Wednesday 24th – Orange to Londonderry

What a wonderful night we had last night at Jan and Paul’s – a great BBQ, a lot of wine, and a lot of laughter. If you ever meet Paul, ask him to tell you the story of Rambo the pet lamb.

This morning, in the minus one degree frost, Bill was outside greasing and checking oil etc on the Bradfords. Paul and his son Nicholas took photos of WAIT AND SEE outside their shed (where else!), and then we were off to Bathurst and the Mount Panorama Circuit.

What a great time we had there on The Mountain. The best known race held there is affectionately known as the Bathurst 1000, where the latest big V8 super cars race each other. The track is 6.2Km long. So you can imagine the look on the faces of the workmen and admin staff as the three little 2-cylinder 60 year-old Bradfords went flying by on their first lap, max speed 63kph! Their mouths just fell open. Bill’s father was there, and he took my place in SEE. Apparently he had his foot hard to the floor coming over the top of the Big Dipper, where you crest a steep hill and the track drops away from you – unfortunately for him the brake pedal was on Bill’s side. We managed to complete this circuit in the staggering time of 15 minutes. There were grins all around as everyone stepped out of WAIT AND SEE.

So now I’m writing this at Walls Lookout on the Bells of Line Road in the Blue Mountains, after a simple lunch amongst the Eucalypts and Banksias.

Some time later: we have arrived at Londonderry, the home of Susan and Bill, and already the Bradfords have been cleaned out and washed down. We are having a welcome-home BBQ tonight, and Ann has made a Bradford cake, complete with Wagon Wheels for the wheels. Only the final day to go tomorrow when we visit the Sydney Town Hall, and then dip WAIT AND SEE’s wheels in the Pacific Ocean.

Susan and Bill