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Mix that with some improvised mechanical repairs, more than 1000 litres of fuel and a whole lot of fun and you get a sense of what the Shitbox Rally was for Judi and Bob McGrath.
The Broadford couple drove from Melbourne to Townsville via Birdsville and all the way back in their 1976 Series 2 Jaguar – more than 7000km.
The Shitbox Rally sees participants drive cars worth just $1000 across Australia via some of its most formidable roads, all in the name of charity.
The annual event has raised more than $21 million in funds during the past 10 years for cancer research.
True to the event's name, Judi and Bob named their vehicle Kitty Litter, and it was purring for the first 583km.
“It was all going smoothly until we hit Wentworth, that’s when the dirt roads began,” Judi said.
“The Series 2 Jaguars are not known for their endurance, so 2000km on some of the worst dirt tracks in the country was more than a challenge.
“The car is very low so we couldn’t drive in the wheel ruts made by other vehicles. We had to have one side in the middle and the other in the loose rocks on the edge of the road.
“That caused some problems and by the end we had a split in one fuel tank and we lost a muffler and an exhaust.”
Sometimes rolling into a town during the small hours of the morning, Judi and Bob joined the other 500 participants and slept on a stretcher wherever they could find space.
And that was if you had time to sleep, with many working by torch light in the triage unit to get their vehicle working for the next day of driving.
That was followed by hours-long waits for fuel in towns that had only one petrol station.
But the difficulty of the journey was all part of the attraction for Judi and Bob.
‘We’re raising money for the cancer research. Nothing we did on the trip comes close to how tough it is to be battling cancer,” Judi said.
“The journey gave us all time to reflect on why we were all there. The funds raised will hopefully ease the pain for people battling cancer.
“In addition to that, the toughness of it all built a lot of camaraderie. You were all in it together and there was no team left behind.
“Everyone pitched in to get each other over the line.”
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