Blokes, Beers and Bogans at Bathurst (part 1)

8th October
Here we go, here we go, here we go! Up to unpack the glass from George and repack with Kel’s gear, we dropped Karlee at the ferry for 10.20am, and were on our way by 11. Didn’t get far before our first stop though – for Krispy Kremes and then a couple stops to find alcohol (you couldn’t take glass, and I was not drinking XXXX or VB, which was about the extent of beer in cans). Went for a walk just before Katoomba and checked out the view at Queen Elizabeth lookout before making Echo Point (along with a thousand tourists, and paid parking) to see The Three Sisters. Back to town for lunch, and a stop at a shoe store so Kel could buy gumboots (for the traditional rains at Bathurst). Hot Pink! Arrived at Bathurst where the local Liquorland not only had a big selection, but had good prices too. Before we headed up the mountain we took a deep breath, and I made Kel change out of her skirt and into jeans (no point giving the boys more ammunition) and set off on what was could be the most interesting weekend of our lives.

Now for those of you who don’t know much about Bathurst, here’s a quick run down. It’s essentially part of the V8 Supercar series, and it’s the Bathurst 1000, so the race is 100kms, which is 161 laps of the track, situated on Mt Panorama. The race lasts for about 6.5 hours, but to get to the race on the Sunday there are 3 days prior of practice, qualifying and races of other cars, such as utes and mini’s. If you are hard core you camp on the mountain at one of a number of campsites, but the ratio is seriously in the guys favour – about 250 blokes to every chick, and that’s being conservative. Weather is often unpredictable, but generally wet or cold... or both. But everyone on the mountain is cheering for one of two teams – red or blue, holdens or ford. It is the blokiest place I could think of, and that was only from the stories that I’d heard.

Followed the signs to the checkpoint, where about 20 police were waiting, complete with drug sniffer dogs. Did a quick check of the van and realised we were at the wrong campsite – just as well, because when the cop asked ‘You girls aren’t going up by yourselves are you’, we started sh!tting ourselves again. Back down and around the mountain before heading back up the right entry (and having to do part of it in first gear), where the security was far more relaxed. Spoke with the police and security on top of the mountain, making sure we let them know we were by ourselves, and had them guide us to our campsite, which happened to be about 75m from their station, and overlooking the road on the way in. That was great as it meant we weren’t going to be surrounded, however it also meant we were on a rather steep downhill slope. Sat and deliberated about the best way to park George (not having any blocks) before two of the guys from a large group from Adelaide wandered over... ok here we go I though! However they were very nice and were merely coming to provide assistance on the wind direction. Sorting that out we parked and grabbed a drink – absolute necessity! Set up the annex a bit before grabbing a couple of ‘roadies’ and a torch and heading for a walk around the track – figured it would be a bit quieter out there, and good to get some bearings before the racing started the next day. Keeping our sunnies on (purely to avoid eye contact) we headed to the track, where a particular group of guys, who had obviously done a bit of planning/practice, let rip with the songs, which I will spare you off. At this point I sent Aaron a message, which read “What the F*ck were you thinking when you said McPhillamy (which was the name of the campground). Kel wants to know if you’ll come to her funeral. Don’t tell mum though. Pray for us!” We were literally wondering what the hell we were doing there, and spent most of the walk coming up with plans of attack, and me trying telling Kel that it’d be ok... which was as much for my benefit to hear it out loud as it was for hers. The track walk was great, and it was just getting dark as we got back up to the top, so we could see the lights of Bathurst down the mountain – beautiful! Toilet stop on the way back (which was going to happen in pairs) before sneaking back into George for another drink... which didn’t feel all that cold, considering I’d put the fridge onto gas when we’d got there, and then having a nasty thought – what if we’d run out of gas? Tried to start the stove for dinner and yep, no gas left. Crap Crap Crap (not exactly what I said, but you get the picture). Now we really were sh!tting ourselves! Ok, so perhaps we could run an extension lead to the generator the Adelaide boys had going, then the fridge could run and we could use the microwave and electric frypan. Another big deep breath and we snuck around the front of the van to check it out, and realised there was no way my extension cord would be long enough, when we were spotted by one of the group who invited us over. So we wandered over and explained our dilemma, and they offered us their bbq/stove to cook on instead. Fantastic! Grabbed our food and headed back, and in hindsight it was like flies to a bbq, we were the ‘new entertainment’ with everyone wanting to find out who we were and what we were up to. In a pretty elaborate set-up, they had a massive marquee with their 11 swags inside and a nice fire going outside, and had even brought their own chef with them to cook for the weekend! Finished our cooking and headed back to the safety of George. Ate our meal and decided to clean up and have an early night (it was just after 9pm) when a knock on the front window came and a head poked through the door, inviting us over for a drink by the fire. ‘Sure’ we both said. So we grabbed drinks and headed over... gingerly. So the early night turned into a few drinks and not so early, while we talked to the boys who were still up, Lee, Brendan, Julien, Josh (aka Corey) and Brian, with others intermittently popping out to say they couldn’t sleep with the noise – and shock horror they weren’t talking about me! They had run out of music, so I brought some cd’s over an said I’d burn a copy of an Ian Moss one for Lee (cos then I’d get a copy aswell, and earn some browny points). Aaron rang at some point, slightly concerned about the text message i’d sent and where we had actually ended up camping. I said it was ok, we’d found some friends, were sitting around the fire drinking beers and having a good time – all under control! Lee talked about going to bed at about 11.30, which got a response from Kel of ... are you ready for it ... ‘Toughen up Princess’. Yeah – after being in what was quite possibly the scariest place on earth, with a group of guys we were trying to befriend, Kel called one of them a Princess. Luckily, Lee took it rather well, (I’m not sure if it was shock, or just impressed she had to guts to come out with something like that) because I wasn’t backing her up, she was on her own now! So Brian and I then took on spectator status while Lee and Kel bantered across the fire. So Lee stayed up until well after we went to bed, because he now had a point to prove. Heading to the bathroom (together of course) before I went back to grab my cd’s and set up the bed. Locked the door, hopefully having made some new friends, we had so far survived!

9th October

So we woke to the sound of choppers and cars – beautiful! Over (in pairs) for showers, where there was an abundance of clean and empty cubicals – fantastic!! Even better there were queues out the door of both the men’s shower and toilet blocks, classic! While Kel straightened her hair I sorted the van a bit, as we were going to have to pack up to get a gas fill. Then Wayne and Julien came over to offer us a lift into town to sort it out – magic! Wayne even helped get the bottle out for me, which was a blessing. So we headed into town to get supplies, stopping by the track on the way to deliver the esky, and found a place to fill the gas bottle. Awesome. $17.10, which Kel and I thought was not bad, but the boys said was ridiculous (which in thinking about it, really is ridiculous!). Did the food shopping (with Kel and I buying chocolate as a piece offering/thank you to the boys) and waited in the van, talking with Scotty. Back to the track, fit the gas bottle and turn the fridge on – excellent! Some lunch before it was time to head to the track. With our picnic blanket and couple of drinks we headed down by ourselves, getting some interesting looks and comments along the way. A group of guys near the Adelaide boys made a comment, and I turned around and I hesitated before turning around and acknowledging him. I later found out he quizzed Scotty about us, and said we were ‘ring ins’, but the guy appreciated that I’d made an effort. Mental note there! So we sat and watched the racing, took photos, watched Big Kev stumble around in his broken pluggers (not double pluggers, and I don’t think that was his only reason for stumbling), drank in the sun, bought merchandise, had a pretty awesome afternoon. Back for some more drinks (the beer was tasting good) but ours weren’t cold – fridge not working. Relit it to see if that would help, in the mean time stealing some ice from the boys to keep our food cold. Sat and drank around the boys fire we had some of their fried lice (it’s fried rice you idiot!) before we cooked up the garlic sausages that were stinking the fridge out and a snitzel for me. Watched the sun go down over the mountain, another magic sunset. By now we were happy to make the treck to the ablutions by ourselves, stopping to chat to security and the police on the way. Drank and chatted around the fire until the boys slowly disappeared and Kel and I called it a night – completely dumbfounded by how much things had changed in 24 hours!