THE red dirt still clings to Sue and Jeff Lowe’s ute after their unforgettable Drovers Run experience for the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.
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Sue said they feel loathe to wash it off because the trip was so enjoyable.
“It just has this effect on you; you want to do it again,” she said.
Another souvenir of their journey is the $12,193.30 raised for the charity.
“I think there are too many people to name,” Sue said of the countless hands that made the trip a success.
“It is much appreciated. We could not have raised this money without you all.”
Westpac Helicopter events co-ordinator Jeff Galbraith planned and made the trip which he said has raised well over $120,000 to date.
He said the Lowes did a sensational job and came in second in fundraising and first with best-presented vehicle.
“They did a lot of leg work and full credit to them,” Jeff said.
“It was a huge effort from the Inverell community.”
It just has this effect on you; you want to do it again
- Sue Lowe
The couple made the 4369km journey, in a convoy of 25 vehicles, and on the way learned about history, visited with big-hearted locals and caught a glimpse of Australia’s prehistoric past.
They left Tamworth on Sunday, August 2 for the two-week trip north and back.
The route took the drivers across desert and vast stations, and along the way, they witnessed evidence of difficult times.
“In doing that, you got to see some of the sadness of people walking away from their stations. Some of them were in ruins, some weren’t,” she said.
“I felt a bit honoured to see and try to understand what they had gone through, the struggles they must have had would have been untold.”
The group bonded over days of driving and nights around the campfires, climbed the Big Red sand dunes, visited schools, passed the dog fence at Cameron’s Corner to see abundant wildlife and mounted camels in Birdsville.
Sue said the Inverell sapphire donated by Billabong Blue was sold to the owners of the Birdsville Bakery.
Two Englishmen took part in the run, and the party learned one of them was waiting on a work visa.
“They were the life of the place, they were such good value,” Sue said.
On the night he had word the visa was approved, the Australians gave both the fellows an informal naturalisation ceremony.
“All these silly things. He had to wear a jumper when an Aussie was cold, so that was fun,” Sue said with a grin.
A rare highlight was a visit to the Eromanga Natural History Museum site where the Drovers watched the human excavators uncovering dinosaur fossils and m
The museum will not open to the public until March 2016, and Sue said it was a privilege to be there.
Sue said once found, people first dig down with machinery
“And they get down to the actual thing with very fine brooms and they put a plaster cast around them to be able to move them without them falling apart,” she said.
The trip ended in Tamworth on August 14, and Sue said they are already thinking about the next Drovers Run in 2017.
