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Day 15 - Alice Springs to 25kms North of Old Andado - Mon 26 Oct 2015
So we’ve had a bit of system running across the days, like a player at a roulette table. Good day, bad day, good day, good day, bad day. Roulette: red, black, red, black, black. And we’ve just had a run of good days, and we are betting on it continuing. A roulette player would read the run and start to bet against it. Not us. And what happens after a run of good days? Bad day
.
As this is being written, 8 of us are sitting or sleeping in a camp on the Old Andado road, about 25 kms from Old Andado. One of us has a pretty sore head from a spill. Steve Larke came off the worst and is in the Alice Springs Hospital being examined and treated for a dislocated shoulder and swollen ankle. Brocky, Brad and Ohso are also still in Alice, Brock and Brad having waited for new parts for Brock’s bike. Ohso transported Larkey back to Alice. Here is how the day unfolded.
We had put a couple of days into getting fixed up and ready for the second half of the journey. Maybe an omen was the discussion with the Ford Ranger owner at the van park; he had broken a rear spring on his near new machine that had happened in the gulf country. He had been towed in to Alice last night from up there for $1500, and was going to ARB in the morning to get it fixed. Its a tough country but he didn’t have anything good to say about Fords.
We had an appointment at the RFDS base at the airport at nine am, but we didn’t all go. Brock was still waiting for parts to be delivered to fix his bike so would stay in Alice with Brad as the rest of us headed for the area around Old Andado. The RFDS visit was fantastic and we were made very welcome by Leonie Leach, Kathy Arthurs and Adam Andrews and many of the other people who make up the team there. Leonie handled our booking and chaperoned us around, helping us with many questions. Kathy took the time to explain her role as the Senior Flight Nurse; she manages the nine flight nurses that operate out of the base. She has had ten years on and off working for the Flying Doctors, enjoying the challenges and variety that the role brings. Adam heads up a team of five flight engineers who look after the local fleet of seven aircraft. These multi-million dollar machines have a variety of service needs based on flight hours, landings and time. Two of the planes are for charter work, ferrying medical specialists across the countryside to work with patients in remote communities, the other five do the operational work, flying regularly to Adelaide and, as required, to emergencies. It was fantastic to see these people in action and to gain an understanding of the work that they do. We are happy that the RFDS is our charity of choice.
The airport was on the road out of town that we were going to follow so we gathered outside the Flying Doctors to prepare for launch. The forecast temperature was around 40 and it was going to get there easy (it got to around 42 in the end). Our first stop would be Santa Teresa, which we reached at around 12.30. The road down that way was fairly good so we made good progress. It featured quite interesting landscapes with many hills appearing to be terraced. We had lunch outside the local community shop, which like Amata, was very well stocked and the local people very friendly. The town looked much cleaner and better organised than many other places we had seen; the nearby school had many children present in neat uniforms. The only strange thing was the abundance of horses in the area, many of which walked the town streets.
Just out of Santa Teresa we had the first drama of the day. Something that we hadn’t seen a lot of before, bulldust, caught Carl’s front wheel and pitched him off over the handlebars. As Joc explains it, ‘He hit the ground with his head in the temporal region, then done a few commando rolls and sat up. He was in Disneyland for a little while, he didn’t really get a chance to suck it all in, wanting to continue on. About 15 kms down the road I pulled up to see if he was ok, and clearly he wasn’t”.
At this point the guys had a breather. Carl was displaying signs of potential concussion and shock, so we administered some basic first aid under Joc’s guidance, and waited for him to show signs of improvement until we decided to continue. As we waited we looked at his expensive, professionally fitted good quality Arai helmet and we were thankful for it. If you have a $10 head, you buy a $10 helmet. Carlos was ok, but the road we were on continued to throw up bulldust. The next person to suffer a fall was Larkey, and he came off very much worse for wear. Joc pulled up in the mid-section of a very large hole, looking to film Carl and Larkey come through. Carl came in and then Larkey came in as well. It appeared that he hit a pretty deep hole and it spat him straight out sideways off the bike. He rolled for a while before coming to a stop face down not moving. It was great that Joc was there on scene as he was able to immediately get to Stevie and help him out. Joc ran over and started questioning Larkey, who was conscious, to determine the possible injuries. We are thankful that, although Steve’s day on the bike was done, he had not received any head injuries. The big issue was a clearly visible shoulder dislocation. There was no loss of blood flow or obvious nerve injury, but Steve’s passion for TTT showed through as he seemed more concerned about having the bike go on the trailer and the potential disruption of our trek than his own health. We were more concerned about his health so we trailered the bike and put him in Ohso’s D-max to head back to Santa Teresa clinic in the first instance although we knew he was going to end up in Alice Hospital.
The rest of the day was pretty. Pretty landscapes with beautiful serrated and eroded ranges surrounding flattish country that was populated with cattle; as we went further the dunes of the north-west Simpson Desert started pushing through and marching into the dry and weather-beaten landscape. As we turned south and pushed deeper towards Old Andado we came across a denuded plain, again bordered by low orange dunes. This was all very pretty, but the other part of the pretty day was that it was all pretty f____d that we had two people hit the deck. Larkey is much appreciated within the team for his ‘get stuff done’ approach, his quiet achiever manner and his sheer determination to take this trip on without a great deal of experience in the outback on the bike. To know that he is in the hospital reassures us that he is getting best care but it is not how we want his trip to end. We want him patched up and back out with us, even if it’s in the car. Carl is still also a worry as he did have a big bang. The morning will tell the end result and we hope that he is ok. He has hit the sack early but will most likely have a restless night. The guys out on the road eventually settled for the night in a swale between two dunes, on the orange sand of the desert, with a hot wind blowing across us and no real cooling. Clouds covered a full-ish moon as we looked for comfort in our swags, thinking of our mates in Alice. Good night all, sleep well.
So we’ve had a bit of system running across the days, like a player at a roulette table. Good day, bad day, good day, good day, bad day. Roulette: red, black, red, black, black. And we’ve just had a run of good days, and we are betting on it continuing. A roulette player would read the run and start to bet against it. Not us. And what happens after a run of good days? Bad day
.
As this is being written, 8 of us are sitting or sleeping in a camp on the Old Andado road, about 25 kms from Old Andado. One of us has a pretty sore head from a spill. Steve Larke came off the worst and is in the Alice Springs Hospital being examined and treated for a dislocated shoulder and swollen ankle. Brocky, Brad and Ohso are also still in Alice, Brock and Brad having waited for new parts for Brock’s bike. Ohso transported Larkey back to Alice. Here is how the day unfolded.
We had put a couple of days into getting fixed up and ready for the second half of the journey. Maybe an omen was the discussion with the Ford Ranger owner at the van park; he had broken a rear spring on his near new machine that had happened in the gulf country. He had been towed in to Alice last night from up there for $1500, and was going to ARB in the morning to get it fixed. Its a tough country but he didn’t have anything good to say about Fords.
We had an appointment at the RFDS base at the airport at nine am, but we didn’t all go. Brock was still waiting for parts to be delivered to fix his bike so would stay in Alice with Brad as the rest of us headed for the area around Old Andado. The RFDS visit was fantastic and we were made very welcome by Leonie Leach, Kathy Arthurs and Adam Andrews and many of the other people who make up the team there. Leonie handled our booking and chaperoned us around, helping us with many questions. Kathy took the time to explain her role as the Senior Flight Nurse; she manages the nine flight nurses that operate out of the base. She has had ten years on and off working for the Flying Doctors, enjoying the challenges and variety that the role brings. Adam heads up a team of five flight engineers who look after the local fleet of seven aircraft. These multi-million dollar machines have a variety of service needs based on flight hours, landings and time. Two of the planes are for charter work, ferrying medical specialists across the countryside to work with patients in remote communities, the other five do the operational work, flying regularly to Adelaide and, as required, to emergencies. It was fantastic to see these people in action and to gain an understanding of the work that they do. We are happy that the RFDS is our charity of choice.
The airport was on the road out of town that we were going to follow so we gathered outside the Flying Doctors to prepare for launch. The forecast temperature was around 40 and it was going to get there easy (it got to around 42 in the end). Our first stop would be Santa Teresa, which we reached at around 12.30. The road down that way was fairly good so we made good progress. It featured quite interesting landscapes with many hills appearing to be terraced. We had lunch outside the local community shop, which like Amata, was very well stocked and the local people very friendly. The town looked much cleaner and better organised than many other places we had seen; the nearby school had many children present in neat uniforms. The only strange thing was the abundance of horses in the area, many of which walked the town streets.
Just out of Santa Teresa we had the first drama of the day. Something that we hadn’t seen a lot of before, bulldust, caught Carl’s front wheel and pitched him off over the handlebars. As Joc explains it, ‘He hit the ground with his head in the temporal region, then done a few commando rolls and sat up. He was in Disneyland for a little while, he didn’t really get a chance to suck it all in, wanting to continue on. About 15 kms down the road I pulled up to see if he was ok, and clearly he wasn’t”.
At this point the guys had a breather. Carl was displaying signs of potential concussion and shock, so we administered some basic first aid under Joc’s guidance, and waited for him to show signs of improvement until we decided to continue. As we waited we looked at his expensive, professionally fitted good quality Arai helmet and we were thankful for it. If you have a $10 head, you buy a $10 helmet. Carlos was ok, but the road we were on continued to throw up bulldust. The next person to suffer a fall was Larkey, and he came off very much worse for wear. Joc pulled up in the mid-section of a very large hole, looking to film Carl and Larkey come through. Carl came in and then Larkey came in as well. It appeared that he hit a pretty deep hole and it spat him straight out sideways off the bike. He rolled for a while before coming to a stop face down not moving. It was great that Joc was there on scene as he was able to immediately get to Stevie and help him out. Joc ran over and started questioning Larkey, who was conscious, to determine the possible injuries. We are thankful that, although Steve’s day on the bike was done, he had not received any head injuries. The big issue was a clearly visible shoulder dislocation. There was no loss of blood flow or obvious nerve injury, but Steve’s passion for TTT showed through as he seemed more concerned about having the bike go on the trailer and the potential disruption of our trek than his own health. We were more concerned about his health so we trailered the bike and put him in Ohso’s D-max to head back to Santa Teresa clinic in the first instance although we knew he was going to end up in Alice Hospital.
The rest of the day was pretty. Pretty landscapes with beautiful serrated and eroded ranges surrounding flattish country that was populated with cattle; as we went further the dunes of the north-west Simpson Desert started pushing through and marching into the dry and weather-beaten landscape. As we turned south and pushed deeper towards Old Andado we came across a denuded plain, again bordered by low orange dunes. This was all very pretty, but the other part of the pretty day was that it was all pretty f____d that we had two people hit the deck. Larkey is much appreciated within the team for his ‘get stuff done’ approach, his quiet achiever manner and his sheer determination to take this trip on without a great deal of experience in the outback on the bike. To know that he is in the hospital reassures us that he is getting best care but it is not how we want his trip to end. We want him patched up and back out with us, even if it’s in the car. Carl is still also a worry as he did have a big bang. The morning will tell the end result and we hope that he is ok. He has hit the sack early but will most likely have a restless night. The guys out on the road eventually settled for the night in a swale between two dunes, on the orange sand of the desert, with a hot wind blowing across us and no real cooling. Clouds covered a full-ish moon as we looked for comfort in our swags, thinking of our mates in Alice. Good night all, sleep well.
