Election weekend Search

Liberal, Labor, Lantana.

The winner is LANTANA.

Here are some photos of our election weekend search.

Another grid square ticked off the map and still no closer to finding the plane. When i go searching i don't think about finding the plane anymore. It's just bush walking with a purpose, a navigation exercise. In the early years i would dream of coming up to Barrington tops and finding MDX. The novelty soon wore off,but i still keep coming back. Mainly due to the optimism of the the boys who are always fired up to keep going no matter what. This search is as much theirs as it is mine.

The boys were swinging their machetes back and forth like wild men as we cut our way down stream. A "debate" about the direction we were going had me swallowing humble pie as the navigation of Andrew, Craig and Gareth was spot on. Delivering us right back to our last position on our previous walk.

With their usual thoroughness Craig and Gareth left no stone unturned as they hacked through vines,lantana and stinging nettles. Dropping into the valley the hills started to close in on us and walking became difficult. Craig went arse over a log with Gareth following suit soon after. Only some serious tree hugging stopped him falling further down the hill. I would have liked to help but my stomach hurt from pissing myself with laughter to be of any use.

On a couple of occasions throughout the day i thought we were going to be flicking the switch on the E.P.I.R.B. when Craig slipped on a rock in the creek. In one of those cartoon banana peel trip ups. Craig's legs went above his head and he landed flat on his back. His back pack was the only thing that broke his fall and prevented him from cracking his skull on the rocks. The other was near the end of our walk when Gareth nearly stood on a Tiger snake. Whoever said that snakes move out of the way when they feel you coming is full of shit. This snake held his ground until we skirted around him. By mid afternoon we reached our cut off point and began our climb up the mountain just in time for the rain to make our walk back to base camp all that more memorable.

It's a good moment when you finally get back to camp with a hot meal under your belt, dry clothes and have a laugh at what might have been.