Recently my grandfather turned 90! (only 10 to go) he is an adventurer and a bit of a risk taker- he is also very dangerous and somewhat crazy, often refusing doctors orders and pushing himself far too hard.
His life was reviewed through photographs and stories and although he had a stroke just over half way into this milestone of his it didnt slow him down. Up until his 80th birthday you would often find him (and myself more often than not) bushwalking around Waterfall 10km plus (terrain 3-5 to put it in GC terms) His life leading up to now has been full of things, there was never any down time. From playing soccer for Manchester United prior to WW2, war and the depression followed and Grandad ever the optimist decided 10 pound was cheap enough to try get rich in Australia. Leaving most of his family back in Helmsley he and his brother Conrad left the UK and his artistic brother Brian Richardson bound for Australia.
Once in Australia there wasnt much he didn't try his hand at, he had a laundry in Sydney, he was a hunter, then inspired by his love of cowboys worked the land as a rancher's assistant for a short while before he became somewhat of a cattle rustler in NT. Here he met my grandmother and soon he had settled down (in the sense that he was no longer a nomad anyway) He burried a small fortune underneath a tree that he marked during the rustling days but lost his map!? (as you do).
Apparently there was a pretty bad storm up north, the local aboriginals were talking about it and all left Darwin in the weeks before- Grandad and Grandma were convinced having lived with the local people that something serious was going on and moved to Sydney- a week later Cyclone Tracey hit and levelled the street they were living in. Starting their life in Sydney he ended up working for QANTAS as a storeman and played cricket with Mike Whitney who also worked for QANTAS at that time.
With this and at least 1,000 other things i think i'll save the rest for the 100th birthday.
Why is the cache called "the Richardson Tour", well if you go anywhere with Grandma and Grandad you will go "the long way" most people call it getting lost, they call it the long way and our family now call it a Richardson Tour. To put things in perspective a Richardson Tour is leaving Sydney, going for Queensland and going via Queenbean and then Stanwell Park because the driver will not admit to being lost! I was only 7 on that trip and I would lie I didnt know we were lost and the places we went to on the way to Queensland were awesome.
So a small cache on Richardson Rd to honour my Grandad's 90th Birthday and to honour the Richardson Tour.