Telling our story

Earlier we mentioned being invited to present at the 2016 Adventure Travel Film Festival in Bright. Bright is an aptly named village tucked in the upper Ovens River valley on the way to the alpine snow resorts in north eastern Victoria, and is famous for its Autumn colours. It has great pubs and eateries, and on the weekend of 12-14 February it treated us to perfect sunny weather, just right for the pubs.

The festival is in its fifth year and is the love child of Rupert Shaw, a well travelled Englishman now resident in Bright, and a band of very enthusiastic local volunteers. This year the program included Tony Wheeler, co-founder of the travellers bible, Lonely Planet, as well as world travelling motorcyclists Brian Rix and Shirley Hardy-Rix, Postie bike explorer Jacquie Kennedy, Ron Fellowes who rode a 102 year old motorcycle from Nepal to the factory in Belgium where the bike was made. We were also privileged to meet the remarkable Paul Pritchard, a climber with a story that is almost unbelievable. Have a look for yourself:

http://www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com/australian-festival/added-attractions/

Ian and Penny had driven the Dodge down from Sydney to go on display, and we’re pleased to say that our presentation in the tiny Uniting Church was standing room only. We took that as quite a compliment, given the impressive line-up of films and presenters on the program.

Four of the crew attended, Rex Hewett, Michael Noyce, Ian Neuss and me. Rex had spliced a short clip of movie footage of various parts of the trip to set up expectations while people were finding their seats. Michael told the exciting story of the crew's midnight flit from Kazakhstan, with relevant pics and video clip, and Ian and I toggled through the rest.

The car and presentation set off many conversations with other travellers and attendees who are on the verge of deciding to give adventure travel a go. One result is that I will be talking about our trip at the Gippsland Vehicle Collection rally at Maffra, Victoria, on 7 May.