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It rained cats and dogs the night before, something we're all laughing about now. At the time, it wasn't so funny, though. Nearly everyone ended up sleeping somewhere different from where they laid down...in cars, under trailers, under tables. We woke up miserable, wet and shivering.
To add insult to injury, a dense fog covered everything -- only our watches told when sunrise arrived. We were quite nervous about the sorry state of our battery, in spite of predictions of a local farmer that the fog would soon burn off. We ended yesterday at just about zero energy stored in the battery and received almost no charge the evening before. The only thing in our favour was the fact that the three or so teams behind us were in the same predicament...
The local farmer was correct, and the fog burned off, leaving a partially cloudy conditions. The blue sky was looking mighty good, and by about 7 am, we started getting some energy into the batteries. By 8 am, we knew we could make the final leg to Adelaide, no problem. The only question debated was how fast to go...
There were no dramas on the run into the city of Adelaide, although the car caused some minor headaches for the morning traffic. We arrived at the ceremonial finish line at about 10 am (11 am local time), unofficially, the 11th car to arrive...
The team was strangely subdued when we all finally arrived at the finish line -- happy and relieved, for sure, but none of the boisterous glee you would have expected. We sort of milled about and posed for pictures, and had a look at the cars that arrived before us, pointing out reasons why we should have beaten each one of them. When the Speed of Light photographers requested a celebratory cheer for the record, it was all we could do to raise a lame cheer. Eventually, we dragged ourselves to our beach-side backpacker accommodation in Glenelg and just flopped into rooms and onto beds.
Hunger and the promise of a hot shower eventually roused everyone and we assembled for dinner at a decent restaurant, our first food meal in a long time (well, ok, since the night before we left from Darwin). The food (and wine and beer) did have the expected effect, however, and when I left to write this report, the boisterous glee was beginning to show (much to the annoyance of the restaurant crew)...
We'll be in Adelaide until the Presentation Dinner, on November 28th. Stay tuned for occasional updates on the team's antics, pranks and pratfalls...
NB: Tonight's karaoke night at the bar on the ground floor of this hostel. I think, as I wrap up this report, most of the team has found their way back from dinner. It sounds pretty bad from up here, I think I can hear Dave Snowdon...
Willy The Whale
Willy!
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