Dedication to football doesn’t come much bigger than covering 5,500 kilometres to hit up five cities in just 11 days, and the Footy Fans Down Under ‘Fans in Vans’ tour is doing just that to celebrate the start of the 2011/12 Hyundai A-League season.
Dedication to football doesn-t come much bigger than covering 5,500 kilometres to hit up five cities in just 11 days, and the Footy Fans Down Under “Fans in Vans” tour is doing just that to celebrate the start of the 2011/12 Hyundai A-League season.
Seven dedicated souls from Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and the Central Coast will take in four A-League games as well as next Tuesday-s Socceroos international against Oman on their journey which began in Sydney on Thursday.
The two vans were collected at lunch time and loaded up with all the essentials.
Thanks to FFA, each van now boasts a large ‘We Are Football- flag in the side window, a message to curious onlookers along the way.
The first port of call with the vans was Sydney Domestic Airport where Lee and Jane Sutherland met Neil Sherwin, who has flown in from Perth for the trip.
The remainder of the day was spent focusing on “hyrdration” in a bar on George Street, as Carly Carmichael made her way in from the Central Coast to join Lee, Jane and Neil. After food and a few drinks it was off to the for an early night.
Friday morning started very early with alarms going off at 5am. Matt Stephens was added to the group and the vans set off for Brisbane just after 7am.
The first close call came on the way to Port Macquarie as one of the vans was running on fumes for about 50kms but after a quick fuel injection it was on to Coffs Harbour and the extremely disappointing Big Banana.
With not much to see in terms of scenery it was left up to some rather questionable music choices to provide entertainment before Brisbane was finally in sight at about 8pm.
There was a quick change of clothes before heading to the bar and while the others retired to bed soon after, Neil and Matt kept the party going by sampling some of the local night life.
Two others, David Eggers and Katie Wilcher, will join up with the rest of the crew in Brisbane for the Roar v Mariners game, and it promises to be an action packed week and a half.
