driving the Hippie Love Bus), the Shit Spinners, Erik Sligar from Orange and Matt Dwyer from Forbes with Barbie and Ken, aka Tanya and Dominic Votanao from Sydney with their Tarago Barbie campervan yesterday morning in Cobar.
Participants on the Shitbox Rally 2023 Summer event overnighted in Cobar on Monday on their way from Rockhampton to Hobart.
It’s been a pretty hot run for the rally drivers since they headed off from Rockhampton last Friday to begin the long drive south.
The Cobar Weekly caught up with three of the teams on the Shitbox Rally (so named due to the cars they are driving can only be worth/valued at no more than $1,500) yesterday morning.
We spoke to veteran rally participants, Dominic and Tanya Votanao from Sydney, who have raised thousands of dollars on Shitbox rallies for the Cancer Council.
They started this trip, their 17th Shitbox Rally, as the highest fundraisers.
The pair, aka Ken and Barbie, are driving a pink Tarago they’ve named the Barbie campervan which has faithfully served them on 531,000km.
(Prior to taking part in Shitbox rallies, the pair have also been on 10 Variety Bashes.)
“Poor old Barbie is getting towards the end of its life,” Dom said.
“For 65 litres of petrol you get about 300km, the fuel economy is dreadful.
“But we do have air-conditioning and an inner spring mattress in the back so we don’t have to pitch a tent.
“The fun is just driving along in a group of seven [cars] watching the stupid antics of the people around you.
“The unexpected happens in the most ridiculous of places,” he said.
Travelling with them are Hippies John Redwin and his wife Mel (who works as a bookkeeper for Dom and Tanya) from Batemans Bay.
“We’re Mick’s Mates. He was a young fella that passed away from a brain tumor. He was only 41 or 42, Michael Adams, that’s our team name and that’s our motivation,” John said.
The Hippie couple are also driving a Tarago which Mel said has a great dressing room in the back for all of their different costume changes each day.
John said the Hippie Love Bus goes great.
“Other than the fact that once it gets hot it doesn’t really want to go.
“You have to keep the fuel tank really full, as once you get down to about half full, it really gets the horrors,” John said.
“We just keep filling it up with jerry cans.
“The whole bus is also full of dust, our bed, our clothes,” Mel added.
“Apart from it being a great cause, I just love the banter, when there’s nothing much happening on the road and the buddy group are just chatting,” John said.
The third team we spoke to are the Shit Spinners, Erik Sligar from Orange and Matt Dwyer from Forbes, who are undertaking their second Shitbox Rally run.
And we’re guessing they are two of the most popular participants on the rally as the pair are both mechanics!
They’re driving a VH Commodore wagon they sourced out of a paddock.
“Yeah the seats are pretty soft in the old girl but we’ve had a few engine dramas,” Erik said.
Matt said the rallies are a great experience from the fundraising process to travelling on roads you wouldn’t normally have access to and seeing parts of Australia that you’d never thought about going to.
“The countryside is amazing and you get to enjoy it with a few other people,” Matt said.
And the charity side of things.
Just everything. People getting behind you, asking questions then they get keen to do it, it spurs people on as well.
