Saturday

The Kokoda Challenge starts today and over porridge and a cup of tea, M and I checked out the website where one could be a Virtual Spectator and track the teams as they trekked through the Gold Coast Hinterland. Unfortunately, it has started raining which is going to make the going even tougher - because even if it doesn't keep raining, it is going to make the bush tracks they are walking over (where there are tracks) very slippery indeed.
We couldn't get the site to operate as expected so while I set off on the trip to Kyogle to fetch S (and the electric blanket), M went off to the Advancetown Hotel which was a sort of "command central" for the event ... well, it was supposed to be but when she got there, there were just two cars in the parking lot - one leaving, and the other belonging to the person who was tending the lawns!
The trip to Kyogle was uneventful but good with the new mix "tape" (actually CD - two of them) that the dentist had done up for me after I had commented on how much I liked the music they played in the surgery the two days I was there. Luckily, playing them didn't take me back into "the chair" which is just as well because it is a fantastic mix of music! The other great thing about the trip was seeing the mill at Condong - the white steam (is it steam?) from the chimneys was magnificent against a dark grey sky and mountains backdrop - and it was coming out of the single chimney in a double plume and just hanging in the air. I would have stopped to take a photograph but as S would confirm, I don't stop. Pity that, because it could have been a good shot. It would have made a better shot if Mt Warning had been visible - but it wasn't - robbing me of the chance to do a chorus of "Good Morning Mt Warning".
All the Kyogles were in good form and the most relaxed I have seen them for a while. Might have something to do with school holidays!
We left early so I could do the return drive in daylight - and because there was a possibility that I might finally get to do ten pin bowling ... which we did (although S opted to stay in and have some quiet time after spending four days with the family). It was magnificent ... even though I came in at the bottom of the leaderboard - I have almost perfected the art of the gutter ball!

On the way home, M and I stopped in at the Advancetown Hotel which was absolutely packed with cars and support crew for the Challenge. A wasn't there though - she was sitting back at the "resort" (apparently an exaggeration) getting some shut-eye before getting up at 4 for the breakfast shift for the team - but S and the others were apparently making good time and at 9:10pm had passed Checkpoint 7. They are expecting to finish the Challenge at 10 in the morning.