Two In The Think Tank - 226 - The East German Balloon Escape

Episode Date: February 19, 2020

In 1952, East Germany was closed off from it's Western counterpart. Between the countries lay walls, barbed wire, minefields and lots and lots of soldiers. But that didn't stop the East German citizens from dreaming of escaping the oppressive dictatorship. In the late 70s two men got together and came up with a plan... to build a home made hot air balloon and fly their families over the border to a better life. This is one of the most audacious escapes ever attempted!Buy tickets to our live shows in MELBOURNE here: https://dogoonpod.com/events/Matt is performing his new stand up show MONKEY HOUSE in BRISBANE March 10-15 and MELBOURNE March 26-April 19, find more details/get tickets here: https://mattstewartcomedy.com/gigs (use the code 'podcast' for a special listener discount)Jess is performing her debut solo stand up show ALMOST in MELBOURNE March 26-April 19, get tickets here: https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2020/shows/almostOur website: dogoonpod.comSupport the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-TopicCome to the Sanspants vs Planet Broadcasting Gameshow Showdown : https://m.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/plumbing-the-death-star/119488?skin=4406&fbclid=IwAR0J6Vm7PhBgS_QRj8L95o57Z22twh6hHnN6WfK6yH2RUEmrPlkUCSBge9E Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasREFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:Günter Wetzel's website:https://www.ballonflucht.de/en/idee.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_balloon_escape

Hey everybody, Jess and Dave, just jumping in really quickly at the top here to make sure that you are across all the details for our upcoming Christmas show. That's right, we are doing a live show in Melbourne Saturday December the 2nd, 2023, our final podcast of the year, our Christmas special. It's downstairs at Morris House, which usually be called the European beer cafe. On Saturday December the 2nd, 2023 at 4.30pm, come along, come one, come all, and get tickets at dogoonpod.com. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now.

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You could start your new career in months, not years. Take classes online or on campus Visit PlanetBroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. Hello and welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnke and I'm sitting here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. Does it mean you sound a little disappointed? Oh no I thought that sounded nice. Oh I just want to give you the sort of respect your name deserves. Hmm. Oh no I thought it sounded nice to me. He did sound like it was disrespectful to me.

Yeah right he was like oh and she's here too. Yeah. I'm here every week except those two that I missed. If I was disappointed you'd know about it. Jess. Hi. That's a little confusing because my little name is Those two that I missed if I was disappointed you'd know about it. Jess Hi, that's a little confusing because my little name is Yeah, I know it was hard to spell but my parents found a way it was asterix. Yeah, so I asterix

The nurse is writing down the name of the Bethes to be what should we call it Jess? I love it. Where's it what ethnicity is What ethnicity is that? It's quite original. It's a family name. And now it was like. Lovely lady. Fantastic. How is everyone? I'm pretty good.

Dave? Honest answer? No. Podcast answer. Oh, I got a podcast. Oh, I'm pretty good. Dave? Honest answer? No. Podcast answer. Podcast answer please. Oh I'm fantastic. Great. No I just got a little bit of a cold. So that's my real one. That's a bit crook too.

Did I give it to? Maybe. This is from our make out session. Yeah. Everything's started making out after we were called episodes of Bookcheat which was last night. That was the first of a Bookcheat post make out. And I felt sick ever since.

I had a migraine today. Which one of you gave that to me? Well, I hope you've been making it with most recently. Oh most recently? What Dave was like today, so... Oh man. God, you snooze a little and this is just about a due during it. Yeah, you do. That's what a migraine is? Yeah, migraines are when you get headbutt.

The head traumas. Right. Yeah, that's a lot-anise? Yeah, a micro-anise when you get headbutt. Head traumas. Right. Yeah, that went a lot. Yeah, you do. Anyway, so we're all feeling great. Yeah, feeling great, feeling bloody great. Well, I've got a hell of a report for you today.

I'm going to put myself out there and say that. Is that a clue? Is it about the devil? Is it about hell? Is it about hell's kitchen? Is it about Gordon Ramsay? Yes. Oh, I got a lemon.

There you go. What a ram- He didn't even ask the question. That wouldn't be that, but I don't really know much of. He sort of just appeared on the scene one day in my life, anyway. Yes. I got a lemone. There you go. Ramsey. He didn't even ask the question. That wouldn't be that but I didn't really know much He sort of just appeared on the scene one day in my life anyway. Yeah, suddenly he was just he was like a very Fervent soccer player like you think it was semi pro soccer player, maybe this is true. I don't know I think so no it's interesting that I actually thought it ever would be He was it wasn't I think he was ever made that up. I can't wait for a reduction at the end of the episode.

Oh, Allah, last week. Oh my God, the meltdown David Warnakita. I must say, it was quite amazing, I guess, to see how many people, it was just interesting, I should say, to see how many people listen all the way through the episode, how many people clearly don't bother listening to the second half of the episode, because last week I made a, let's agree with this mistake. My goodness. A mortal scent, confused Fibonacci with Archimedes and I had to make a red action at the end of the episode. Some of which people have never heard. So if you haven't,

I did realize. I did realize, okay, just sadly we had done the whole episode. That's okay. You figured it out though. You did. And I'm just clarifying that Good Rampsy does have some kind of football history. Right, I was thinking Matt was confusing with Cristiano Ronaldo. He's great, he invented the Flombe technique. Yeah, which is doing good things. Yeah, that's great.

Flombe is taking off around the world. So the way this show works, am I right in saying this? One of the three of us reports on a topic that we've researched usually been suggested by a listener. So far so good. This week Dave's done the research. He's telling the, doing the report. It's on a topic that Jess and I don't know.

And to get us on to this topic, Dave's gonna ask us a question. You nailed it. That was a succinct copy and I don't know. And to get us on to this topic, Dave is going to ask us a question. You nailed it. That was a succinct copy and paste for the next 300 weeks. Here we go. A question for you to get us onto this topic. If you had to escape a country ruled by, let's be honest, a brutal dictatorship.

What mode of transport would you use to flee such a country? Submarine. Okay. Even though they are the dumbest, I don't hate them. I think they're very dumb. They're silly. They're a whimsical mode of things. Is it any other, I've got to say this.

Is there any other mode of transport that you look at and think that's dumb? Blimp. Okay. Blimp even the word is so funny. Blimp. I've never thought about that before. Blimp.

Blimp. They're so dumb. Blimp. They're are very slow cumbersome plane Blimp just take a plane. Oh my god. There's a Sleep out of blimp a blimp and there was a time that it like it was rivaling planes Yeah, like it looked like that might be the one day. Have a go blimp blimp Blimp you can say you got a limp to say blue. Your mouth looks dumb. Or we'll, thank you.

Blimp. Thank you. Well, Matt, do you have it? Well, what is, can I give you a clue? Can I give you a clue? If you give you a clue. Why is he gonna clue? Because you sort of set it up for a nice, like it's half way between a submarine and a

blimp. Oh, it's a hover, hovercraft. What are you doing? Half way between a submarine and a blimp. The clue's not very good, so don't worry about it. I have really come to help do me out there, man. Thanks again. I'm bringing up your hands.

It's like 25% submarine, 75% blimp. What do you got? Oh, like an aqua plane. All right, it's not a boat. It's 95%. Oh, we talking about a car. It's a 95% blimp, 5% submarine, but there's a 5% margin of error.

So it's a blimp. It's a blimp. It's a blimp. It was halfway between a plane and a blimp. A Zeppelin. It was halfway between a plane and a blimp. A plane and a blimp now. We've talked about it once. It's a hot air balloon.

It's a hot air balloon. Well, that Matt said, you give him a clue. And Matt, he fires an all-seal and does, he gets there. Fuck. That wasn't me. It was not a good clue. That was a best one. It just had fun to me.

Half of it between the summer and a blimp. Well, you got a hot air balloon. I guess that it, yeah. I'd want to quick get away. And for my experience, hot air balloons, they take off fairly slowly. But what if I should have added this? What have you had to make your own transport?

Okay. Would the hot air balloon, would that be the one that you think that you'd have the best shot at being able to just whip up yourself? No. It's about the movie up. Well, close enough. Do you know what I'd be making?

You know what I'd make? What would you make? A horse. Oh, yeah. Trotting horse. Bit of a breeding program. Yeah, I'd make a horse. Can't be that hard.

You cannot be that hard. How much play do you got? Oh, none. All of it. Oh. All of it. I've got all of it. Oh, I took it off.

Oh great. So we use all of Dave's play dough. Leafs craft've got all of it. Oh, that took an awesome time. Oh great, so we use all of Dave's Play-Doh. We craft a horse out of it. Okay. And then we give it a big hug. And we put all of our love into it. It's a magic hug. And then it makes the horse come alive. Do you have a magic hug?

It's gonna, we can, wow. I did not know. What did you do that to? We should have just magic. Don't worry about those, anybody. I'll explain. I'll give you a hug. I always thought the magic hug was more sexy.

Oh yeah, I can't. I'm not giving you a magic hug. It's like when a mummy and a daddy love each other very much. How did babies get my well mummy and daddy had a magic hug? Yeah, well daddy got a magic hug to a horse. And you get along. That's how we brought me to stop talking about how we had a weird thing with a horse. Yeah, you saw Clubsana or whatever, it was like Clippity Clop and Cyclopsas, right? What are they called?

Horseman? Man horse, you know what I'm talking about? Centaur. Centaur. A one-eyed horseman. Well, Centaur slash, slash cyclops. All right, today I'm going to tell you all about the East German balloon escape. Oh, wow.

I love this already. So East Germany was the Soviet site, is that all right? That is correct. I'm going to give you a full background dusting case. I love it. But this story or this topic was suggested by Elliott B from Salt Lake City, Utah. Utah! God's country. So thank you so much, Elliott B. Now people, if you want to suggest a topic, this is a good example of how to do it. Great. There's a link in the description of this episode. You can go to dogoonpod.com. You click that link and you can tell us why we should do that topic. This is Elliott's pitch to us that I picked up on. It's like a combination of those reports on the Arctic

Balloon Guy combined with the Cold Hits Castle escape. Love that. And I was in. Two episodes that I've done that I really enjoyed researching. So I was in. This one is the one that I T's last week that went to the patreon's so It was so so close after 300 votes. This one was only winning by two Whoa and after about 600 votes and only one by about 10 overall very tight really tight But I think they've chosen a while this week. I know who lost

There's something else better great great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great.

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A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A pretty great. A tweeted Greg Norman and told him that he'd just hired Jess because she's a really funny friend of mine. He never wrote back Oh, I can't do it. He did that. I do. I do. I do. He did that. I do. I do. I do get hired. Greg. It's a great name. It is Greg Norman. Greg Norman. It's great. Anyway, golf. I love him. What?

And he's a shark. And now he's quite old and he poses a nude and he's real buff. Sorry, what? Have you seen that? I movie? I was a little bit moot. I've seen that. Yeah, he's a very, very fit man. In the dick, he's a fit dick. Well, I think he covers his dick with a little bit of a strong, but you get to see he's strong up a thigh. Yeah, he's got a real strong butterkin thigh.

Yeah, my goodness. Yeah. He could crush a golf ball between his buttocks. All right, that's my dream for when I'm old. To crush a golf ball between your buttocks. That's my dream for when I'm old. To crush a golf ball between your buttocks? No, well, yeah. New go. I just want to be like a very fit, 70-year-old.

Yeah. I don't have a half-year-old. Maybe he's been in his 60s, I'd say. I so don't know. Well, let's find out. Let's get a room. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. All right, let me tell you.

I want to report to that Craig. Craig, you know what I'm doing. I want to report about Craig No more. Craig No more. I'll be on for you right now. Arguably the most successful athlete turned businessman in the world. Craig No more. Greg No more. Greg No more. Greg No more. Greg No more.

Greg No more. Greg No more. Greg No more. Greg No more. Greg No more. Greg No more. Greg No more. Greg No more. Greg No more. slash biography. Shark.com. This amount of official, I think this is official.

Oh, I love that. Shark, he got shark.com. Hold on. Not even real sharks of which he's named after. He beat real sharks. Got. That's why he's the shark. I mean, I have to.

He had shark to shark. It is my turn to do the Patreon bonus episode this month, the report one. Yeah. I haven't picked it yet. Oh, really? It could be a Greg Norman. I'd love. Patreon, people let me know if you want to hear all about the Shark Greg Norman. Oh my God. That will absolutely piss off the guy that every week has been requesting we do Don Braden. That's Gary Jay. Gary Jay. Sorry Gary Jay. I'm going to do Greg Norman before the Don. All right, let me tell you about the East German balloon escape. Now, we all know World War II was absolutely brutal to put it lightly.

Millions dead, millions displaced, countries destroyed, cultures almost wiped out. When Germany surrendered in 1945, the German state no longer existed and authority over the country was handed over to the victorious Allied powers. But Germany lay in ruins. Which I never really, you don't really think about them as much, because I've inflicted

a lot of damage, but then their country had been bombed to all-house. So this is a quote from Britannica to describe what it was like in 1945. The physical devastation from Allied bombing campaigns and from ground battles was enormous, an estimated one-fourth of the country housing was destroyed or damaged beyond use, and in many cities the toll exceeded 50%. The end of the war came to be remembered as zero-hour, a low point from which virtually everything had to be rebuilt and new from the ground up. So Germany lay in ruins.

The Allied powers divided Germany into four zones, That's basically the people that won the war America, Britain and France were in charge of the Western two-thirds of Germany later known as Western Germany and So the Soviet Union was given the eastern third later known as East Germany Berlin, which was entirely in the eastern zone was also divided into four and that's where you get the famous Berlin wall Which is worthy of a report in itself. But that's not what we're talking about today. At first they were all supposed to get along. It wasn't supposed to be two separate countries, but things sharply deteriorated.

The countries had a lot of disagreements straight after World War II. The four countries' governments were run differently at home and opposing social, political, and economic systems began to emerge. Almost immediately, citizens of the eastern side of Germany started legally immigrated to the Western side of Germany. Of course, there is a word in German for this because they have a word for everything, and that is Republic Flucht. Republic Flucht, which translates as desertion from the Republic. Republic Flucht. Republic Flucht. Get Flucht. Republic Flucht. Get flucht.

I picture the Western side has been like rainbows and unicorns and the other side being desolate wasteland. With lots of thunderstorms. Yeah. That's sort of how it kind of became people wanted to get out because it was drab and dreary and it was like gray and just communist architecture. Yeah. Like gray and yeah, and also come in his architecture. Yeah, but then there was that sort of that gold ball pointy thing Did you you ever been a Berlin oh?

Yeah, yeah, and so they wanted to Build something to show that they were just as hip and up to date with everything as the West So they built this big spy thing and it, the way I did it a walking to it, and the way they got expired, it was, there was a reflection on it that they couldn't get rid of, no matter what they tried. The sun would always hit it in this spot, and they tried all these different surfaces and stuff. I miss, this is like from 10 years ago, so I'm misremembering. And yeah, they just could never fix that issue and did that thing set fire to half the city Coming up behind the clouds everyone duck for cover the midday fire and they're like just like we like it in the east

Like it say we've got us very proud. Yeah, I'll drink their turn up juice and So and... So, a lot of... You know, trying to reference Shelbyville there. Well, you know, like, they pretend that that was how they wanted it to be. Yeah, the lemon tree, it was cursed lemons. Yeah. Now, let's celebrate with a cool glass of toner juice. Curse democracy. So, millions of people started immigrating from the east to the west, but that's all completely

legal after World War II. But in 1949, the two halves of Germany split and became their own countries, the Federal Republic of Germany, known as Western Germany, and the German Democratic Republic, known commonly as East Germany. Right. East being the communist side. In West Germany, the government was democratically elected and political life was pretty stable. However, over in East Germany, as in the Soviet

Union that ruled it, the government served merely as an agent to the all-powerful communist-controlled party. Life was seen as less authoritarian in West Germany. Rainbows is mass-saying. So many Germans in the East migrated over. Some estimate that millions of them left between October 1945 and June 1946. So less than a year, 1.6 million Germans are thought to have left the Soviet zone for this. And did you say that was illegal or illegal? So at that time, that was legal. Yeah, right. They were like, all right, cool. Come and go. We're going to go over there because they're not telling us what to do. Yeah.

And this was a significant problem for the East as many of the immigrants were well-educated young people. Yeah, why would you stay? Why would you stay? And that further weakened their state economically. Right. Because they were like, it was one of those classic things where you have a brain drain. And you're like, oh, what are the people that had great ideas have now gone over there?

And now we don't have those people anymore. We don't have young people. Well, don't worry. We're going to build a tower. Yeah. I don't get them back. We just don't have anyone who knows anything about mirrors. So when 90s just got all these dumb people saying themselves in reflections and screaming,

is that me? So in 1952 East Germany, they were absolutely fed up with millions of their people leaving. They were losing everyone. They decided to fortify their border and close it off to people immigrating west, basically locking people in. Jesus.

I'd also tell you it's to keep people out, but it really was to keep people in. A plowed strip 10 meters wide, or 32 feet wide, was created along the entire length of the inner German border and then an adjoining protective strip or the Schuss Streifen which was 500 meters or 1600 feet wide was placed under tight control and then there was a further 5 kilometer restricted zone around this so they created a real bit where you're not

allowed to go anymore. Wow. Our residents living in these areas had to be resettled because there were people living on those borders. Oh my God. Thousands of guards patrolled the area and it was suddenly much more difficult to get to the west from the east and they outlawed it as well. They moved people closer in to keep them in.

Now you can't live here anymore. We need this area for a weird border we've come up with. In a wall, your house is now part of the wall. So it was way harder to leave except in Berlin, which was still half controlled by the West. So what people would do because that was inside the East and side. There's just this little circle of Berlin, which is half Western. So what people would do is they that was inside the eastern side, there's just this little circle of Berlin, which is half Western. So what people would do is they'd just go to Berlin for the day, and there was no wall at that time, so they'd just go over to the western side, go to the western airport and

just fly anywhere in the pool. Oh shit. So you could just leave that way. Right. They could still leave. Between 1949 and 1961, it estimated three and a half million East Germans, which was one-sixth of the entire population emigrated to the West, mostly via this Berlin-Lupol. So that's why they put up the Berlin Wall to cut that off as well.

So that's in those two walls, there's one along the border and there's one surrounding the western side of Berlin. After 1961, there were a lot less border crossing, so they'd slow the cut off all the borders. More walls were built, barbed wire was installed, mines were laid, they put down minefields, that's as serious they were about this. Guards were increased and given orders to shoot, people on side of they started to make a break for it. But this didn't keep everyone in. There were a lot of daring escapes that were made. Children were smuggled out in freezer vans, hidden under stuffed pigs' cuckses.

Whoa. Gross. A doctor swam 45 kilometers or 28 miles across the Baltic Sea just to get out. So desperate to leave. So desperate. So you can't even, they can't go to other countries anyway. They can go to other Soviet controlled countries

and there's also difficulty. So you go like, check us the VARC here for a holiday, but then you can't leave there. Or you can ask very few people who were granted leave passes and a lot of the time you're expected to come back, but I imagine you're like, well. Isn't it funny just to make a better country? Yeah, make it a better place to live.

You're focusing on the wrong thing, all that money you're spending on mines and walls, just make it a nicer place. Put it up all. It's like two days, people living as a pool. That's it. That's right. First thing I want to hold it in a day. It's going to spend 45 miles to get to a pool.

There's neighbours having a party at the side. One party's real cool and the other one sucks but then they're not allowed to leave it. You stay at this party. I know we've only got dry bread and they've got a pool but they had luck. I've locked the door. There's a chain on that door. You live here now. You'll actually blow up if you try to leave. You enjoy the change on that door. You live here now. You'll actually blow up if you try to leave. Now eat the bread. Enjoy your bread.

Another one did that same journey, but on a blow up air mattress, the 45 K or 28 miles across the treacherous Baltic. That's still on an air mattress. But I'm swimming. Oh, yeah, that sucks, but I'm thinking on an air mattress, like, you know, I must have had some kind of um what's this what

am I mine me here thank you paddle board stand up paddle board there if you stand up paddle board that makes for us on the other day it was for the uh stand up paddle board festival and then it's said the largest stand up paddle board festival in the southern hemisphere how many are there I love largest in the Southern Hemisphere. How many are there? I've never heard of another one. That's the first I've ever heard of it. Me too.

For me, August, I could be the largest in the world. No one had questioned it. But we're not even really in that community, you know? When's the last time you went and stand up paddle boarding? I mean, how many days in a fortnight? Yeah, right. Who knows? Who many?

Did you read about this escape? It's again, it's a vague memory from what I was in Berlin about a car driving through the checkpoint. No. Not in this story, but I remember hearing about that maybe when I was there. Apparently, something like they had a fake a false back on the top of the car, maybe it was built to fall off, so that too, and they'd drive it, so they lay down and had a fake person, like a dummy. No. So they could drive through,

and the checkpoint barrier would knock the top of the car off, but they'd still drive under the barrier. Well, there was all these genius sort of things. There was one heart-breaking one where this guy went over the border, and he made, he found a woman who looked like his wife. He already got, could get in and out. He found a woman that looked like his wife, got her to fall in love with him, brought her back over the border. No. He used her passport to smuggle his actual wife out and left. No. Sounds like a myth, right? But this

is what this walking tour guy told us. That's like, that's a catfish. Yeah, that's, oh, that is how brutal is that. You're also gonna have pretty good self-confidence that you think, oh, that woman looks like a wife. I reckon I could get it a full of love with me. Well, I've done it once. What if your meter sees like,

I'm already happily married? No, you're not. You're not now. It's got a ruin that marriage as well. Yeah, it's a lot of work. And then, Trapper. I'm gonna start thinking that. Just walking along the street as I see people,

just thinking, can I make you fall in love with me? Make, too. Make is the best word there. Well, that's the only way you get people to love you. Yeah, you make them. Hold them down. Love me! Love me! I'll give you a special hug.

Love me! Spend all of it. I want a special hug. Okay, I won't if you love me. Love me! Jesus is yelling at horses later. Love me I want to speak like okay. I won't if you love me love me. Jesus is yelling at horses later love me I just want people to love me. I'm gonna find a horse that looks a lot like my wife Luckily she looks like a horse. Yeah, you lead to the horse farm people like oh Mary is that you? That's a wild story. Yeah me it's one of's one of the ones that I hope it's true,

but I also don't want to talk to you. Totally, totally. That poor lady. I don't hope it's true. You fucking monster. Why would you hope it's true? Because that is an, historically an amazing story.

Yeah. Basically they say Mac can do a full reporter on it because it's awesome. Sure. All right, so lots of people tried to cross over this border. The most famous escape attempt over the East West border, excluding these a lot of famous Berlin ones, was the East German blue escape,

the real subject of today's episode. Ah, yes, we got to say that. So that was the historical background there. So bit of information as to why these people would be so desperate to leave. And thank you for that, for, for that information too though, because I hadn't, I don't think I've thought much about, obviously I knew, East and West and the significance of their bill in wall coming down,

but like I'd never properly thought about why that happened or the conditions for people, like it's horrendous. Yeah, and another big tragic part of it is that, a lot of families were split up a lot of the time. So, and another big tragic part of it is that a lot of families were split up a lot of the time. So during this period where you could just walk across the border and know and care. And then suddenly these barriers go up. You're on one side, your family's on the other,

or you've been displaced because of the war. People that used to be able to just go and visit. You can't visit them. Yeah, so people didn't see their family for decades. A long, long time. It's insane. So the two main players in this story are Peter, Straelsick.

Straelsick. Straelsick never said it out loud. Peter Straelsick, a 37 year old electrician and former East German Air Force mechanic. Okay. And Gunter Wetzel. Gunter Wetzel. Oh, it's a big Gunter Wetzel. That's a fantastic. Gunter Wetzel. Gunter Wetzel. That's a fantastic name.

Gunter Wetzel, a 24-year-old former bricklayer. Okay, a couple of tradies. So Peter Straelsick and Gunter Wetzel, Peter being the old one, Gunter being the younger one. He's Gunter's name, just may be instantly hungry for a big old pretzel. Oh, man, Gunter pret for a big old pretzel. Oh man, always hungry for a pretzel. Always a pretzel. There's a shop on Chapel Street now called Pretzel.

And you'll never guess what they said. Is that the one that everything's hot pink in there? Yes. Everything is hot. It is, what's not hot pink? It's more like a peach pink though, Jesus Christ. It's kind of overwhelming to me. It is quite overwhelming.

Oh, it's away. Also, more importantly, they're within my Uber Eats radar. Oh. Really? So I can just get fucking pretzels brought to me. It's pretty fast. Pretty fast. I know.

So I'll give you another time I got to you. No, it's still good. And alone, what only doubles the price with the liver? Yeah, they're expensive pretzels to begin with. Right. So I was gonna pay for that pink paint. Yes, you're right. Anyway. I gotta get on that triple J money,

where you can just order pretzels, cost town. Yeah, get on that ABC money. One shift a week, real good cash. What are you making three formula in a year? I don't get on that gravy tray. Oh man. Hey, our tax dollars are paid for those pretzels. So you enjoy them.

Yeah, I do, thank you. Yeah, that's what I was for those pretzels. So you enjoy them. Yeah, I do, thank you. Yeah, that's what I was a point of me bringing it up. Just to thank the next. One time I got two. I got a salt one and I got a cinnamon one. Oh, two meals. It was so fucking good.

You could do three cost meals. That was a lunch, you know. You got a garlic for entree. Of course. Then you get your salt, classic, and then your cinnamon dessert. Yeah, no, no, no. Dad, give me some dense bread, please. Yeah, three, classic. And then yes, cinnamon dessert. Yum, yum, yum. Give me some dense bread, please. Yeah, three, please.

I don't want to shitney more. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. I'm done shitting. Thanks to having me all day I'll call that. I don't want to shit anymore. Three pretzels of the pricet too. Ha, ha, ha. Sorry.

So we have one sentence in here. So sorry. Peter and Gunter, that's what I'm trying to tell you about. Ah, Gunter's made me, we just want to pretzel. What is a pretzel? The two men worked at a plastic factory near Posneck in East Germany. Like many of the 17 million who were trapped in East Germany at the time, they dreamt of escape.

These dreamers, common as they were, had to be careful who they confided in, as it was possible their ambitions could be reported to the secret police Convited sounds German. Yeah, he's doing it. Yeah, the German accident. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah The secret place the dreaded star see star see. Oh, I used to wear star see pants when I was younger. They were so cool. Oh, I cool Then the Berlin wall came down and and started the big baggy pants. Yeah, yeah. Full of secrets. They're all declassified.

Check the back pocket of D-classified my pants. Oh, not stussy. A lot of people wanted to leave this Germany for financial reasons. People in West Germany were generally much better off. The younger man in our duo, Guntar, resented the limitation on jobs that the dictatorship imposed on its people and refused to join the Communist Party just to get ahead in life. He later wrote, quote, life in East Germany was far from satisfactory for us. There was a whole list of things

we found objectionable because we had to put up with and factor in so many constraints. Fundamental reasons were that it was not possible either publicly or in one's private circle to voice one's opinion because one could never be certain whether one or even several persons present were police informers. You couldn't even trust your friends. Like this podcast for example. Oh yeah you definitely wouldn't do a podcast would you? No I think you're a live bloody wrecking.? And put that out into it. The party's great. Huh? Three cheers for Stussy. Yeah, I think it's funny how real,

full-on, evil governments make people feel real paranoid. Really? It's so weird, huh? It's one of those weird side effects. For that way, it's honest. These guys are governed by a pretty bad type. Pretty bad. Who is the big boss?

Well, it started out with like Stalin and all that sort of thing and then continued on. Oh, right. This is Lenin and Stalin and whatever. Is that what that was? Yeah, this is post-World War II. Right. Oh, yes. Of course.

I knew that. I know all that. Yeah, sure, sure. I watched the death of Stalin. He's got an English accent. I know all that. Yeah, sure, sure. I wanted to get the style, and he's got an English accent. I know it, I got it. Exactly. So, you never be certain he could talk to you, but these two guys, Peter and Gunter, worked together for four years.

They struck up a friendship and confided in each other eventually that they wanted to escape East Germany. It soon became all they talked about. They brainstormed ideas as to how to get over the border, one of which was to build a helicopter and just fly over it. Build a helicopter. They gave up when they realized they couldn't get their hands on an engine big enough. That was the only fault.

To build a helicopter. What a pretty handy guy. What was his daily go. I actually did one of them. What was in the German Air Force? Air Force, okay. And the mechanic as well. Oh, I think that he knows where to go.

And the alieo bricklayer? Bricklayer. I want, I want to see a brick well. So you think that he knows what it is? And the aloea bricklayer? Bricklayer. I want, I want to see a brick helicopter. Get it out there. Sometimes. That's all I needed a big engine. Sometimes in these kind of stories, I basically project my own knowledge based onto people.

So like, what the fuck did they know of it? A person. What do they know about helicopters? It's like, he was in the Air Force. Ah, he might know a bit then. Because in my head I'm like, I don't know anything about that. Therefore no one does. But can he name all the Kardashian and Jenna sisters?

I don't think so. Fuck, I think I can. Yeah, Kim. Crystal. No. No. They're all K names, they're right. Yeah.

Sure is a crystal. No, there's a Chloe. They're with Courtney. You were K. They're with the K. They went with Kylie. They went, they went, Kendall before they went, Crystal. So, there's a Chloe. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney.

The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney.

The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney.

The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. The moment of courtney. three sisters. What are they trying to tell us? So they give it up on the helicopter. Yeah, which they do know something about eventually they happened upon the idea that maybe they could just fly over the border, not in a helicopter on a plane, but in a homemade hot air balloon. There is debate as to who came up with the idea as both men would later claim to have thought of it first. Of course. And then told the other one. That means like, that means like...

It's like us and the name Dugawa. Yes! Yes. I'm sure history will show. How? How will history show? The note section on my phone. Yeah.

Error. How beautiful evidence. I think what actually happened was you gave me a list and I picked out Dugawa and from it is what I think happened. But I also, that's all that's, that you were being part of that. Yeah, you came up with it.

You came up with it, I just, I just gave you the confidence. You made it to the show, wasn't called, it starts with a question. Yeah, you had some bad ideas. Oh, have I revealed them before? There's some, there's some shockers. What was the best decision though early on with the podcast?

What was the best call that you made at the tour? We're going to the blue and yellow color scheme. I'm like, oh, that's great. We didn't realize how long lasting that had been. But honestly, you say that I'm like, still there. We did it. That's lasted longer than we did. Well, not you and me, Dave, we've been there since the start.

That's right. And then came the colors. And then, you know, there was other bits and bits of the long way. You got email address. Too many dimensions. Too many pieces. Made a Facebook page. Yeah. the colors and then you know there was other bits and pieces long away but you got email address so too many dimension too many made a face of page yeah anyway fuck both this wouldn't work without the yellow and blue the one T2S success yeah the chemistry of the yellow and blue work in a good oh yeah

and Jess looking at your face you you wanting us to say you? I guess you're important in someone as well. So let's talk it easily, see the colors yellow and blue sitting in that chair very hungry. Because I'm wearing green! Well there you go, that's yellow and blue together is what you're saying I guess. Yeah, you guys are yellow and blue and I'm that sweet green. You're the Venn diagram middle section. Yes, nice. I'm not sure in a lot of the Van Diagram middle section. Yes. Nice.

I'm not true in a lot of ways. Anyway, Dave, do you know what I'm saying? So they debate us to who came up with the idea and we'll talk about their relationship as Tom goes by. But Peter, the older man, Was it sexy? Oh, sadly not. Special votes.

Man, it's very close. Just angry hugs. Peter, the older man, claimed the idea was inspired by a TV show he saw on Hot Air balloons. Gunter, however, maintains that he proposed the idea after by sheer chance his wife Petra, her sister who had already left East Germany in 1958 and was out by this time, came to visit so sometimes people would come and visit.

She brought with her a newspaper in which the annual International Balloon Fiesta in Elbe Kirk-E USA was rewarded. Wow. Life has specific that is. It included photos of Hot Air balloons and that's why he, USA was reported. Wow. Life out specific that is. It included photos of hot air balloons, and that's why he, the idea struck his mind. That's a weird thing for German newspapers to be reporting on.

Yeah. You know? Surely there's more important things, like that glean off the new towel. Yeah, how do we fix it? 12 killed by Glein. I've looked it up, and I can't find anything about them struggling to get the Glein off.

It is famous though. The towers called the, how do you say that Dave? Oh, sorry, I gotta get close to my face. The Berliner Fernserturm. Okay, the television tower. It's cool looking and it does have, like it's got a famous glean that hits it, which is nicknamed Popes Revenge.

That's great. It's got a little website called Wikipedia. It says, when the sun shines on the ferns and turns tiled stainless steel dome, the reflection usually appears in the form of a cross. Berliners nicknamed the luminous cross rock des, desks, popsties, or the Pope's revenge. For the same reason, the structure was also called St. Walter. US President Ronald Reagan mentioned this in his Ted Down the Wall speech on the 12th of June 1987.

Unread through that paragraph, sort of faded out on what was relevant to what we do. So they both claim the idea, Gunter still maintains a website about the duo's exploits and he really tries to sell that he was the one who thought up the idea. Wait, what? Oh cool. Gunter's still alive. Yeah, maintaining a website. Wow, there's something in my head that's like, wait, what a guy from this story maintains a website? How?

He also paints himself in a pretty good light. This is from his website balloonflooked.de. The balloons fucked. Yeah. I fucked the balloon, not the other guy. I get it. He said, this is him quite. I immediately told Peter Streslich about my idea.

I remember the day we made this decision very well as it was the 7th of March 1978. One day before International Women's Day, which was actively celebrated in East Germany and quote, should I make him sound like a real ally? I don't know who it was. Well, it mean isn't communism all about everyone's even? Yeah. Oh yeah.

So you wouldn't put women up ahead on one day would you? It should be people there. Yeah, people day every day. You sound like everyone on the text line on International Women's Day when we only put female presenters on. It's really fun. Um. Trouble day, listen to what you're saying. They're not. They're great, they're the best. However thought up the idea, both men agreed

that if they were to go for it, it wouldn't be just the two of them that have to build the balloon large enough to carry them, their wives and their four children who are aged between two and 15. And their wives stock. Thank you. And their houses. The refrigerator. It's okay, but they can just dangle the barbecue,

the stove, the soy sauce. That was the most I've ever had before. So most I've had about the active blind story. I was so dumb. Dangling, dangling a barbecue. How do we cook food? Let's just take a barbecue with us. Obviously, you just have to parachute down to it

with your tongs and you flip a few- Flops, some meat, and then a corn back times. Well, they have crabs to meet and then you climb back up. Yeah, then you go obviously. You got parachute back up. You got a rocket. You got a rocket pack back up. So you're going to have to get good at these skills

before we take off. But you've got a week. So 67 hours later, you got touched. Yeah. So you also need to invent a rocket ship Rocket pack I call it rocket ship in a backpack But you can shorten that to rocket pack if you want I thought up this idea on International Women's Day Yeah, which I respect a lot

Yeah, I'm actually believing women I think they exist I haven't seen one but I'm pretty sure Yeah, I'm very confident that they do exist I've heard our legends and you know I like to believe a few conspiracy and also can petrol gas melt a building. I don't know if I can. Barric and women can exist. I haven't looked into either to be honest. I've got a funny feeling. So once both men agreed that that was their plan they had to break it to their wives and children and convince them that the journey would be A possible and be safe for everyone in the family.

Right, they're two other things that I'd want ticked off first. Possible? That's a big one. Safe, also pretty big. I'd go the other way round. Oh really? Yeah, well that's safety. Safety first. Safety first? Possibility second. Yeah, well that's safety safety first safety first. Yeah, possibly Seconds. Yeah, it's longer than safe. Doesn't matter if it's possible to me It's not possible then you save because you haven't done it. Yeah, great fine. All right So we'll tick that one off now. It's getting a possible. I put seatbelts on everything. Yeah Yeah, they're not attached to anything though. You just wearing sashes all the time

Why do all your sashes say best person on them as my seatbelt don't worry about it Why do you constantly have whiplash Just attached to everything yeah, but safely. Yeah safely. I'm honest into life This is again from Guintas website talking about breaking into their families We presented our ideas very convincingly and objectively because both my wife Petra and Peter's wife Doris agreed to them. Doris! Great, Doris. Great, Petra's good.

Doris and Petra. I love her. Petra, Petra Fodd. Hopefully not. Hopefully she has a nice head. It's nice because it's A safe. Yep. Pretty possible.

We'll be the way around. No, you have it right. A safe. Sake. Tick tick. B possible C bit of bloody fun. Bit of fun. Can we have all three?

That's all I want. So that's the trifecta. That's the bonus. What do you get to man who's got everything, all of the above? Bit of fun. You get him a bit of fun. That's voucher to see what he's just a lot of voucher to see what he's got.

There you go. Enjoy the fun. That's good for use between now and the end of June, so. Get on. Get on. Get make your plans. It expires in three weeks. That's good for use between now and the end of June, so. Get on. Get on. Get to make your plans. It expires in three weeks.

I got off my bed there four years ago. You could look at us and audio from work up, but get on it. But I promise you won't think it is possible. It is so. It is impossible. And it is being relatively safe. If everyone except that giant killer whale. There is a giant killer whale on the loose. Yeah. Yeah. And it's unsafe for him. So they got to work coming out with a design. They were both pretty handy guys,

electrician and mechanic and bricklayer, probably more better than electrician and mechanic. Anyway, but neither had ever made a hot air balloon before. Funny about that. They didn't have any plans to base their design on much like last week. They just kind of guessed based on a few photos that they'd seen. I love this. I love this. Well, together, they're climbing them out and based on a label of a biscuit tin. I found what I think was the label on as a can of meat and veggies.

Opposed it on our film. I saw it. And it is. So sketchy like squinting at it, do you like, is that even a meat? I could have drawn one without ever seeing it and it would have been just as valuable. I can draw a mountain, it's like a triangle.

Yeah, it's basically a triangle. So these guys it's seen. I just can't see, where's the huge words spelling out meat and veg, can't see it? Cause we're just gonna go underneath that bit. Potassium, where is it? So they're just looking at a photo going, oh, I can make that. The formulas necessary to calculate the balloons dimensions were taken from the reference books, Brock House Physics Lexicon, and the handbook, syllabus for gas engineers, just in case you two

want to design your own balloon at home. Oh, and I do. They calculated the weight of the passengers and the craft itself to be around 750 kilos or 1,650 pounds, based on the photos that decided that the balloon would need to be 1,800 square meters in total. So quite big. 1,800.

Sorry, 1, 800 cubic meters. Okay. I'll talk about the actual dimensions from the ground up. Fantastic. We don't want another incident where you have to yell at the end of the episode. KAM! Fucking shame! You went, we finished recording, you went to the bathroom,

Matt and I were having a chat and we just had, oh no! I thought someone had broken in and you were in trouble. That would be a great reaction of someone coming at you. Oh no! Hey, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I last night, which has just come out this week. Yesterday, Taylor of Two Cities Part 2, and it was a lot of fun. I had to stay around to mix the episode down. So I left late at night on my own, and I was thinking walking about to open the front door. I got a weird feeling. I opened the door and there's just like a guy absolutely losing an out-of-the-front kick-and-cars yelling in the street and I just quietly close the door,

and walk back up, says, and just watch this guy for about five minutes. There's a dog that barks across the street here. He was yelling, what do you got, dog? What do you fucking go? What do you got? Yeah, it was a dog, have any? Well, he just kept going,

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, say it to my face. That's okay, that's odd. It was strange and he went around the corner and I gave it a couple more minutes just in case he got to my car and drove away very fast. Yeah. Oh, that's a bit scary and weird. After a bit of trial and error, they worked out the shape that the strips of fabric would

need to be if they would to create their own balloon. They ran into their first problem and that was that they needed a lot of material. The town they live in was quite small and only had about 20,000 inhabitants and they were worried that acquiring a lot of material might tip off the authorities. Remember everyone's always dobbin on each other. Yeah, what do you need all that material for oh building a big dress? Oh really like MC Hammer. Yeah, I can just go to go to a lot of different Lynn crafts What Every Lynn craft in East Germany, which is none. Okay, what are they got spotlight? Yeah, I got spotlights six hundred spot

All right, yeah, yeah, I just go to every spotline Germany I don't know ones looking twice because that's just my normal week. Yeah, I do that every week. I do every week. I go to say hello me again. May again, could I get another role of in your hot pink slash peach pink? Yeah, no, there's no difference. It's a fucking difference. You psycho. It's not a hot pink. I pointed a color and said that's orange. And my girlfriend said, that's copper. And I was like, what? That's a copat. That was a copat.

That's what I had of his. That's a pretty different color. I assume based on the way she said it. She said it like Dave's an idiot. So if Dave's an idiot, we're definitely idiots. I was definitely wrong. I was like, ah. Copper's like a brown orange, right?

Yeah, I'm not. Looks like, is it like copper the metal? Yeah. Yeah. All right, now I'm getting it. No, you're getting it. What's the color of a 10 cent piece? Cappaaaa!

Nah, it's not true, it's silver. Silver. What's the color of a 2 cent piece? It's the color of what they used to say, but... Yeah. Now you can't do that one anymore, can you? I don't, I still do. It's fun. I saw someone post today, someone,

kind of remember the relevant, Dane Simpson posted some joke about a policeman and someone commented, I used to sing two songs after I had a few drinks. One of them was, we're going home in the back of the, every the band and the other one was, what's the color of a 2 cent piece? Copper.

That was the whole comment. I like what? Was it relevant at all? I guess sort of. I think we didn't say something about police. OK. And then this person just decided to... Was it you that commented?

No. I'm going to go check. No, sorry, Dave. Do go on. It just sent me back. I'm like, I don't know how you got here. I've already said do go on. Oh just sent me back. I'm like, I don't know how you got here. I've already said do go on. Oh, I thought you were talking to me.

Do go on about the cop bar. So they're worried about tipping off authorities if they buy every bit of material in town. Yeah. So they've visited neighboring towns, but they couldn't find what they wanted. Finally, they traveled 50 kilometers or 31 miles to a place called Gira where they purchased one meter or three by three meter wide rolls of cotton cloth totaling 850 meters or yeah, 850 meters in length. That's a lot.

Nearly 3000 feet at a department store. That's so funny. No, not another sauce. What I hope is that they had to sneak out into West Germany to get it and then sneak it back in. Oh, we never get that in the East. Just better go out West somehow. Oh, that'll go.

Okay, let's take the wives and kids just for like a day trip. Yeah, I know a tunnel. Great Habadash is out there. Oh man, that would be... I would not wear a suit made in East Germany. Oh my god, I'd rather go naked.. I would not wear a suit made in East Germany. Oh my god, I'd rather go naked. And I have.

I'm naked right now. Oh, yeah, as you can tell. I know. I'm in the room with you. So they bought 850 metres of cotton cloth. The shop manager was astounded by the quantity. But the men told him they needed the material to line tents at their local camping club, which much must have satisfied him,

because he never snitched on him. Ah. We are building 6,000 tents, and he's like, ah, say no more. Great. It's for the cause. So now they have their material, the Irish band, the cause.

Yeah. Yeah. They all need a tent. There's heaps of them. They've all got big Irish families. Well, one. Guinta got to work on stitching it together. This is all a material.

To do so, he used his mother-in-law's 40-year-old grit snorke, which was a sewing machine, which despite its age was very reliable. Yeah, they don't build my use. I don't, I bloody don't. I was very bad. We had to learn how to sew in high school, sew into a girl's school.

And that's what made it to you. You went to a girl's school, what did the depression? We did not do any kind of woodwork or middle work. I did woodwork. My teacher's name was Mr. Chork. We learned to sew. Come on, mate, pick the right trade. I need to chalk work, come on. Yeah, come on. Do chalk work.

But I used to, there was like this teacher's assistant in the class that would help us all with like, the sewing machine stuff, and I would always go, could you just show me again how to do that particular stitch, and then she'd just do a section of it, and I would do that every class until she basically made it for me. That is really smart. I had to do one semester of textiles, which was basically sewing things together.

And that is the only subject I nearly failed at high school. Really? Cannot tell you how bad I was. I got to pass any practical skills. Yeah, I got to pass that absolute pity. When they eventually turned change schools to be more practical, kids like you are not going to make it. Yeah, you're a fucked. I don't need to go back to school.

We've got my diploma. They can't take it back. I think they can. Under the new regime. Yeah, you're fucked. What school, what textile, why don't I ever get to do textiles? What did I? Surely at some point. I don't remember. Anyway, so they're using the old trusty stuff. Yeah, the Gritzner. To ensure the sturdiness of the craft, Gunter used a double stitch normal use for leather. Right.

So he's sewing the shit out of it. Yeah. Oh, they should have used leather. Imagine a big hot leather balloon. Don't worry, I'm, that'll look real hot. I'm sorry. You know the department store you say, I'm just joined a bike again. Yeah.

Well, crew needs leather jackets. We're all making jackets. It's our first first activity together. I'm just joined a barkeeper. Yeah. Well, crew needs lethargy. We're all making jackets. It's our first activity together. What's the other idea that the guys, like, I didn't even ask. Yeah, I don't care. Yeah. Man, I just saw a big sale and went great.

Yeah, it's not funny, like, the idea that they double in. Yeah. If you've got any more of this business. Come to us, please. Yeah. Or, like, they're buying leather and the guys, like, I'm into, I mean, weird sex stuff. Yeah. It's like, I didn't get in that. I did not need to us please. Or like they're buying leather and the guys like, I'm into weird sex stuff. Yeah.

I didn't get in that. I did not need to know that. Just take the leather and go. Honestly, it's real weird. Let me tell you about it. Let me tell you everything I'm going to do. Tell you what I like. I'm going to use back story, please.

Let me tell it. Please come on, it's weird. I took me a while to think of all these. I've researched a lot. I've had to sleep with a lot of people clad in leather to work out what I need to say. Kinkshame, my made up kink. Yes. My imaginary friend, which is me, he's feeling very embarrassed right now.

So the two men kept their mission secret for months, not speaking about it to anyone except each other and their families, except when a family friend visited Gunter from West Germany. Gunter again, right. So I think the deal is that West Germans could come into East Germany, but East Germany couldn't leave. That's so good. Which is I think how that woman got there. Yeah.

So that's how that woman would have been trapped in Berlin. Yeah. That's so fucked. Yeah, it's no good. This is Gunter riding again on his website. Which I wouldn't imagine. Just imagine a line that just happened to be we picked this side.

What if he went and asked for her passport? And then when he and his wife come back through, he just gives her her passport back. Why do they have to leave her in there? Yeah, because then he's got to have two wives and that's messy. It's easier to just leave her in a communist dictatorship. No, she could have stayed in West. She could have just stayed in West.

She could have just stayed at home. He could have just won a trust and explained what he needed. Barato passport for a week. Gone and got his wife, come back. Give it back in passport. That does make sense, right? I mean, who would trust that someone

would give you your passport back? So. Yeah, but he could have stolen it. Like if it... Oh, yeah, steal it. If she was basically, she was ready to trust him for like in a relationship like that. Just steal it passport.

Probably could have found a way to steal it. Yeah. And then bring it back and be like, oh my god, this is so embarrassing. I thought I was picking up my passport. And I picked up yours. Out of that locked box and you covered it. Yeah, and then once she's through,

she'd be able to get a new passport in West Germany, right? This sounds like a maths problem. You got a hand? Yeah, the pig. You got a pig and a fox. You can't live more alone and a bag of grain. Yeah There's no pig. I'm out of the pig. I'm gonna say what is the what is the big? Bigger? Bigger for company Bigger's like to hang out okay The pigs are on the making the decisions You are a pig you're the pig Dave I know making the decisions. You are a pig. You're the pig, Dave. I know.

I've been the pig all along. Pig boy. This is going to again, writing about why he would tell his friend visiting from West Germany. We were relatively certain that the Stasi, which is the secret place, would not bust us, but it was not something we could completely rule out either. Anyone who lived in East Germany can understand what would then happen. We would have been locked up and no one from our circle of friends or family would have any idea what had become of us. It basically disappeared. So they told their family friend, gave him two photos of the balloon being made in Gunter's Lound Room, with

the plan that if they were to suddenly disappear, the authorities in West Germany could be informed and maybe they could do a bit of diplomacy on their behalf. Just try and get them free. That's pretty unlikely to be honest, but there's at least some evidence that that's why they've been locked up. So he continued on, he finished the balloon and all in all, this is the measurements, it measured 15 meters, 49 feet wide and 20 meters or 66 feet tall.

So it was huge. 20 meter tall. You did. Does it need to be that big? Yeah, it does have to, because they want to have, it's going to be seven hundred. Seven hundred and fifty kilos plus the house.

Plus, he's a brick layer, he's going to bring his tools. He's life-counter-brace. I've got 20,000 bricks back there. One of his kids is a real big reader. So, of course, he's coming. Joking, you could get is a real big reader. So, all folks are coming. Joking you could get a balloon that big at Lombards, the paper people.

Do you think you could? At Lombards, the paper people. But what a paper balloon? Do they sell balloons? Yes, that's where I got our 100 balloons. Just as Lombards, I've got a sponsor this episode secretly. Who? Lombards, the paper people.

Which is Lombards Spotlight. Lombards, the paper people. Which is Lombards Spotlight. Lombards, the paper people. Lombards. And they're bullying specialists. They're party specialists. Here we go. All of your party needs, those little people. Just the paper people are party specialists.

Well, they have paper too. She knows a little too much. She's actually reading copy. Yeah. Are you getting a little kickback on this? No. I was just wondering if you could get amongst their massive range of balloons. If they...

A Lolo price? My goodness! You won't believe it! Name a theme for a party. Name a possible theme you could have for a party. Oh, gingivirder. They've got it. Gingervirus party, they've got you covered.

That is well... They've really... They've won me over. they've got you covered. That is well, they've really, they've won me over. They've got you there. Balloons, party hats, bunting, cups, paper plates, costumes, they've got it all, at lumbards, the paper people. Why are they called the party people? Maybe they are, maybe I'm misrembring. Oh, just look at the ad copy They're even to all of this. This has been a seamless ad

It read out the highlighted sections Lombard hang on no no And now word from our The paper people thank you very much. They're party good supplier Lombard they're fucked up there mark paper people. Why are you calling yourselves paper people if you're party people? That just makes me a shum. They're just gonna use the paper.

Why are you putting them in one box? Well, they have done it. They put them in a paper box. Maybe they've got paper-banting. Paper plates. Paper party goods. At Lombards. They're paper people.

Dave, do your one. The pipe of people. Dave, do you go on? This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising. But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto-custom customers qualify for an average of seven discounts.

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Are the cloth? They've got the balloon bit, but the cloth is of course only part of it. For a hot air balloon you need something to heat up air, and for this, they attached a stove pipe to a gas cylinder and just lit it. So they let out a lot of gas going through a pipe, controlling the output from the gas can to control the size of the flame. Sure. More gas, more flame. Gas, less flame. Good to describe it.

What came forth from this burner was not just a flame, but pure hellfire. And our 11 kilos of gas was used up in no time at all. Oh my, 11 kilos of gas. So they decided they'd need two 11 kilos of gas was used up in no time at all. Oh my 11 kilos of gas. So that aside, they'd need two 11 kilo cylinders of liquid. That's 22. And no time at all. Times two. Yeah, that doesn't sound like that much longer. Okay, are we just going to brush past my quick math thing?

That was very quick. That was. 22. One one is one. Two twos. 22. 1, 1 is 1. 2, 2 is 2. 3, 3 is 3. I do math as well. So he's going to praise me now.

Yeah, Matt, great job. Thank you. Thank you. Well, funny fact about, uh, guy called Fibonacci. I'm finally in the need of the Gondola, which is the usually wicker basket bit that people traveling in a hot air balloon stand in. They didn't have a basket on hand, so they had to make their own alternative.

They welded a steel base and attached supports to the corners, so that there was one in each, there's four corners sticking out from the steel base, and then made guard rails that would keep them from falling out by just threading the washing line around it. So it looks like a mini homemade boxing ring. Cool. And I've got- The eel seems heavy though. Right on the corner. Yeah.

It is heavy, yeah. Well, they've got small kids just to entertain them on the trip they could just make and fight. Oh, that's true. Ding ding. And also instead of dropping sandbags, I can just drop kids. Yes.

The loser of the flight gets- Get strapped. Dropped. Yeah. Over a body of water, hopefully, but no promises. Yes, the loser of the flight gets get dropped dropped Yeah over a body of water hopefully but no promises. Yeah, no, can we just drop some of the bricks? No Jimmethy you're out. Yeah, I worked hard for those bricks. I did not work hard for you You came too easy mate Very quickly on I love you, but you got to go you got to go mates you are the bricks and you know I love me bricks There's 10,000 m and one to you. I mean do the maths man even Jess Perkins could get this right

The little I don't know if I could look back at a compliment So they did all everything I've just said they did that in six weeks wow pretty good and on April 28th 1978 They were ready for the first test flight They had scoped out of deserted forest nearby, which was just 10k from the border. And at midnight, under the cover of darkness, it was time to see their calculations and hard work would pay off. 1978. Oh, I'm picturing this in the old in days. Yeah. Cold chisel released their first album in 1978. I mean, that's it. Yeah. Cold chisel release their first album 1978. I mean, yeah. It's wild. And you're

emitting William Shakespeare. I'm the I'm picturing black and white. This color TV 1978. How old are you in 78? Oh, many, many centuries. So they went out to the clearing to... I was reaching my first trimester. Is that a thing in time? Three centuries. I see. Yeah, sure, okay. See, aim for nine? Yeah, nine centuries. Great.

Yeah, I'm a cat. I've got nine, what? Century lives. You've mixed up many things together. Well, I love it. So they went to the clearing. The two men's wives came along and the ladies held the opening of the balloon out so that their husbands could warm the air at the balloon opening using the flame.

So you got your two wives there holding it open with a giant hellfire flame very close to their hellfire. I was imagining their wives in like old and day dresses. Yeah. It's the late 70s. Yeah. This is beyond the summer of love. Yeah. They's the late 70s. Yeah. This is beyond the summer of love. Yeah.

It's wearing flares. Maybe. Jeans. Actually, to be honest, in the East Germany, I don't know what they were wearing. Cry fashion, obviously. Yeah. At this point, it was just lying on the ground.

I hope the hot air would enter the bottom of the balloon and then just slowly inflate and then stand up. Yeah. They tried several times, but it just wouldn slowly inflate and then stand up. Yeah. They tried several times but it just wouldn't inflate. Just lay flat on the ground. Got a leak. Well, the first thought was that maybe they needed to dangle the balloon from a structure. Dangling always helps.

Yeah. So it was already standing upright and then it just sort of fills up with air. They tried to nearby bridge but discovered they had to cross a stream to get to it and being quite cold there, abandoned the attempt and went home. Jesus, this is sounding pretty public now. Working off of bridge and this sort of stuff. Well, that's supposed to be in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night, but yeah, you never know who was watching.

In the meantime, they discovered that air was escaping the balloon as the material wasn't as airtight as they hoped. Right. They tried to make it more airtight by using your chemical, but didn't have enough to cover the whole balloon. So they just covered as much as they could, sort of the top section. One last time using the method of dangling the balloon and filling it up, they decided to give it a try. So this is D-Day, if it goes up, they're going. No, this is just a test. And if it works, next time we'll bring the kids along, we'll go for it. Right, yep. They went to a local quarry this time, again, in the dead of the

night, and they spread out the balloon on the quarry's steep incline. So it's like sort of like a cliff type thing, and it's on quite a steep angle. They're like, maybe it'll stand up. It was a moonlit night, optimal for testing. But as Peter was laying out the balloon, he saw a shadow of what he had to assume was someone watching them.

Fearing that they'd been rumbled, they stuffed the balloon into their trailer and sped out of the quarry. I thought you were going to say under their trousers. 800 and 5 sticks. No, nothing to worry about here. This is the biggest bowl ever. I'm just going to bow in a...

I'm going to big bow in a... We were just having sex in this quarry. We're having a magical hug. You've rumbled us. Wanna join? What? You just liked a wand? So they fear they'd been rumbled, they stuffed in the trailer in their pants, and they spit it out of the quarry. They drove like crazy, but no one appeared to be following them, so they pulled over after a few miles to check.

It was a log. It was a log, wasn't it? Well, they got out the back to check on the balloon, only to discover that a five meter section has been dangling from the back of the trailer whilst I was speeding, and it had been torn to shreds. Oh, no! It's stuffed at so quickly, it's sped off and it just got ruined by the road. Yeah, when you're going into the, is this the gloves, is what the gloves are?

The jails? Well, yeah, you go to a source, so I mean, when that's the other option, you would be stuffing quickly. Oh, maybe stuffing it a lot of times. Yeah. They decided to cut their losses and start again with another balloon. What?

This time made of an airtight material. Oh, that's so cool. They're starting again. Start. But it's some of an airtight material. Sure, no, that sounds like a good plan. That seems like a good idea from the get-go. But they've already built one balloon,

using so much material, which I can't imagine was cheap, and now they're starting again. Yeah, they have invested a lot of money, so far. Wow. To avoid suspicion, Peter chopped up the balloon into small pieces and burnt it in his boiler over several months. Oh, burning weather, that would have stopped. But this time they're going to use denim,

and I think that's clever. You just look better. And you can hardly, you couldn't put it out with the rubbish. I don't. Yeah, you probably, it'd be a bit sars. Put in your neighbor's pin. That's a huge plume of black smoke coming above their place.

What's going on there? Oh, just a little Barbie. For four months, sorry. Don't worry about it. Denning would be better as well. You get different colors and just sort of have that like patchwork look. Stone wash.

So cool. Cut off. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've got a cut-off blimp. If the balloon had worked, the men had planned to travel into Czechoslovakia and launch from there. Czechoslovakia, as I said before, also being part of the Soviet Union at the time. To get there, they would need to hire a second vehicle to transport the equipment, because one would have all their kids and their wives, and the other one would have all their kids and their wives and the other one would have

all the equipment. Go into the rights on his website that it was not just possible to book a higher car on the day like it is now. Back in the Soviet Union, you had to apply a week's in advance and you couldn't just cancel it on the day either. So he wrote, quote, as a result of this in our balloon which are now ceased to exist, I had the pleasure for a week of driving around the neighborhood completely aimlessly in a relatively new Mox switch for 12. Because I'd already booked in. In books the car,

he'd already paid for it, so he just had a high car for a week. Just driving around. Fred, how are you? Check out the Mox switch here. For the next week he doesn't have it. Fred yells out, put it in H. Simpson's there. Should go 300 hectares on a single tank of caracene. Oh man, that is one of my favorite all-time Simpson's jokes. Well, I look forward to someone getting that. Jacob Lane, our Simpson's... You get it. I heard put it in each.

Put it in eight. That's what confused me. Do you know that line? No, I think it rings a bell. Oh my gosh, to buy, to hire, or to buy a car from Houston, Europe, and he says to him, what country is this from? He had no longer exists. And he can't get it going.

Can't get it going. The guy yells out, put it in eight. Fuck that, it's funny. Anyway, look it up. Google, look at it, put it in, put it in, if you haven't seen that at home. It's funny because it's a different letter to what you would normally put in. Did you say that you put it in the D?

Yeah, we've put it in D. Yes. You put it in the D. Put it in H is so funny. D for drive. Yeah. What's the H for Dave? Huff.

Bombom. So it was back to the drawing board and a number of materials were tested for balloon number two. Do it. They discovered that Tefeta, which is a synthetic fabric with a crisp texture, was available in large quantities at a store, 160 kilometres away, which was far enough away to avoid attracting suspicion. It was also a good for, it was also a tie.

They told the salesman that they needed the enormous quantity of material because they were part of a sailing club and needed to make sales. Again, the guys, I don't care. That's fine. You're making a big purchase, I don't care. We all do jobs here that we hate. I got given it, this is pulled out of a hat and a hammer sales manager. I'm a doctor back home, so I don't care.

I don't care, do you want? I hope you're getting out. See ya, whatever. Now this lie again seems to satisfy the seller and they drove home with 800 meters or 2600 feet of fabric. Shit load. They swooped up their sewing machine with a larger engine. Oh. And this time Gunther, Gunther was able to sew the second balloon in less than two weeks. They then needed to test it again, which they did, and this time it inflated. Yay! Gunter writes, words can hardly describe what we felt in this moment.

We were simply overwhelmed by the spectacle before us. We walked around the balloon and were certain that this glowing ball of fire would bring us to the west. Oh boy. But the celebrations were short-lived, as they couldn't get the necessary heat to be able to take off and carry the required weight. They found that the burner would diminish over time, so it just wouldn't stay inflated. Over the following months, they experimented with more propane, then with petrol, but sadly

it wouldn't work. They decided to try adding oxygen to the mix. Now when you add oxygen to a fire, it usually't work. That decided to try adding oxygen to the mix. Now when you add oxygen to a fire, it usually goes out of control. Again, quite it from Gunter. One can imagine how this combination of fuel and oxygen would have behaved and what a terrible thing could occur. Fortunately, nothing dramatic happened

and the flame reached a high equivalent to a three-story house. Nothing dramatic happened! We got to flame three-story stories high. Oh my god. Still not as high as the balloon though, right? No, it still wasn't enough to sustain a flight with eight people. So the men began to grow disillusioned with the idea and worry about the risks that be exposing their children to should the idea go wrong and they crashed land. Let alone be arrested once they crash land. Go and just started to think that maybe building a glider would be a better way to

escape. So they shelved the idea. Oh my god. They destroyed all the evidence that would link them to the plot. I went back to their normal working lives and tried to go back to normal society. Or so Gwinter thought. Oh no. He had since start working with Peter at the plastics factory and the two had had a few disagreements over safety. He got into Gunter, so they had a slight falling out. And they weren't seeing each other every day anymore. Months went by and it was now summer and one day, Gunter heard about a homemade hot air balloon

that had been discovered abandoned near the border area. He was sure it must have been Peter making an escape attempt without him. And he was right. You absolute prick! Peter! Peter, you dog! Peter, you prick! You dog, you...

Peter! Peter, you fucking dog, you low dog, you dog, you fucking dog, Peter, you dog, you fucking dog. But you don't even believe in women's rights. You dog. Where were you on International Women's Day? You know it's a- Hey, it's day 78. It's trying to bloody-

You're a sick dog, Peter. I'm making a scare. Get him to the vet, Peter, you dog. You're a sick dog, put him down. Get this, Peter boy, Dan. You sick boy. Peter, are you listening? Peter's still around. Well, I'm good to still around, I'm afraid.

Okay, you got put down, Peter, you sick dog. So what had happened was Peter had continued to work on the idea without Gunter. In June 1979, he had discovered that with the propane tank inverted, additional pressure caused the liquid propane to gasify, which would create a bigger flame, which was 12 meters or nearly 40 feet long. He theorized this was big enough to carry his family and could sustain the flame. Yeah, okay. That was the difference, but he hadn't told Gunter.

So on July 3rd, Peter and his family made a genuine attempt. They took off from a forest clearing at 1.30 in the morning and quickly began to climb, reaching an altitude of 6,600 feet or 2,000 meters, according to an ultimate that Peter had made by modifying a barometer. The wind was blowing in the right direction and they were quickly headed for their Western German destination, but then they hit dense cloud. Atmospheric water vapor condensed on the balloon, and the added weight of the water caused the balloon to descend. Oh no! They were forced to land, which thankfully they did so safely, but in the dark Peter had

no idea where they were and if they'd actually made it over the border. Peter explored until he found a piece of litter, which was a bread bag from a bakery. That was part of an East German town that he knew and he knew that they hadn't quite got there. Damn it. They were in fact in the dangerous border zone. The nomads land that no one's allowed to be seen. So they're risked being...

That was so close. And they're risked being shot on site. Is there with these two kids? Crap. The family spent nine hours moving quietly in the dark to get away from the 500 meter wide board as zone to avoid detection. They also had to travel unnoticed through five kilometers

of a restricted zone before hiking back all in all that they walked a total of 14 kilometers on nearly nine miles back to their car, where all the launch power for the Nali was just left there in the open hours daylight. They made a home just in time to report that they were going to be absent due to sickness from work in school that day. So I'm pretty close to being caught out.

But they had to believe the balloon. I can now. I had to leave the balloon at the border, which was discovered by the Stasi, who issued a wanted sign looking for information connected to the crime. As a precaution Peter sold the car that he used to take off that he driven to the takeoff area that day to sort of cover his tracks a bit. So a couple of weeks went by and they were sort of waiting for a knock on the door. Yeah, geez, this got tense. I mean selling the car after the fact it doesn't help you a lot.

If anything, it's kind of incriminating. Yeah, then why did you sell that car? Or, that's the car that we saw. Is this your car? Yeah, I just bought it off that guy. Yeah, okay, thank you. Yeah, that family was sick today of the balloon. Yeah, yeah, them.

Yeah, they're cool, and nothing to say, nothing to worry about. Yeah, that's a, yeah, them. Yeah, they're cool, they're not gonna say another word about it. Yeah, hmm, guess that's a dog. It's a bit of a dog, it's a dog. Guess that's a dude. I think you remember dog, he was a sick dog. He's a sick dog. Oh, I think he wasn't at work because he was at a vet, because he's a dog.

He's a sick dog. Sick dog. Peter, you dog. A couple of weeks when by Peter and his family were relieved to find that they apparently weren't connected to the escape, but they were worried that they could be at any moment. I'm glad that nothing happened to them, obviously.

I'm glad that they were okay and they survived everything, but I'm also kind of glad that didn't make it. Oh, really? Cause fucking me, no. I wanted them to make it. No, but he just dog-disk-dog-disk-dog-dunter. Did he, I mean, he, but if he got his family across and then sent a letter back saying,

hey, he's the propane inverter thing. Maybe sometimes you're just gonna do what you're gonna do for your family. Yeah, I guess so. Well, Peter, I know it's tricky. I don't know how I behave under a dictatorship. Yeah. Well, Peter came to Gunter, his old friend, Capin Hand and explained everything, and asked Gunter if he would work with Peter to build a third balloon.

Oh my God Peter give up. Peter sort of said so. It was so close. Sort of said sorry. I went with that. Yeah. Gunter realized that if Peter was beat was to be discovered that surely he would too. Yeah. So they decided to work together just to get the hell out of there as soon as they could. Because if one goes the other one's probably going to disappear as well. So now they've got a target drawn on them. Go into call in sick and took holiday leave to set aside five weeks to work on the balloon full time. You just get five weeks holiday. No, I think it was more like you got a couple and you went to his doctor and faked an illness to get a note to say why couldn't go to work for three weeks. And then so he was at home for five and he's like, I'm just gonna make a balloon that whole time.

He got the fight of his life on an ad appeared in the local paper, to say, he's so far out of his life. That's how to look at it. The fight of his life. He got the fight of his life. Well, that's what he told the doctor.

Doc, I've had the fight of my life. You should have, I woke up the neighbor's two doors down. Ah! The doctor's like, all right, you'd been having three weeks off. I had three pretzels a couple of weeks ago, and nothing since then, and then all of a sudden.

It's the fire in my life. I've been fighting for three days straight. It's one continuous stream. Can you hear a slash smell at Doc? Then they inverted Guinta and used him to propel the... That was the secret. And he did that all along, pretzel power. He got the fright of his life when an ad appeared in the local paper detailing the

found balloon and other personal items found at the crash site. The ad appealed for further information and this kicked the duo's ass into gear. The inverted is ours. Which was already in gear. That was terrible. Honestly, at this point we need to get out of gear. It's a mission. He's going to kill someone. He can't retain any air. Put it in an H. Oh, put it in an H. They had to build their biggest balloon yet and needed more material than ever. But the authorities might be monitoring the shops more than ever. Now a balloon had been discovered. Oh, mate, balloon.

Yeah, they're probably especially looking at for people buying large rolls of material. Yes. Similar to that of the balloon, they're... Don't worry, I'm not making a balloon. I'm part of a sailing club. Still, yeah. We just...

We burn all those last boats, though, for fun. In the movie adaptation of this, it's the same shopkeeper, but at every different shop. Oh, really? In my mind, I imagine that they're going to buy material and it's like, what is my budget thing? It's a guy in Spotlight, and then there's a guy, another side of town going,

I don't care about your elaborate backstory. Okay, Bob, it's like I'm from the Sims of the Sims and being every job around Springfield. So they only bought in small quantities and they got the four adults, the two men and the two wives to all buy a little bit, a little bit, little bit. During this time, the men lived in constant fear. At any moment, they feared a knock at the door, meaning they could be arrested and disappear forever. Good to rights of when he thought it was all over.

One day, the two men were out driving. As we approached the street crossing a police officer suddenly appeared and stopped us. In this moment, we were absolutely convinced that our number was up. Luckily, that was not so. We had simply driven the wrong way down a one way street. But yet they were still incarcerated.

Yeah, that's right. 10 years hard labor. And we got out and we kept making up balloon. To add to the urgency, Gunter had also been called into the military and was due to start in less than two months. If they're going to go for it, that have to go soon. Because once he was in the military, he was not going to be able to escape anymore.

The third balloon was finished on September 14. It had doubled in size compared to the previous balloon and was now 4,000 cubic meters in volume. It was 20 meters in diameter and 25 meters tall, 85, 82 feet high. That's so massive. It's so big. It's gross, it's so. The men worried that they'd have to...

That's bigger than like your stock standard hot air balloon. Actually, I don't really know. I don't think I've ever really even been close to one. I've been in one. Where'd you go? And I reckon there were, there was the guy flying it and then easily six people in it. I mean, we didn't bring a fridge though. Right. So maybe, yeah, I didn't have the stove down the bottom. We just went out for breakfast after. Oh yeah.

There's a leisurely thing, not so much a fleeing, the country thing. Yeah, sure. That's what I tell people anyway. So yeah, but I mean, they're very big, but I'm imagining this to be even bigger. That just sounds huge to me. It is quite large.

Yeah. Especially for a two man-made thing. Yeah, massive. Yeah, well, they were worried that they'd have to wait for the right weather, but just two days later on September 16th, amazingly conditions were perfect. And also they know that they need the wind going

obviously through the rain. Yeah, right direction. Needs to west. That kind of thing, like it's not better if there's a moonlit night so they can see a bit more. Yeah. It's not pitch black. It's good that you figured that out

because I would've been like, oh, how do you know we try the wind in East to West makes perfect sense actually, yeah. Well, yeah. Because that's where they would have been like, oh, how do you know which way the wind is east to west makes perfect sense actually? Well, that's where they're trying to go. Yeah, I yeah, but I mean depending on the angle I imagine that it's not directly Drawing not to south. So now I've got no idea there all of a sudden the winds blowing and they're just hovering along the border 15 more meters the border. Come on, little more. 15 more meters. They had not a chance to test this new balloon, but decided to risk it. Take advantage of the conditions and just make an attempt.

Oh god. You've never tested it. That's terrifying. And with the kids. And you're getting your kids. There's a two year old here. But isn't it? Don't reckon there's part of it be like, your test and it works perfectly. You go, oh great, I mean, what a waste of that. Yeah. Test now we got a way for perfect. Yeah, but works. I can see why they would, and they've reckon that they're coming for a many day now, even though that sounds like maybe that's a bit of paranoia. There's no real reason that they're onto them.

No, but they just think the quicker you go, the better. Yeah. Just in case, because imagine being like, we'll go tomorrow and then that morning, you get the knock on the door, you'll be like, oh, so they went to the clearing or a clearing, they fired it up, it took just 10 minutes to heat the balloon enough to inflate it. And just after 2am. Why pass the kids bedtime? Oh, the two wrong. I'm not going anywhere at 2am. And it's also like, I think it's minus eight degrees

outside as well. Other than non-ice, I'll go non-ice at 2am. Yeah, 2am, thanks very much. It's a bit. Yes. Everybody better than that. That's a bit better. I'd say it probably, please.

I've got a buddy better voice. Non-ice. Non-ice. I go non-ice. Dave, when you go nine eyes? About two or one a.m. Oh, you're a bad boy. So, since I'm in the year, I'm out.

Yeah. I'm hoping for the best after that one. That one. Wint take the lead. Yeah, see you guys in about six to eight. None of them ties. Just up to two a.m. Gunter Peter, their two wives and their four children, age

two to fifteen, got into the gondola. Gunter describes the takeoff. We stood diagonally opposite each other in the basket and cut the ropes at our respective corners. Up until then everything had gone smoothly, but then came our first problems. I had been a little quicker in cutting my second rope, which the balloon was still hanging on by one rope on the other side, was now listing to one side. This also resulted in the burner tilting and the flame being directed onto the material, which by now had caught fire.

Oh, that's bad. Furthermore, the last anchor in the ground was ripped out and catapulted towards hitting Frank, which is one of the other people on board, squarely on the head. Blood was now running down his face. Luckily, we had a fire extinguisher with us, so Peter simply needed to reduce the flame

whilst I put out the fire. Frank's injury turned out to be not so serious after all, so we could press ahead without further ado. And we blasted him with the fire. So I'm just... I wonder if that's like, you're in, you're late. All right, family, we're doing this. Within a minute, it's on fire.

And one of your kids is bleeding from the head. You're like, oh, this is not a good stuff. Fuck. So he's one of the kids. He said he was one of the other guys on the thing. I think it's another guy. I think I might be the teenager, the oldest, oldest, oldest boy.

So they were off, but then Guinta looked up and could see a hole at the top of the balloon. That shouldn't be there. Despite the hole, they just kept rising and rising. We didn't realize that because of the hole that have to keep the burn, the burner blasting it full blast the whole time, just to keep enough heat to keep them airborne.

Because usually the heat would stay trapped inside. But now it's just leaking through the hole in the room. So it's just full blast, keep it going. They again reached an altitude of 2,000 meters above the ground. No clouds, no clouds. It was completely dark and the border didn't have light. bit going, they again reached an altitude of 2000 meters above the ground. No clouds, no clouds. It was completely dark and the border didn't have lights. Something they hadn't actually considered.

So they don't know when they're going to. They don't know when they're over the border. The balloon had been... That's tactical from the border. Well, I read that they also turned the power off and they only turned the power back on in the morning amongst the society, probably to conserve energy and control people,

probably from doing things at night, I imagine. Yeah, right. So there's no light. The balloon had been turned around several times and they actually lost all bearings. And suddenly they were like, oh, you don't know where we're going. There's no power at night.

There's no power. But surely on the other side of the board of those power. Yeah, that'll be power, yep. So when they can start seeing lights, that's a good sign. That's no power. But surely on the other side of the board of theirs, Pair. Yeah, that'll be Pair. So when they can start seeing lights, that's a good sign. That's one, right? Your fridge is off every night. Oh. Can't watch TV at night.

This is in 1978. Your fridge is off. Welcome to the dictatorship. How are you keeping your goods? Cold sack, wet sack. Cold sack, good thing. He just made Dave spit water back into his drink bottle. That was rank. I was thinking I'm not going to go cold sack wet sack. Cold sack wet sack.

He went a wet sack. Cold sack wet sack. It's really got me. I wasn't even looking at you. I just had to spit back in the bottle. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun.

It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun. It's a search lights and we'll worry that they'd been rumbled. But luckily there were too high for the search that you've ever had rumbled before in this context. I love it.

Don't you love that word rumbled? I do, but I would never have used it in this context and I'm loving it. That's my sizzle, baby. I've put that in. Yeah. No other websites using rumbled, that's me. That's all you.

That's all D-Dub. Coltack, what's that? Luckily there were too high to be rumbled by the search lights couldn't light them up. That's good. So there's going well kind of, I mean you're at least you're flying, you're going somewhere. Yeah you're alive. And at this search lights you're heading the right direction. Yeah right, yeah right. That's probably on the board to stop people from doing stuff like this.

But suddenly the burner went out. No. I feel like I know. They tried to get it going again to the 8 degree below Celsius weather, but thinking it's too cold. That's the problem. It's minus 8. Yeah. Fuck. So we'll just rely on it. We'll just rely on it. So it's below for people in Fahrenheit's,

but it's below freezing. It's very, very cold. But they could only rely on it for a short time before it would go out again. They soon realized that they were completely out of gas because they've been pumping it for a short time before it would go out again. They soon realized that they were completely out of gas, because they've been pumping it at full blast. Yeah, it's. 2,000 meters above the ground, they started to descend into unknown territory. Because once it runs out, you just slowly go down and they can't really control that. They've got no idea where they're going to land.

At least it's slowly and not just like, oh, you're fucked. Yeah, it's on that arc to be circling over. Yeah. Homer Simpson on the skateboard over the Springfield Gorge. Yeah. I'm going to make it. I'm going to make it. It's a great ass thrill in my life.

I'm not going to make it. Thankfully their landing was quite light. Okay. They used a car light to sort of guide their way. So they had a car light on board. I imagine hooked up to a battery, I think that's what it was, to sort of light the ground so they could see where they were going. The ground rapidly approached, they crashed landed and were suddenly back on solid ground.

They were all putted. I said they've got the light on high beam, and that's a yes, cold. Fortunately, they were able to get out of the basket without assistance so that they immediately realized, well none of us are seriously injured then for all they were able to walk out of this. Thankfully no one was injured. But I don't know if they've crossed or not. Yeah, they're physically safe, but they have no idea how far they're flown and in what

direction. So they could have just flown further into East Germany. Right. They were terrified that they were still in East Germany. Yeah. They found a street sign that they didn't recognize and that was kind of a good sign, but also they might have just been in a town they didn't know. Yeah. The two men headed to a farm that they could see the light, oh you know they could see a farmhouse. Well that's good. Oh they. I just added that. I don't actually don't know if the light was on. They could just see a farm.

And whilst the wives and children hidden the bushes, so they went ahead to scope it out. The two men headed to a farm barn. They went to a barn, so I'm trying to say. A farm barn? They went into a farm barn. Farm sack. Was it a farm barn or was it a pet bar for all your pet needs? We'll call it name a pet.

A sick dog petter. A sick dog petter. Well, we've got leads, dog beds, dog food. I've got anything for petters, gingiviters. No. So they went to a pet bar and a farm bar and a barn. They saw a brand new piece of farming machinery, something which was basically unheard of in East Germany,

and they instantly knew that they'd made it to West Germany. That was a sign going, no one has anything that nice in you in East Germany. We're in West Germany. Oh my God. That must have been so cool. I was expecting they were going to walk up to Disneyland or something. Yeah.

That's Mickey Mouse. This is a good sign. They were safe and because West Germany recognized all German citizens as German citizens, they knew they could start their lives and knew, what a relief. West Germany sounds way better. Yeah, so if you got out of East Germany,

you made it to West Germany. They're like, oh yeah, you're a citizen, cool. No worries, here's your, you know. You weren't like- It's such a security number of equivalent. sounds way better. Yeah, I mean it is one, so on one side they said it's one country and on the other side, very different. Yeah, they're like, no, coming in. As they left the barn, a police car approached. Guntarites, one of us asked them, are we in the West? This question was redundant because that was already obvious.

The policeman answered astonishingly, of course you are. Where else would you be then? No one could scarcely imagine that East Germans would just appear out of nowhere in the middle of the night 10k away from the border. They made it 10k. Just made it 10kms into the safe west. The two men then let off a firework. At that butt. They were one butt.

They have one butt between them. They were four. I've imagined where there's weird little crackings. A little firecracker. Just like bang. Spellyworld. Spellyworld. That's Spellyworld was to signal to their wives and the bushes that they were safe.

Because they were still there not knowing it was going to work back. Yeah, we're not going to walk back. You can't do it. That's 300 metres away. That's 300 metres closer to East Germany. We're not going there. Oh, Hey Petra I'm not coming unless you set off that firework. I only respond and speak in fireworks Sorry, sorry, let Frank get hit in the head. Franky. Franky.

So they made it. It became a big new story around the world. East German, East Germany, the authorities there were pissed off and were worried about copycat crimes. They immediately increased border security, closed all small airports close to the border and ordered the planes kept farther inland. Propane gas tanks became registered products and large quantities of fabric suitable for balloon construction could no longer be purchased.

They really screwed up everyone else over. But they were like, well, we thought of it first. Yeah. Well, only 11 years until the wall comes down again. Don't respond to interview requests, you know? Yeah, yeah, sure. Don't talk about it. Keep it down.

Keep the people a chance. Did you say they have to keep, what was the line about the planes? Keep the people farther away. Keep the further inland. Yeah, what is that? Was they shoot them down otherwise? In case someone steals a plane? Well, I mean, because it's easy, I suppose they're like,

people jump out. Easy to fly 10 minutes than it is to fly an hour. So, I'll just put them in the further east. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's weird. They sound imparinoid now. It's so strange. I don't understand it at all.

This kind of, keep them in your hours. It's like, what do they do? You training them like prisoners. Yeah. What do they do? It's all about control. Yeah, it's not very, it doesn't sound very nice. You probably shouldn't be viewing your people as the enemy. Yeah, honestly, Mr. Gorbachev. Care down that wall. Care down this shiny object that's slide, it's glaring into my eyes. I can't read my speech. Oh my God, that mirror ball, what are you doing?

Also, I'm a donut. They might be a different thing. Ha ha ha. The families later learned that they'd been so, they'd been high enough to be detected, but not identified on radar by West German air traffic controllers. They'd also been detected on the East German side by a

night watchman. That's who would try to shine the light on them, but they were too high. So they had been spotted. Wow. Well, you'd see the flame. Yeah, the report of an unidentified flying object heading towards the border cause guards to activate the search lights, but the blend was too high just out of reach. So yeah. So that was a smart way to go up high. Peter and Gunter, the two masterminds, were highly sought after in the media. Gunter says that due to a hamstring injury from the crash landing, he was unable to participate in running races. Yeah. I never won the 100 yard dash again. He was unable to talk to the media as much as Peter. What do you mean?

He's a hamstring injury. Yeah, well this is on his website. Remember, balloonflux.dee. And this is when the two men began to fall out with one another. It becomes a bit of a soap opera from here. Good to rights. This time, Peter has unfortunately used to represent the entire history so that the idea of the escape was his and also the design and construction

of all components and would have been his his thing only only the sewing of the balloon he left after his statements to me right. So he's good to say that Peter is taking all the credit except for sewing. So we were at the hamstring and wasn't able to talk to the hunter the young go on right. And he would he's one still has the website where he's like, it's, I think it's called the falling out is written on the website. There's a page about this. Oh, let's say he let he said that our family retired from the media in January 1980 to get back to a normal life. The other family on the other hand, Peter's family were regularly present in the media and further some made public appearances where there was not anything of obvious importance to say. The versions of the story from Peter even goes far to say that he planned the entire

escape, built everything and essentially took us along only as an active pity. Yeah, right. I mean, he's a dog. Yeah, he's a dog. It was a dog all along. But it's if you believe everything you write. He also says the final straw in their relationship was twice he found out that Peter had declined invitations on Gunter's family's behalf without asking them and chose to go to the event

himself. It's so weird. Yeah, even right Gunter writes on his website, I still don't know why he did this. Peter, Streslich, sorry, Strelzick, such a strange name to be seen written down. Peter Strelzick died in 2017 at the age of 74 Having never made up with Gunter who was still alive at the time of recording and blogging on his website Such a so how old Gunter Guessing he was how many years. Sorry. No, that's okay. He wasn't in his 20s. Yes, he was a pretty young

He was 13 years younger So he's in his mid 60s now. What? Yeah, it's wild. It's my dad's age. Yeah. Yeah. And my dad's age. And your dad's age. Gunta? Gunta won a key? He did you. Oh my goodness. Wow. The escape has been portrayed in two films, Night Crossing, which is a 1982 Disney film starring John Herd as Peter and Bo Bridges as Gunter. I've never heard of it. The 82.

It's also been more recently portrayed in a German film called Balloon. It came out in 2018. Balloon. Loft Balloon, surely. Yeah. What does Loft mean? What does Balloon. It came out in 2018. Balloon. Loft Balloon, surely. Yeah, yeah. What does Loft mean? What does Balloon mean? Is that red? That's 99. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. 99. I know Balloons. Ah, so I don't know, that's the story. It's an amazing, it's an amazing tale. It's sad that they did this amazing thing together. That honestly is unthinkable and then fell out.

Yeah, I mean they did it. They got freedom. Yeah. They really should have just shown I would have thought it would be a credit. It's a celebration from there. It's so sad that humans can do that. I can imagine us having a big falling out that at the end of the pod, you know. Yeah. I'd prefer it at the end rather than the middle. Yeah, good point. Yeah, but I mean, is this as impressive as escaping? Well, how long that take? It's Germany.

That was about an 18 month process. Yeah, right, we've been doing this for four years. Fuck off nerds, we can do, this is like. This is way more important. Stick at it. Building a hot air balloon and escaping a country. Yeah, it is. It takes me like half an hour to drive here once a week.

That's hard. Really tickled yourself. I think I did tickle myself. So there are movies and in it the Habadashes of all played by the same actor, is that right, don't you? That's in Dave's head. No, that was me directing my own movie. And they're all played by that Simpson's guy because better Bing, better bang, sugar and the gas tank.

So what character am I playing in your version of this film? Uh, would you like to be the shopkeep? You're in several scenes. Several different outfits. That's a comedic role. That's a fun, essentially. Yeah. Why are you telling me this? Because Gunter's going there again going, You're in several scenes several different outfits. That's a comedic role. That's a fun. Yeah Why are you telling me this because Gunter's going there again going what you're the same guy what?

Hmm, you're the every man Huh, so I don't even get to be Gunter No, Matt's Gunter Matt's a million years old. So I'm Gunter and Matt's Peter. Matt is file the time. I'm the dog Great. I'm the one who gets all the ho- oh yeah cool I get all the Hollywood stuff at the end. And I don't even get to be anyone's wife in this. I don't get to be Petra. I'm a fucking shopkeep. You could have hidden the bushes.

Where do I find fireworks signals? I do prefer to be communicated with in fireworks. I do prefer that. That is a wild and amazing story. I'm loving these stories. We've had a few of them lately that I've just never heard of in there. Yeah, me either. I feel like they should be so famous. I mean, it's been made into two movies. It's pretty fun. But I think it's the same as last week. Only one person suggested it. So how easy? Elliot you be from Salt Lake City? Thank you so much for suggesting such. Elliot Bay from Salt Lake City.

Yeah. Yeah, Bay. J. Bay? Hey, Bay. J. Bay. Hey, Bay. J. Bay. Yeah, Bay.

Yeah, Bay. Can evolve. Yeah, Bay. Amazing. Well, Matt, does that bring us to everybody's favourite part of the show? Do you want to introduce it? Absolutely, I do. This part of the show is called Fact Quotor Question. Ding!

You always come in too early on the fucking day. I don't think I do. I'm giving you a beat. I'm giving you a fucking beat. I'm not even finishing the same question. Would you like it to be off time? Because I can do that, but it'll sound bad. Yeah, try it now. Try it now.

Here we go again. but it'll sound bad. Try it, try it now, try it now, try it now, here we go again. Facts Quotal Question Bing. That's very early, a way to half beat, I reckon. Yeah, do it on the offbeat. Facts Quotal Question Bing. Perfect. And on this segment, you can support us at patreon.com slash

to go on pod. And one of the levels, the Sydney Shamburg Deluxe Rest in peace VIP Deluxe burger section. Oh, I'll have a meal, please Yeah, medium yeah mediums good regular sound languages And one of the things you have to do on there is you get to give us a factor a quarter of a question as well as being extra votes and all sorts of things like that. And this, so I think the people on this level will be voting on your next three reports, Dave. That is correct, I believe, sir. And as well as that, you also get to give us a factor quote or a question. This week, the fact quote or question is coming from Phil Verhé.

Verhé. is coming from Phil Verhey Verhey Verhey Verhey Verhey Verhey Verhey I like that one. I really like the first one. You also get to give yourself a title and Phil, which is a fantastic name, fantastic Phil, has given to himself the title of sufferer of misophonia, lover of all microphone windmuffs. We got a few in the studio for you, Philly. And Phil, Fabulous Phil, Vahey has given us a quote, which I reckon maybe it's a one that we get the least of.

Yeah, I'd say so. And first we didn't get many, or I think we're getting more of a balance these days. And the quote is this, and I don't read these until I read them, and here we go. The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. That's from John Milton, who was from the board game Milton Bradley. Oh, should I go over you out of John Milton? I think it's an old English author. John Milton was an English poet and intellectual who served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth

of England under its council of state and later under Oliver Cromwell. See a Westminster Abbey post corner guy? Resting place. St Gilles without cripple gate. So no, no, I think so. That's a strange place. I love the name of that. St. Gilles dash without dash cripple gate.

Cool. Yeah, that's cool quote. I think that's true. I think it's a good quote. Cheers Phil. I mean, it could be true. I don't know what I'm talking about. You haven't had time to think about it.

You know, do you want it a bit? The mind is at its own place. I believe that. Yes. I spent a bit of time in mind. I like it often. I often like it up there. Sometimes could go a little vacay.

Do you have like an internal monologue though? Yes. We talked about this a bit on book cheat this week as well. Have you got one, Dave? Oh, absolutely. I can't shout it off. Yeah, great. I'm talking, talking, talking like I'm talking now, but I talked to myself.

Do you all know this as well? I sometimes refer in my head. I refer to myself as we. Oh. I was going to talk about with Cass on book cheat. She was sort of sat, she had conversations with herself. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know., she had conversations with herself. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know, I'm not sure if I do that.

I'm like, we've got to get that done. Oh yeah, maybe a, yeah, maybe I do do that actually. Oh right, I think I'm an eye, I'm an eye. I would say, we a lot. Yeah, what does that mean about us? I don't know. I think how does that make us better than Dave? It means that we're,

with team players. Yeah, Dave's a fish. Or entered. Daves are like, me, me, me, me, me. We're like, no, I'm like, I, I, I, I, I, I. And we're we, we, we, we, we, we. Oh, way home. Looked up John Milton has an monument in Poblet's Corner.

Oh, cool. It's been so much. And what can you look at? What's with without cripple gate? Anyway, I'm not sure. The second fact quarter question, this week comes from Zach Luelan. Zach with an A at the end, does that change it? Is that Zachy?

Or is it just still Zach? Yeah, what? Z-A-C-H-E. Ha! Zash. Zash. Zash, Zash-E. Zash-E.

Zash-E Luelan. Who's given himself the title of Junior Associate to the Vice President of booking Matt exclusively above Thirsty Merkings. Oh, you must have been at one of my Tasmanian shows where I clashed with Thirsty Merk in the same pub. I was like, you're the same pub. And you're in canceling out of Thirsty Merk. Well, you've made it. Give me 20 good

reasons. Is that them? Yeah. Could you hear them? Could you hear them? From your audience? They came on pretty much as my show was finishing. I went downstairs and you could, I'd posted a photo on on social media from on the streets. I know that was a fun festival. Me with the window behind me was Ray Thistle Sweats. Ah, basically, you know, the window on the street went straight under the stage. That's weird. Do they get much of a crowd down there? They were well and truly sold out. Fantastic. And you were also sold out

I'm actually well and truly and I saw your ass on the street, but that was looking good They're very very popular down there and probably elsewhere. Yeah, they but I mean they got they have a lot of hits What do you want in the summertime? The We were doing different bits. Sorry, or I don't know that song that well, which I thought I did. But when we diverged there, I fad fulled out. Yeah. It's okay. We don't have to always be easy.

And I didn't know, race, this will sweat. Incredible. That's a great name. I did not know that. Yeah. It's amazing. Well, is he in Paul's corner? Yes.

I looked up St. Giles without cripple gate. There's an Anglican church in City of London. That's where he's buried. Oh There you go. Listen, I made it without cripple gate. I've never heard of that. I love it I love it. He's in England. They name places like What La Ponne? Yeah, the rivers the second part. I don't know what the without means means there's no cripple there There used to be a river. Oh, there's one with a with cripple garden without. Do you wanna with or without

like a smoking and non smoking section? Anyhow, Zasha Luellen has given us a question. We have a monotovata question a little while. And his question is. I love to make it about we. What are your phone backgrounds right now? Ooh, okay. Okay.

I have no idea. Oh, look at mine! Ha ha ha ha ha! It's just black! That is so bleak! It is honestly just black. I don't, I don't remember. I would never have...

Would it have come like that? What about like, so you got lock screen and home screen? Yeah, you've got nothing on either. That is so bleak. I should, my desktop at the studio is just got plugga. Yeah, exactly, at least put plugga on there. You should put plugga on there. All right, Matt's is boring and black.

But that would be distracting. Dave, what do you got? I got my girlfriend with our puppy, puppy. Yep. Your puppy, which is named. Humphrey. Humphrey B. What are you gonna do for one for your lock screen?

My lock screen is my poor old family dog Pete, who's no longer with us. Yeah, Pete's good. I can't bring myself to change it. No, fair enough. Good, you've been going for three years now. I still, it's still nice to look at him. Yeah, well, why would, like,

doesn't make it any less relevant to the back of your phone? No, but I just sometimes I think, oh, should I change it? I think that's kind of nice. Let him go. Is it living on forever? That's nice. On a phone. I haven't changed my Facebook profile picture in like four years.

Should I change it? I just keep it forever now. No, I can change it to one of me. I'm for a year. Okay, great. This is you now. This is you forever. I look like a boy, you, great. This is you now. This is you forever. I look like a boy, you know? Who's that young man?

Who's that young boy? And yes, your background. What are you rocking? I've got one of the basic iPhone ones. It's just a blue and really? I quite like it. Do you guys have personal lives? No, no, I've got them on the locks.

I don't like anything being behind for. No, black actually, and your one does look nice with the apps in front of you. I like the apps to be able to like it. Do you guys have personal life? No, no, I've got it on the locks. I don't like anything being behind for. Yeah, no, black actually, and your one does look nice with the apps in front. Yeah, I like the apps to be able to stand there. That's what I went for blacker, I can say, they just pop out and you'd... And I also, I feel weird putting a photo of loved ones behind it,

because I'm like, you just hidden. You hidden behind all the apps. I want them to be able to be seen. My lock screen is my boyfriend and I wearing Turkey hats at Christmas. Ah, that's a great photo. Yeah, couple of turkeys. We're just wearing Turkey hats and posing like dickheads. That's a good question.

Very question. Kind of question, I would have never thought to have asked. Thank you so much, Zase or Zach. Thank you so much, Zashe or Zach. Thank you. I also got, someone came to that show and gave me a six pack of Tasmanian beers to sample. Oh. Which is still sitting in my kitchen because I'm doing febfas.

So they're gonna be the first beers I have when I get out at the other side. When I get out. Get it, get that. When I escape this jail. No, I didn't mean it like that. When I can finally drink my beautiful beers. Get it, get that. Well, I escape this jail. No, I didn't mean it like that. You're like, finally, drink my beautiful booze. When it's early March, that was Hannah, thanks Hannah.

I think I'm so bad with names, I go, I gotta just tell you a name a few times, I'd remember. Geez, I hope I haven't fucked it up. Hey, names Louise. I can not even sure if you listen to this anyway. But also, the other thing we like to do Bob is your little section where we think a few petrol. Yes, and I've already thought of something.

We are going to assign each of them a mode of transport. Oh, okay, okay, okay. And are they just normal modes of transport or like this are they part plane part submarine. Look then well they could be anything and they don't have to be fleeing a country either. That's nice. But maybe they are but probably not hey. That's a nice touch. Before we do that I got to quickly thank Annabelle Clark Leppard because we fucked that up last week. Anyway thank you Annabelle Clark Lepp because we fucked that up last week. Anyway, thank you. Annabelle Clark Leopard. Everything we said about you stands only your first name, which is Annabelle. Yes, because we thanked your sister instead.

Yes. Annabelle anyway, I'm so sorry about that mix up. Do you bring a motorbike transport? Yes. One of those motorbikes with a sidecar. Oh yeah! Yes, one of those motorbikes with a sidecar. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Fuck yeah. That's terrifying. You'd be so low to the ground. I want to be in there.

So I don't know. There must have been featured in David Susha's Poharo. That feels like that kind of era of transport. What did it mean? I think I'm at a similar motorbike. It feels like the sidekick, what's his name? Might have ridden one with Sushay and the sideker. And the N-poirer going,

ooh, we're hating it. Yeah. I say. I say, poro. Good Lord. Good Lord. I always say. Sikara, I always think of the cooking show Two Fat Ladies.

Oh. They travel to one surely. Was that to, or you think another Harry Barker's guard to cookery? I don't know one you think you have a cooking show regardless. Yeah. Oh, no there They are let me show you a photo of these lovely. Oh, that's their logo. Yeah, that's right Yeah, yes fat ladies. I've forgotten about them. They're a big deal. You know huge Deal huge deal. I'm sorry, I did not mean that. Sorry, I honestly did not mean that.

David warning. They embraced, they embraced, that is their image, but I did not mean it like that. I was much older than the other, which always surprised me. One board in 1947, the other one, 1928, so there's 20 years between me and them. You can be friends with people of different ages.

But I just always, That big of a guy. As a child, when there would be, I mean bigger than that, sure, but that big, specifically. Just when you're, but when you're a kid, old people just look at like old people. Definitely. I was like, oh yeah, I assume now this is about the same age.

Sadly, they're both not along with us. My cousin, when he was a child, asked me how old I was and I was 15 and he went, oh my God, like that was so old. That's how dumb it is isn't it? It's dumb when people talk about about age. Anyway, I'd love to thank firstly from Self-Ed England.

We're soul food. We're soul food. Next to Manchester, we went to the soul food. The Soul Food Lads Club. I'm sulphid England. Sofid. We're sulphid. Ne, next demand, Chester. Oh, that's one with the sulphid. The sulphid lead club. We're the lead club. That's right. That's right.

You've got a t-shirt that says the sulphid lead club. I do. Or maybe two. I bought two. I just have the one. That was a, that was a fun day. Yeah, sulphid right next demand, Chester. And from sulphid, I'd love to thank Jade Chadwick,

or Chadwick, if itwick, if she's English. And that's how they normally drop the W down there. Oh, yes. Jade Chadwick, from Southfoot, England. Southfoot. Well, like, I reckon Jade travels on a, like a souped up electric scooter. Yeah. Like, dangerously fast.

Yeah, yeah. Jade, slow down. You're gonna hurt someone. No, she's sick on it though. Yeah. She's fucking, she does tricks and shit, man. Fuckin' down. You're gonna hurt someone. No, she's sick on it though. Yeah She's fucking she does tricks and shit man. Fuck it sick. Good on your Jade. On your Jade. I love those things man You should have seen me around crash church on those bad boys. Holy shit. Yeah, I'm up in Brisbane soon I should say Brisbane Comedy Festival coming up. I'm up for the from the 10th of the 15th Please come to the show you can get tickets of madshowcomedy.com

Gonna be doing a bit of scootin. I am gonna be scootin. Please scootin. They do lime scooters up there. It's only there in Adelaide, I think, that have them. Because Melbourne can't be trusted. Now, Melbourne have just kicked off their doing the Uber ones. Ah, scooters.

Uber scooters, yeah. No way. Yeah, that's not a lot of fun. Honestly, that's not a lot of fun. Uber scootin, baby, it's just a lot of fun. It's the cool thing. If they, I think, it's the kind of thing that I'd almost be able to get rid of my car

if the zone was big enough or reckon. John the Giggs out of town is a bit harder on those scooters. Yeah. So probably over. Fuck their fun. Yeah, they're called Jump. Jump.

Scooters by Uber. Well, some Melbourne attempted something like that. They all ended up in the Yara. Yeah, we suck. But I think scooters are all fun then box. Yeah, it's good. It's a way more fun. Anyway, Jade, thank you so much. Thank you, Jade. I hope you enjoy scooting about. I'd also love to thank from Belbird Park in Queensland. Oh, Cassie. Cassie, Cratic. Cassie, Cratic, C-C. Cassie, Cratix, C-C. And Cassie, Cratix, her mode of transport is, it's really hoping something would come in that time.

Oh, I've got one. Great, go. A Billy card. Oh, yes. A Billy card. Not how you just got to take it up a hill and hope for the best when you're going down. Just like a rope.

Yeah, you're still going with the rope. Yeah. Wow, Billy card. That's a lot of fun. I think that maybe it's like all like soapbox Der still going with the rope. Yeah. Yeah. Wow, Billy Cus. That's a lot of fun. I think that maybe they call them like soapbox Derby's or the other. Yeah, America. Or in North America.

Yes. Isn't there a band called Boxcar Racer? Is that because of that? Tom DeLonge, other band. Tom DeLonge with Travis on drums. Yeah, and the go from Rancid maybe. Who was the other guy? A port on stuff.

Can I thank some people as well? You sure can't thank you, Cassie. Thank you, Cassie. How was the first in Jade Chatac? Cassie Cratic. Crazy. I hope we have more rhyming names. That doesn't look like we're going to.

It is hugely disappointing. I'd love to thank just around the corner, Impressed in Victoria. It's gone. Lucy Harrison. Great name. Lucy. It, Victoria, Lucy Harrison. Great name. Lucy. That's a fantastic.

Harrison, great name. Oh, I have an idea. One of these, let me think, what about a an animatronic fish? Ah, grace. You get in it, it's got legs. Sorry, okay, great, love it. What are you laughing at?

What? What's funny about that? I forgot, it was naming the modes of transport for a second, and then it came back to me and I went, oh, of course, sorry, how stupid of me. An animatronic fish. Yeah, so it can swim like a submarine, but also it's got legs that come out,

and can walk on land. So handy, it's really, it's really, you know. That's the least dumb submarine you've ever heard of, just. Yeah, definitely, because at least looks like a fish. So if the submarine's is so dumb. But I'm trying fish.

That's not that. That makes sense. If someone tried to chuck you Lucy in the yara in your animatronic fish, you just walk your way back out of it. Yeah, and you go, oh, wait, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't turn fullery, thanks. Come on. Let's not fuck around around water.

I'm just a gal in a fish. Okay. Okay. Just trying to get to work. Why are the yara river? Come on. Let's not fuck around around water. I'm just a gal and a fish. Okay. Okay. Just trying to get to work. Play the Yarra River. And then you switch your scarf around your neck. And you're on your way. And you're on your way.

And so thank you to Lucy. I would also like to thank from York, in Yorkshire. That makes sense. Mike Olless. Mike Olless. Mike Olless. We were told that York's quite posh. posh, and that's why.

And that's why. Yeah. Oh, okay. I think Mike has a C-plane. Oh. Oh, I love a C. They look cool to me. No, you're not into it? I've been in one.

Oh, they can't see. I nearly threw up. Why were you in a C-plane? Well, I'd gone on a jet ski to a in Queensland somewhere. That sounds fun, so far. Yeah, that was fun. And we stopped at this tiny little island. We're just having a little bit of a break and a seaplane pilot was just chatting to our

tour instructor and had some spare time and said, do you guys want to come up for a joy ride? And we did. And. How many people get in the sea plane? There's only four of us. And we did. And then he said, now, do you wanna take the easy way up

or the express elevator? And I said, easy way, everyone else said, express! What are they thinking? So we were like completely vertical going straight up. Like a rocket. And then you had to like, as you lurch back, as you even say it again, you're like, blah.

Feels like the kind of thing that the whoever wants the lowest end wins. You know what I mean? That's not a majority rules. I don't wanna do this. Well, bad luck, you've been outvoted. As someone with a weak stomach, I don't like. I've just spewed on them.

I really spewed. I don't like that kind of bullying where it's sort of like, oh, you don't like this. Now we're gonna force you to do it. They're like, why? That's a very nice. Anyway, I felt like I'd see you. You wouldn't do that with your mic.

Now that you drive. No, no, good man, Michaelis. Michaelis. Michaelis. Because he's a, it's also a Viking place. I picture out the side. They've got those oars. Of course.

You know those old school Viking ships? Out the side of the sea plane. So you can do both. Yeah, perfect. You can fly, and then you pull the oars in. Yeah. But if you're on the sea, then you can or the boat around.

Perfect. Either or, sort of thing. Nah. Okay. Thank you, Mark. Right on, well, from my callus to Ellis Wells. I'd like to thank Ellis Wells from London. Thank you, Ellis.

Ellis Wells. Ellis, Ellis, that's great. The only Ellis I know is Hans Booby. What about Sophie Ellis Bexter? What about Warren Ellis from the bad team? Oh, okay. You dickhead. Oh, Hans, booby, yeah.

He only wanna know personally. Oh. Alice. I got on you, Alice Wells, appreciate that. I'm pretty sure this is name. Double L's in both names. E. double L in both names. E. double L and an S in both names.

Whoa, Ellis Wells. You got a lot. From London and Ellis. What's he using the travel map? Well, I think it's just because of his name sounds like a swell. I'm thinking like a surfboard. Oh, okay, yep. But it's a double decker and it's got a double decker surfboard, yes. Double decker surfboard, we're,

is it a top plush down there? Yeah, up top you got catering land. Downstairs where the surfer is who's powering the surfer. Was he paddling or still standing there? No, he's a surfer. So you got Mark Ocalupo. Ockie's down there. OK.

And he's powering the surfboard and Ellis Wells is up top, thining away, living like a bloody king. I think the surfboard throne. Yeah. Good on you Ellis Wells. Taken it for us. Spin around London's beautiful beaches. Ha ha ha ha.

Sucked in London. No, you're great. Good on you Ellis Wells. Appreciate you sport. And finally I'd like to thank from C.C. Arkansas. C.C. C.C. C.C. C.C. C.C.

C.C. C.C. Sorry to Molly. To my C.C. Glad to. I love you, Pop and Fresh. I love you, Molly Harden, from C.C. Arkansas.

Thank you so much for your support over the months. Molly. And the year. Molly's a great name. Molly's a great name. That's a good name. This is another fantastic bunch of names. And Molly gets around in one of those horse-drawn carriages that are free.

A horse drew this carriage. Will it be structurally sound? I think I clip it in a clippers. It's a smart horse. Okay. Come on, no, it's a lot of horse that's smarter than us. But also it pulls the car around. And it's all fancy like horses are smarter than us, but also it pulls the card around And it's all fancy like in the city, you know the ones in the city

All the horses are stronger than us, too Really Pretty hell Good on you Molly taking your your horse and cart for a run around CCR and it's obviously it's not one of these Normal city ones that are kind of a bit cooler to the animals. These ones would be the horses love it. Oh my God, the horses, every day the horses are knocking on her wind-bedger window, like, can we go please? I'm like, their son has phased them out

from some of the big cities. I think London might have cut them, cut the horses. Yeah, it's all about double decked surfboards, these days. Yeah. Yeah, much more in London. In London, yeah, for sure. Molly, Harden, yeah, Clippity Club, there's nothing more romantic than that, but a snow-

Name something more romantic. You can't- No, you can't. A big jar of peanut butter. Oh, that is sexy. You could do anything you want with that peanut butter. I mean, I'm instantly hungry for peanut butter. I'm always hungry for peanut butter.

Yeah, that's always going on just blow the surface. Yeah, I was thinking the other day as I was eating peanut butter with a spoon straight from the jar. I thought how many spoonfuls of peanut butter is depression, you know? Like, what? Did you get to the bottom of that?

No. Jar? Yes. Oh, thanks, everyone. That's supposed to show on Patreon. You make a little world go around. Do we need to induct anyone to the trip dish club? Anyone's made it in the trip dish club. That's people that have supported the show

non-stop at a certain level, the shout out level for three plus years. There are, we do have three inductees. Let me roll out the red carpet. And Dave, of course, you are going to engrave these into a page on the website. I will engrave them onto my computer screen and then take a photo. I'll put it on Instagram. It feels like the kind of thing you could very stubbornly not doing this. It feels like something you would quite easily be able to manage. I think why don't you do it? Because this is your birthright. Is it not? I don't want to take that away from you. And also, I don't know how to do it. I know that you know how to do it.

I don't know how. I'd have to research how to do it. The one thing you love most is research. Yeah, but fun things. Oh, okay. I would love to thank from Massac Beach or so not thank, but in duck from Massac Beach, New York, Kevin J. Wright. Thanks, Kevin. From Claremont, Western Australia, Ruth Gatlodding. On your Ruth.

And from Serboton, Great Britain, Rosemary Lynch. Yeah, Rosemary. Yeah. All right, Rosemary, do it for me. Let me tell, do it for you. Ah, it's both weird. Thank you, support. Sorry about that.

Amazing. Please, I leave. I just cut through your support with one weird phrase. It's still a very exclusive club. Less than 50 people in there. Wow. That's awesome. And it's a real honor for us to have you in there.

Imagine if any of them ever leave us There's a imagine champagne on arrival. Oh Absolutely canapes canapes which I will you want to say canapes? I think everyone's It's good names. It's a canapies In the big doggy when I mispronounced it. That was not on purpose. I had differences, canapies. We've all been camping.

My mom was once at a funcary to wear someone off at her canape. I've laughed about that for many years. And now, that's even funny though. You're like a canopy? Anyone for a canopy? A canopy? Anyone? I might say in that row. I might say that row.

Well that pretty much brings us to the end of the episode. Thanks for all our patrons you can get on patreon.com-sache2go-on-pod and there's heaps of different rewards. Jess is just rebooted the newsletter so every Sunday, such Monday, depending on where you are in the world, you'll get a weekly update.

And we've got fun things to announce soon, which I think Jess will be putting out on next week's thing. There's still works in progress on our YouTube channel type things. Now, some other, we've got a new stretch goal, which we're going to announce, which certain people of a certain movie star fame might be interested in, someone who's got a bar and he doesn't mind freezing it. I've said too much. I think I've pretty much said it now, right? That's right, if we raise enough money, we will fly and we will have dinner with Russell Crowe. I'm looking forward to it. We'll record the conversation.

So yeah. Yeah. He's already a fan of my work. Remember that time he retweeted my video? will have dinner with Russell Crowe. I'm looking forward to it. We'll record the conversation. Yeah. Yeah. He's already a fan of my work. Remember that time he retweeted my video? Amazing. That's the moment of my life. He do.

And the worst moment of our lives when Greg Norman failed to reply. Yeah. Greg Norman, you sick doll. The highs and lows of life. But still we might be able to talk about Greg Norman later this month on a patron on the other side. That's exciting.

Please. Yes, but so, and other things you can vote on topics, two out of three, basically, of the episodes we do have been voted on by Patreons. Anyone can suggest a topic, though, which is via the link in the show notes. That's right. We look forward if you can think of any crazy, fun, wacky, weird stories that not many people know about, or you think we just don't know about it over here in Australia, tell us about it and we'll probably do a report on it.

Yeah, it definitely helps how you write that little pitch and if you have some good sources to start off with, that's definitely probably put you ahead of the curve for getting picked out as well. And yeah, some of the other bonuses we get? At the moment, we do two bonus episodes per month. This month we're doing three because we got fucked by technology last month. You also get like pre-sales on all of our shows

and you get information first and stuff like that. And yeah, there's a Facebook group for Patreon's only. So there's a whole heap of stuff. So get involved if you want to. And why would you not want to? Yeah, get in there. That's patreon.com such do go on pod. Anything else we need to say? We're doing festival shows.

We didn't mention that this week. Yeah, that's right. We are coming up to the Melbourne Comedy Festival for our fourth annual year and it's going to be a... The annual year. Yeah. We're doing years annually now. Yeah, I thought it said annually wrong. I can't see. It's not talking, right? Yeah. What is doing full shows? It's going to be really fun and tickets are on sale and the first one especially is really selling well and you can get in at comedyfirstall.com.au where tickets are also on sale for Matt's standup show and Jess's standup show.

Yes, Matt's here at com.com and Jess Perkins.com.au. Nailed it. Now I think we should get that. Say goodbye. I think it's a sore. This does not feel like a two-hour episode. Yeah, it's been a long time. It's been a long time.

Been a long, long, long. Long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want, it's up to you. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising. But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750

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