Thunder
Downunder 2001!
Back to Thunder Downunder 2001 Chase Reports It was an earlyish start, picking up my chase partner (Andrew "Macca" McDonald), from the Brisbane Airport who was flying in from Melbourne, but it was going to be a fairly busy day. The morning was taken up some quick video while my dog was bathed before going out to the shops and purchasing some food and other assorted items! We semi-packed the car (well, we packed without packing the car if that makes sense), and generally got everything prepared. We had to head out to my parents farm to meet up with them for a bit, before going out to dinner at the Walloon pub. We debated as to take our cameras or not - we decided against it, possibly a bad mistake to do! Some mid level cloud rolled in just before sunset, and the sunset was rather nice! When we headed back to my place for the night, we studiously went through the analysises and forecast models in an attempt to work out where to head. It was a difficult decision, NSW and QLD both looked good, but which one to choose? QLD looked to perhaps start and finish later, and cloud may be a problem in NSW. It was a tough decision, but we decided to opt for the Queensland option on the basis of cloud, the tentative plan was to head for Roma on the Thursday (22nd), and although there would be no storms likely on the Thursday, the following day was showing a fair bit of promise! It was a relatively late night, I had to finish off a few last minute things, so was up a fair bit later. It wasn't too bad, I was excited that TDU started tomorrow! It was strange, it was as if you were a kid again at Christmas, and you couldn't sleep because you were so excited at what Santa left under the tree - yet on the other hand if you drifted off to sleep sooner rather than later, then it'd arrive sooner! Unfortunately that didn't work, but I did eventually drift off to sleep, but woke up relatively early with excitement in the morning, even though we didn't leave until after 10am. About Thunder Downunder 2001 For the past three years, chasers have been getting together around Australia around November and December and chasing in groups. It's been extremely successful, and many great friendships have been formed. I chased in a similar group to Thunder Downunder 2000 - Macca was my chase partner again for this year (together called "Pracca" - and the car "Alex), and we chased with James Harris and Matt Smith in their car "X-Ray" and Matt Pearce joined in for 5 days too in his car "Scruff." Unfortunately James and Matt could only chase for 10 days, Macca and I were able to chase for another week on top of that. Other people on the chase included Clyve Herbert, Jane O'Neill, Paul Yole, Jimmy Deguara, Nick Moir and Geoff Thurtell. We met up with Clyve, Jane and Paul several times and Jimmy once at Michael Bath's. It was great meeting up every couple of days as we were able to share each others stories and experiences from recent. The small groups worked well, as it was easy ot navigate and find accomodation with a small group, and decisions are often easier too. Macca and I had made the same arrangements as the previous year, I would take the photos and he would take the video and then after the chase, we would get doubles/make copies for each other and post them to each other (given he is in Melbourne and I am in Brisbane). This works well as if one person just concentrates on photos, and the other on video - you can get better photos/more video. Due to the limited resources available to Australian chasers once you're on the road, it's difficult to do things by yourself - especially if you don't have a laptop. For this reason, I would to offer a HUGE thanks to the following people who supplied us with updates and information during the time: Michael Bath, Daniel Weatherhead, Paul Miracki and Chris Gribben. A big thanks also to Matt Pearce and Jane O'Neill who kept Macca and I updated when they got back to Sydney and Melbourne respectively. A further thanks goes to Michael Bath who has supplied the radar and satpics shown in these reports. Report by Anthony Cornelius & Andrew McDonald, |
