The Deniliquin and district community has helped raise a whopping $43,000 for cancer research and programs by supporting the local teams in the Winter Sh*tbox Rally.
Bree and Sam from The Deni Girls and Peata and Tanya from On Angels Wings completed the seven day charity event in Alice Springs on Saturday.
Contributing to an overall rally total exceeding $2.3 million, On Angels Wings has raised $26,500 to date and had the 11th highest fundraising tally of more than 200 teams taking part by the rally’s end.
The Deni Girls’ tally is at $17,000 so far, and both teams are still accepting donations for at least another week.
Both teams reported having “a lot of fun” during the rally, and were proud to show off their home town to their buddy groups on day one of the rally.
The rally passed through Deniliquin after departing Melbourne on June 16, on the way to the first overnight stop in Hay.
“We were proud to have been called The Deni Girls with the rally coming through Deniliquin, and the organisers were all pretty impressed with the town,” Bree said.
“It was cool to represent Deniliquin, showing off all our local sponsors via the stickers on our cars.”
The remaining overnight stops on the route were Silverton, Hungerford, Windorah, Bedourie, Tobermorey Station and then Alice Springs.
Along the way, the teams stopped in small communities, speaking with locals, enjoying the community hospitality and having their own fun and games with dress ups and games.
But there were a few hiccups along the way for both teams.
On day four - which was ‘white wedding day’ - Peata and Tanya suffered a mechanical fault with their car.
So while the pair say the wedding dress up was a highlight of the trip, it was also their most challenging day.
“The bush mechanics and our buddy team members found the right part and helped us out,” Peata said.
“But the car had to be taken to Windorah on the back of a trailer.
“We have six cars in our buddy groups, so Tanya and I jumped in a car each and a few others took our gear - but it’s all part of the fun.”
The Deni Girls said their biggest challenge was navigating around unexpected road closures.
“We had no mechanical faults at all, and we made sure to wave to Peata and Tanya when we passed by their car being put on the trailer,” Sam said.
“There were a few diversions though,” Bree added.
“It really tested the cohesion of our buddy groups, with many late night drives on dusty and dodgy roads,” she continued.
“But it was one hell of an adventure.”
Members of both teams say they made a lot of new friends along the way, and were touched by the stories of why people were involved in this important Cancer Council fundraiser.
All money raised from the rally is used to fund research into preventing and curing cancer, and programs designed to support cancer patients and their families.