Taxi driver Doug Slater pick up his fares for the extraordinary taxi ride.
The Extraordinary Taxi Ride through Western Australia has finally come to an end in Broome after travelling over 13,000km.
The journey was organised by Tourism Western Australia to promote the state. People from all over the world entered a competition to complete part of the extraordinary journey with Taxi driver Doug Slater.
11 pairs of winners emerged, among them was 57 year old Joe Senior from Britain. Joe has been blind since the age of six and travelled with his brother who created a mental image of the sights of Western Australia. Mr Senior had said he wanted to “feel and hear the power of nature” during his trip, explaining; “People with sight can see the world through TV and such visual aids. We, without sight can only appreciate the world through our ears or fingers.”
Mr Senior has certainly done that – tasting lemongrass at One Arm Point, smelling the medicinal eucalyptus scent at Cape Leveque and hearing the parrots and lorikeets as they sang from their treetop homes.
60 million people logged onto the specially created website set up by Tourism Western Australia in which they got to follow the extraordinary taxi ride as it travelled through the many sights of Western Australia. All of Doug’s passengers gave the journey the thumbs up – including two Kiwis who had to swap the taxi for a 4×4 for leg 10 of the journey along the Gibb River Road.
The total cost of the taxi ride would have been $20,000 but the cost of the project for Tourism Western Australia was much more, around $2.6 million. Yet they say it was worth every penny as the media coverage has proved successful, people have been following the journey and talking about it on social networking sites.
For the passengers it was the trip of a lifetime, and an emotional journey for some. Especially for Mr Joe Senior who summed up the trip eloquently: “I can feel the enormity of it. I can hear the birds singing their melodies. I can hear the sound of the waves lapping against the shore.”
To find out more about what Western Australia has to offer, visit the Tourism Western Australia website.
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