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‘Nanna’ the 1975 Holden Kingswood of Glen Innes Variety Bashers Baz and Deb Stapleton and Hound and Tina Wolfe has clocked a few more miles on her odometre but survived the crew’s latest outing with only a broken headlight.
The headlight fell foul of a rock thrown up by another vehicle in the Bash, but was a small price to pay for an outstanding week, according to Tina.
“The little schools we stopped at in the middle of nowhere were the best bit,” she said.
“Some of them had only 10 kids, but they were awesome and the food they turned on…
“There’s an obvious community spirit and they go to so much effort.”
Not that this is the first year the catering has been ‘generous’, Tina said, with three years of eating along the Bash route now under her belt, so to speak.
She may even have to let out the costumes for future trips, with ‘theme’ nights advertised well before each outing to allow participants to raid op shops and other resources for the right kit. It’s Tina’s job to organise the costumes, and she travels with a suitcase full of props.
This trip included a Pink Day, a Japanese night and miner’s night to celebrate Newcastle’s coal heritage, where one car-full came as giant canaries. (From the canaries’ role to detect gas leaks in mine shafts, get it?)
The route took the 2017 Variety NSW Bash from Newcastle to Gilgandra, Cowra, Narrandera, Yass, Hound’s hometown of Bathurst and then Muswellbrook before returning to Newcastle, raising more than $800,000 for children’s charities in the process. There was time for a flying visit to Hound’s family where Nanna fitted in a quick lap of Panorama, in pole position of course.
This year’s Bashers will reunite in Newcastle on July 29 to swap stories and photos, and make plans for next year. The NSW Bash always starts and ends in Newcastle, but the Glen Innes crew has been campaigning long and hard for the 2018 route to come up to this neck of the woods although it’s yet to be announced.
Wherever it goes you can be assured Nanna and her crew will be part of the pack.
“It’s exhausting and muddy, but so much fun,” Tina said.