach to get onto my lens….eeekk…I started walking away and felt a stabbing pain in the top of my leg….I looked down and an oversize ant was looking up at me as if to say ‘Ha, that’ll teach you…you humans, all the same eh!?’…I flicked it off and ran out to the team whilst grabbing my crotch and crying out…they thought I just had one on me so started laughing…then the tears came. I danced around for a minute not knowing what to do then Becki instructed me to take my trousers off……all the while, Si was filming this on tape…..I pranced over to Kylie and got a blanket to strip in privacy…Nurse Mckinlay was on the scene with cream and checked out my bite….the little b**ger had bitten me right through my jeans! How rude!!! And in possibly the most painful part of my body he could’ve bitten too! I now have a big red patch with two slash marks in the middle…not that big and not painful now it’s gone down but that will definitely teach me!!!!!!
It’s actually making me itchy talking about it so moving on!!!! SWIFTLY!

Over the past few days (not including today) I’ve been a bit quiet. I guess I just felt tired….to tired to be my usual giddy self. A good nights sleep in Kylie sorted that out and this morning I was back to normal! George wouldn’t start this morning as the inverter had been left on over night so we ended up calling out one of the miners who had befriended us and was also a mechanic by trade…or as Dimitri quite simpley put it ‘a guardian angel by trade’….luckily he fixed everything and even gave us a spare battery just incase….so we finally got rid of the TV that came with Kylie..it’s the least we could do for him.

So far, throughout Western Australia, we’ve encountered mass amounts of generosity. Cooperate and non cooperate. Random people, driving past who’ve heard about us giving us donations on the road. School’s we’ve visited, passing a bucket around the kids. Hotel owners letting us rest up in their hotels all the while telling Dave how much they support him. People asking for autographs, people giving us food for the road. We’re grateful for all those people out there who are as giving as they are. BoardFree wouldn’t be the same with out you. It’s amazing what little things can do to people’s moods. Like, instead of having peanut butter on bread (as yummy as it is), we had salad leaves, carrot sticks, meat in fresh buns with cheese. It perks not only Dave up but the whole team. You get back from life what you put into it. I thoroughly believe this!

A large newspaper supplement in the Uk is wanting to do a feature on Dave and BoardFree…they said they wanted ‘panoramas’ but I suspect that means landscape shots. They want it to be stunning too and at the moment, it’s raining cats and dogs outside and has been doing for some days. The weather hasn’t been the best for the last couple of days so I can’t wait to get the ‘stunning’ shots where the sun is beating down and Dave’s skating on the Nully all lonesome and what not. It makes me nervous though…I keep thinking ‘what if my shots aren’t good enough’….then I realise that it’s only self belief that gets people where they want to be!!

I’ve had a few emails from my neighbours back at home, a chap I met at the Sailability launch, family and friends which is nice! And if anyone’s reading this who wants to get in touch, don’t hesitate to email me at Holly@boardfree.co.uk……it’d be great to hear from you.

This is my last blog before setting off tomorrow across the Nullabor so I’ll blog you when we’re over the other side!!!!

Bed time I think. Even though it’s a rest day tomorrow, sleep is always a wise choice!!!

G’night!

x