Day 129 : Time to say goodbye

Sydney to Port Macquarie

HIGH POINT: Getting to see Sydney Harbour Bridge up close and personal

LOW POINT: Navigating through Sydney city centre.

SHOCK OF THE DAY; The smell in the hostel corridor after the boys had been hanging about giggling and looking sheepish.

Safe to say when I looked at the rota for the day I was filled with absolute panic.I was tasked with navigation and the mission for the day was to get us from Sydney to North Sydney and then onto Port Macquarie for the evening. Now to most, it wouldnt seem like such a big deal but I for one was terrified, You see the problem is I dont drive and to make matters worse I cant tell my left from right. It wasnt looking particularly promising, lets just say ..

Navigator is a great job to have. You get to sit up front all day and see what’s happening in front with the driver. This was particularly fun in the outback, when you were in charge of tallying how many road trains, camels or burnt out cars you could see. But once faced with loads of roads and traffic, it was a different story. Setting off, I was uncharacteristically silent and serious as I tried to figure out the best route and securing the best shot of Sydney Harbour. After 3 trips over the Sydney Harbour Bridge (obviously these were all intentional – I wasnt lost at all 😉 ) we finally got our shot for the day and what a shot it was! Feeling slightly relieved we jumped back in Martha and headed off on our merry way.

So I’m now home sat in my dressing gown and reflecting. Did that actually happen? For my whole journey home, I was in limbo and without Amy as my travel buddy, I was lost. Arriving back in London, jetlagged and without any lsleep under my belt, I was surprised to say the very least to find myself drinking mulled wine and singing christmas songs in freezing conditions whilst still wearing my bikini bottoms. Is it just me or was this weird?!

So lets talk moments. Its hard for me to summarise my top five, there were many but here are those that stood out for me….
TOP FIVE

WATCHING THE SUNSET AT ULURU ON TOP OF MARTHA – There’s not many people who can say they’ve watched a sunset from the top of the fire engine and this was breathtaking. After our long hard slog through the outback to get there, this moment was the cherry on top of our Outback trip.

SCHOOL VISIT IN WARBURTON
To get this opportunity was unbelievable and we all realised how lucky we were to be shown this school and be invited into the heart of a Aborigine community.

COOBER PEDY
Nothing like a spending a night in a cave to get you all excited, especially when we spent the previous night in bug infested Marla.

PERTH FIREMEN
All the firies we met along the way in Australia were great but the Perth boys (who we’d spent a couple of days with) were hard to beat. They were a great bunch and after spending so much time with them we were sad to leave them when it came to launch day.

HAVING A CHEEKY LITTLE RIDE OF MARTHA IN THE OUTBACK
Finally I got my go and it was amazing! I was probably a little too hard on the brakes but at least I didnt hit anything 😉

THINGS I’LL MISS
– Amy and my work out sessions in the back of Martha and the long awaited introduction of Work out Wednesday.

– The feeling of sand between my toes

– The randomness of FTFE. Every day is different

– Strangely Steve’s special pant dance. Steve regularly danced in front of me in his pants and i would try my best not to laugh. I was good at it till my last day when Steve thought he should do a farewell dance as I sat on the greyhound bus waiting to leave the crew.

I will really miss my time Down Under and being part of something trully special.  Being part of the Follow That Fire Engine crew has been a privilege although it isnt as easy and seemless as it looks. It’s hard work a lot of the time, yet everyone keeps smiling.

Thanks for the memories!

TTFN Martha and the crew

Lou xx

[flickr album=72157625484641140 num=30 size=Square]