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KEN Tuckey has a crazy name to go with an adventure that is just as bizarre.
His tractor and camel trailer are quite a spectacle at the Henty Machinery Field Days where he is selling raffle tickets and telling people about his 25,000-kilometre journey.
Known as ‘the camel man’, he has conquered Australia on camel, by foot, on a quad bike and in an all-terrain vehicle, but is now half way through a journey by tractor.
He set out from Mudgee on April 18 with his wife, Joyce, for the first leg of the venture covering a distance of 13,000 kilometres.
So far the couple have raised $20,000 this trip for CareFlight, Kids Cancer Research Trust, and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service.
He began his nomadic lifestyle by spending 26 weeks in the desert after his first wife was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
“I went out in the desert with six wild camels in Alice Springs to get patience and understanding,” he said.
“Out there I learnt what Ken Tuckey was capable of doing and I learnt a lot of patience and understanding because the camels can kill you.”
Ken’s achievements are quite remarkable given he has only 75 per cent lung capacity and a chromosome disorder.
“I have klinefelters syndrome, so my body doesn’t make energy at all,” he said.
“The doctors cut me open roughly every three months and put capsules inside me and that gives me about 3000 kilometres that I can walk.”
The second leg of Ken’s tractor journey will start in January next year across the Nullarbor and through Central Australia.
When he is on the road, Ken lives out of his old camel trailer, which is towed behind the tractor.
It contains two single beds, a toilet, a shower, 250 litres of water, a TV, food and some tools that he hopes he will never have to use.
The tractor does a maximum speed of 33km/h and will tackle the Great Dividing Range at about half that pace.
He is looking for people with the same patience to join him next year.
“You’ve got to be bloody crazy to do it,” he said.
“My wife won’t be doing the next leg with me so if I don’t get a crew together I’ll have to do it on my own, and that will be hard because I’ve got to send reports and do bookwork.”
Interested? Phone Ken on 0428 368 852.