Well its back to the real world now.

So sorry that it has taken so long to put up this blog, but there has been a bit of recovery time required to get back to Brisbane, unpack the car, wash off the 10 days worth of dirt and dust, get over the dreaded rally lurgy that we always seem to get, get back to work and generally resume normal life.

And believe me, this last task is the hardest - even now I'm thinking to myself "this time last week we were just getting through some really wet, boggy roads on our way to our second flat tyre which was thankfully plugged by a helpful "Arab" at Russell Crowe's pub". Unfortunately the running repairs meant that I missed out on lunch - but it was far better to have the car in full working order than to fill my belly with stew.

The last night at Bargara was a great night - The Ruby Legends won three awards this year. We received some great recognition in the Supreme Promoter Award, as well as winning 7th Highest Fundraiser and the Ladies Division for the second year running. To me, the most special one is the Supreme Promoter Award as it recognises the efforts that we have put into promoting the rally and the Endeavour Foundation throughout the last year. This is even more special as there are so many other teams and people out there working hard for this very same cause every day.

I have attached some photos from the awards night at Bargara. The gentleman with us is the Bundaberg Branch Manager for Westpac, and he and his lovely wife were our guests at the dinner.

We are now looking toward the finish line

So here we are facing the finish line in one more day. We can't believe that we are almost there. The past nine days have flown by.

The last time that we updated you was when we were stopped at Hat Head for the Mad Hatters Tea Party. Everyone looked great with their dressed up hats and we decided to go a little further and come as the Queen of Hearts.

Another very interesting and challenging day in the mountains with lunch at the "Pub with no Beer" we arrived in Wingham a small country town at the foot of the divide. A great meal and lots of "networking".

We were fortunate enough to have lunch at the Endeavour Enterprises facility at Toowoomba on Monday. It was a great honour to meet more clients and to really see where our fundraising efforts are being spent and who is gaining the benefit. We also got to meet two members of the local Westpac team - Kylee and Meryl from Toowoomba who came to catch up with us briefly in between interviews with two newspapers and the television.

It was another early start the next day up through the mountains again however, this time we were not coming back to the beach. We saw some beautiful sights along with the second tallest waterfall in the southern Hemisphere a treat for all before we made our way in to Wingham for the night. Another dress up party saw costumes from around the world, and once again The Ruby Ledgends did not disappoint. In our Geisha attire we rocked the dance floor before having to pack up for once again another early morning.

We were again off out in the bush for a fairly cruisy day out to Tenterfield (although long and tiring), another dress up night to celebrate Christmas in July and the cold temperatures (not as cold as expected due to cloud cover, however we were still shaking).

Night 7 had us all in the same accommodation (tent and swags) as Gallangowan is a small forestry town west of Gympie with a population of about 12. Again not as cold as expected however we were all prepared and were suprised that we didn't freeze. It rained a little however we managed to stay dry.

Yesterday was a lovely surprise with the temperature allowing us to venture out with just one coat for the night up at Rainbow Beach. The track out there was a little slippery at times but we made it eventually, with only one hiccup at the last wacko. The course was changed last minute and instead of following where we belived the car in front had gone, we made the decision to follow what we thought were the directions and took a "long cut". Lucky for GPS we plugged in Rainbow Beach and worked backwards to our checkpoint and checked in just in time.

Today was a bumpy ride in to Childers for lunch and even bumpier after with yet another flat tyre. All girls have now had one flat tyre on this trip so there is no pointing fingers. Tonight we have pulled in to Woodgate for our last dress up night (Caribbean Theme) with us once again taking a little twist. You will have to wait and see for the photos.

Below are just a few over the past couple of days.

Speak to you soon

Ruby Legends

Another day over - we are officially half way through...

It must be true what they say about time flying when you're having fun - cause its hard to believe its halfway through the rally already.

Tonight we are in Wingham, NSW. They had a bit of a problem last week when the Wingham Hotel burnt down - the problem for the rally drivers is that a lot of them were staying there and as its a small town, its not so easy to find alternative accommodation when over 200 strange people hit town.

As far as our results are concerned, after Day 4 our standing was officially 46 (out of 63) - but we're not losing hope cause there's still 5 days to go. Plus we have lost points because of flat tyres and getting caught up behind other drivers in boggy and dusty conditions. we know we're not going to win, but we still would like to do the very best we can.

We had another fancy dress last night - the Mad Hatters party - and we will post some images as soon as we get them off the cameras. And tonight we're heading to an international Birthday party as there are quite a few people that have birthdays during the rally. Any excuse for a drink I think it is!

We have been steadily heading south over the past few days, but from tomorrow we start to go back North. We're in for a few chilly nights though - Tenterfield in July - say no more. I hope to be able to add more and some photos tomorrow as well, but it will all depend on whether my fingers will work.

But the car's going really well and the team are too - and we're all safe and having a ball. Speak to you soon.

Day 3 Images - Red Rock to Valla Beach

Valla Beach was a lovely place - but a little chilly! And the locals were very friendly too. We had our first dress up night - the pyjama party. For some people this meant that they stayed in their jammies for over 24 hours cause it was too cold to get changed out of them!

Day 2 Images - Brooms Head to Red Rock

Another flat tyre today... and some extremely boggy conditions that slowed down a lot of others, but not us of course!

Day 1 Images - Burleigh Heads to Brooms Head

Attached are some photos from day one...including our first flat tyre

Thursday afternoon we came down out of the hills and arrived at Valla right on the water. Some headed to the water for some fishing but no luck. Dinner was held at the Valla Woolshed followed by a solo singer and some brave dancers. The theme for the night was "Pajama Party" and it was amazing to see the myriad of different "flannies" and slippers. No auctions tonight but a great night was had by all. Lizzie and Rachel discovered a possum on the verandah of the unit at the end of a night and after feeding it some muesli bars it was kinda happy - at least until it took a small bit out of Lizzie's thumb.

Today we woke to a beautiful cold clear day with sunny skies. After another great hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs (hopefully our arteries will forgive us at the end of the rally) we set off on another day of great scenery. We had no car troubles today at all - although there were a few issues with some - but not nearly as many as on the previous days. Today was a relatively smooth travelling day with no creek crossings and no bogs - yesterday we had a couple of tricky creek crossings that had left a few people high and dry, although the trusty Prado went through without a problem at all.

We also have full internet service today too, so we are going to upload our photos - and we'll write again tomorrow from Wingham.

Two days down, only 8 more to go ...

Well we have been very successful in our fundraising efforts this year, and thanks again to our major sponsors for helping us out so much. We have actually ranked 7th in the starting lineup this year, which means that - to date - we have raised the 7th highest amount. We also have some extra dollars to add to that before we reach the finish line next Thursday, so that may increase slightly (fingers crossed as we came 6th highest fundraisers last year).

So - we are now in the lovely Red Rock, NSW. Its a beautiful seaside town with a permanent population of 250 people (or so one of the locals just told me), but it swells to 2,500 at Christmas time. We've managed to get a great holiday rental house for the night, with hot running water to help us get rid of the caked on mud and dust from today.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.... Yesterday we left the North Burleigh Surf Lifesaving Club, and unfortunately we got slightly lost only about 15km after that - but not for long! We got ourselves back on track a lot faster than some others - to our benefit, although that didn't last long as we blew a tyre on the second section and had to take 30mins to change it. Oh well, we learnt from that - we learnt that the Prado jack doesn't do jack s**t and we went and bought a better one last night.

All in all though, our first day was pretty good - we lost maximum 8 points for the section with the flat tyre, but only 3 points for the other 4 sections - good going for a new team and new car.

We also learnt not to make bold predictions like "now we have a super great trolley jack we probably won't ever need it..." cause lo and behold we lost another tyre today and out came the trusty new jack. We're still getting ourselves fully acquainted, but we're pretty good friends already.

Many apologies for not posting anything last night, but there was no service at Brooms Head. And many more apologies for not yet being able to add any images, but the service here at Red Rock isn't much better and while I can add the words, the images won't add...

We'll hopefully talk to everyone tomorrow from Valla Beach.

We're almost there!

So we have now officially had our car checked and signed off by the scrutineers and we are all registered and almost ready to go. Just some last minute shopping and of course packing the car, and then come tomorrow morning at 8am, we're off into the wide blue yonder.

We also managed to fit in a trip to the local Endeavour facility this morning as well - a great opportunity to catch up with some of the clients. We have attached a selection of photos from today...

Only 1.5 days of work to go....

So the numbers are:

- 1.5 days of work left
- 5 more sleeps
- Approximately 115 hours left to go and
- Only about 4,000 kms from start to finish

....until official flag off!

No matter which way you want to put it there's no a lot of time left to go now! Yay!

My personal wishlist for the rally:

- Fingers crossed that the weather is all sunshine and blue skies wherever we are (27 degrees would maybe be a bit too much to expect)
- The car goes great guns and there are no problems either on the rally or after
- We get a good starting position (between 5 and 10 would be great)
- My liver regenerates itself quickly once I get back
- Oh - and that we get another trophy!!! (Although its far more important for us all to finish in one piece)

Really looking forward to it now - have started to collect a great big pile of stuff in my lounge room near the front door, but I have to keep checking every now and again to make sure that the cat hasn't hidden himself inside it hoping to sneak along for the ride.

Speak to you all again soon!

Only 12 more sleeps to go until we take off!

The countdown has well and truly started - and we only have 12 more sleeps to go until we're off again! I hope that the rain stays away for the 10 days we are on the road - travelling and camping in the cold and rain is no fun for anyone I can assure you. Lucky we have lots of accommodation to stay in this year I suppose.

I have just had a new "musical car horn" fitted to the car - the auto electrician assured me that the best place to put it was under the bonnet which will protect it from the rain and other weather. The only problem is that now instead of sounding like the wild animals its supposed to (think elephant, tiger, etc) it sounds a little like a strangled duck... perhaps its the thought that counts anyway - and its certainly unique.

We've now got all of our costumes organised as well - just a couple of last minute touches which we can hopefully pick up on the Gold Coast before we leave.

The History of The Ruby Legends

In 2010 The Ruby Legends will participate in The Great Endeavour Rally, which takes place over 10 days in July. We will travel from Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast down into New South Wales and then finish in Bargara after traversing approximately 3,500 klms of beautiful Australian countryside.

Although this is the fist year for "The Ruby Legends" (thanks to our sponsors Westpac and East Coast Bullbars for contributing to the name), we already have three other rallies under our belts. In fact the team has gone through some changes over the years.

In 2007 Kerry McLeish joined with three other women to become "The Dollies" as a tribute to Dolly Parton - and they wore special Dolly wigs the whole time as well. Then the team changed in 2008 when Elisabeth joined with Kerry and another former Dolly to become "The Aussie Maids". This was such a winning formula that it stayed in place for 2009 as well.

This year we will change ever so slightly with Elisabeth and Kerry being joined by Rachel, a brand new entrant to the world of charity fundraising and rally driving. Plus of course we are also breaking in (not literally I hope!) a brand new car this year.

So far we have taken part in three one day events so that we can all practice driving and navigating, and of course we need to make sure that the car can handle it all - which it has done so far without any complaints. Fingers crossed that it comes out the other side of 10 days the same way.

Our fundraising to date is just shy of $23,000 which is pretty close to our target - although we never give up trying to get that little bit extra for the Endeavour Foundation of course. But we only have a couple of weeks left to get the final finishing touches organised for the car.

The car is in for a service this week, as well as another visit to the auto electrician so that everything can be securely fastened down as we know we will be bouncing through some pretty rough terrain over the next few weeks and we really need to avoid damage both to the car and to ourselves.

We've had a few companies around Brisbane help us out with products recently, and they deserve a big thank you - On Track 4WD Centre, Berlei, Triumph and Hicks Signs have all been great to us, which is very much appreciated.

Westpac as our principal sponsor have also made everything possible, and without East Coast Bullbars the car wouldn't be in the great position it is now. Opposite Lock have also been great support to us.

So, the car is 95% ready and the team is probably about 110% ready to go - the countdown is on!

Redcliffe Herald Article - May 2010

Elisabeth & Rachel appeared in the local Redcliffe Herald newspaper again to provide an update on the progress of fundraising.

The car is now almost fully prepared, with only a few more modifications and accessories to be added and some extra sponsor stickers included.

Click on the link to read the whole story.

Wow! Our first blog and our first post...

Hi everyone!

This is our first attempt at creating a blog and of course posting stuff to it. Please bear with us as we add more info on who we are, where we are all from and what our plans and goals are for the 2010 Great Endeavour Rally this year.

Please come back soon.

Elisabeth