SB Rally: Where the days are long and the roads even longer

The roads in the top end are ruthless, especially once you are away from the bitumen. If the wandering cattle don't get you, then the corrugations will. Regan and Paul driving their trusty Falcon have so far dodged most stray bullets (...and bullocks) and mechanically have had a great run.

Let's cross to Regan for the update...

We traveled in groups of nine buddy teams, which led to a lot of hold ups for each of the river crossings. Idle people and XXXX Gold results in many a prank from the non-drivers, so we had a good laugh on such a long day.

One guy found an 18 inch tiger snake in the bushes at one stop, threw it in our car and closed the door. Paula was still screaming at the guy as I fished it out and handed it back. The guy walked off with his rubber snake and tried a similar trick on the next car with much better results. The next couple, scared shitless, pulled everything out their car looking for it, as the joker with slight of hand, snuck it into his pocket as he closed the door. Priceless.

It was a rough ride to start the day. At one stage the corrugations were so bad our rear view mirror just bounced off the windscreen.

With blown tyres for both Green Machine and Off Piste we had six stops on the dirt alone and didn't see sealed roads until 4pm.  It was only half way through our journey but it's now a free for all as the groups break back into buddy teams and we open her up to 130km/h.

We arrived into camp just after 9pm, totally spent and headed straight to the bar. When we hit the sack at 2am teams where still driving in. Apparently the last team came in at 4am.

Looking forward to a leisurely 400km drive tomorrow into Darwin.

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Images by Jarrad Seng