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!