ANDREW Gough and his good friend Chris Fletcher formed The Lost Bearings Team for this year’s Mystery Box Rally held last month.
Mystery Box Rally takes teams of 25-year-old cars on a unique five-day adventure through Australian terrain to raise funds for the Cancer Council.
Their trip kicked off at Airlie Beach, then proceeded to Oasis Roadhouse, Karumba, Chillagoe and Rollingstone, with a total of 3805km travelled altogether.
For this year’s rally, over 300 people participated and helped raise over $1.3M for Cancer Council, so far.
“I am very thankful for anybody who donates – when it’s a bigger cause, when it’s like your family, then you realise how important these things are,” Andrew said.
“Everyone had a common ground where they wanted to do better.”
Alongside the hundreds of participants, Andrew was surprised to find out that there were multiple local teams supporting this rally from the Scenic Rim.
“We had two from Beaudesert, including us, and their friends were doing it. There was also a team from Canungra,” he said.
“It was quite bizarre; I’d never seen them in my life – you would have never thought they would be here.”
Although Lost Bearings’ 1999 VT Commodore sedan, Betoota Rescue, came home on four wheels, it was left with a few battle scars.
“The whole rally is fantastic. I would say that we were probably lucky with only three issues,” Andrew said.
“These sorts of roads really do test the limit of the car – you tend to find any small, minute problem that might not be an issue on the normal roads.”
He said the rally was an unforgettable experience and would highly recommend participating in it to anyone interested.
“I think the best part of it though is it’s a good chance to see Australia. It just shows you what a beautiful country that we have,” Andrew said.
“It’s the travelling, it’s the people, it’s the locals even in those towns – you spending money there helps them, and that’s what it’s about.”
Andrew hopes to be able to participate in another rally, and perhaps even join their support team to see another side of this cause.
