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Day 16 - 15kms North of Old Andado to Dalhousie Springs - Tue 27 Oct 2015
So the night was spent in different ways by different members of the team. Larkey was in the air-conditioned Alice Springs Hospital being tended to by attractive young Doctors and Nurses. Brock, Brad and OHSO were swanning about in air-conditioned 41/2 star comfort at the Casino, having beer served up by attractive young barmaids. All of them probably had a nice warm shower with soap and shampoo. We were on the side of the Old Andado Track, with temperatures over 30 degrees all night, and a hot, blustery wind that rustled our swags and made it very uncomfortable. For cleaning we wiped our bums and faces with baby wipes (not the same wipe) and brushed our teeth in a cup of water. We did have Cynthia’s lamb burgers for tea, with pasta and vegies, and the goon fairy made a special appearance for Eddie on his first night out camping with us. Then the sun came up at 5.15am and started grilling us again. And we were happy to know that the guys in comfort in Alice were spewing that they weren’t with us. We try hard to keep the team together and now we were spread over a couple of hundred kilometres.
The bush crew had been in touch a couple of times with the city crew on the sat phone and knew that Larkey was in good hands in the hospital and would most likely have his shoulder relocated, strapped up and would be back with us in the next day or so. We would not be moving on too far without him. With Brock, Brad and OHSO on scene, the incident was under control. The crew out on the Old Andado track decided to head down to the Mt Dare pub and hang there until they knew the other crew were on the road and then they would move on to all come together at Dalhousie Springs. We knew that a friend of the Stibilj family from Merton days, Tony Scott, was running the pub so we would be very welcome there. The other side of things to consider also was that old mate Roh-man was on the second day of his run up from Mildura to meet us at Dalhousie, so if the plan all came together we would be laughing and set for the Simpson.
The bush crew had a mixed morning, finding a nugget of gold in the bush at Old Andado but struggling with a flatting rear tyre on Joc’s bike. Carl had presented Joc with the Anything But Average award that morning; his efforts in turning up this year after last year, helping wounded guys the previous day, holding his own machine up after brake failure and just generally providing great entertainment for everyone made him a worthy winner. As for his flat tyre, it turns out that the small nut that screws down on the valve to the rim had been done up tight. When Joc lights it up in the dirt, spinning the tyre, he can get movement of the tyre on the rim which pulls the tube. If the valve is locked in place, especially under low pressure on dirt, it can pull the valve out of the tube. Anyway, Joc impressed us when he changed a rear tyre without Brad’s help. He did have Rob and Ferg helping, along with the rest of the road crew, which just about made up for Brad.
The nugget we found at Old Andado was the summer caretaker, Cobby Bob. When we turned up, Bob came out and welcomed us. It’s hard to describe his appearance here (look at the photos), but he was the epitome of a ‘bushie’. Now in his early sixties, Bob has had a life growing up and working in the bush, interspersed with time working on fishing boats in Queensland. Dressed for the heat in a pair of shorts and a fair dinkum bushman’s hat, Bob entertained us with stories of his life as a caretaker, and the history of Old Andado. This original homestead had been occupied for many years by Mac and Molly Clark. Mac passed away leaving Molly to manage the house. She made it open to any travellers or passer-by who wished to drop in on their way by on this isolated track to camp for the night, have a shower and be entertained by Molly. A charitable trust now manages the property, installing caretakers to maintain the property and greet travellers, helping them out and sharing with them some of the history of the property. It is a strong recommendation of the TTT crew that you try and get by this place one day; if you catch Bob then it will be even better.
For the city crew they spent the night in 41/2 star luxury. Larkey got let out of hospital around 8.30pm, having received very thorough and professional treatment. His trip back to Alice with Ohso had helped the situation; some of the bumps along the way helped drop his shoulder back into place. They had dropped into Santa Teresa for initial assessment where the word was just go straight to Alice. Brock and Brad had got the word on the sat phone that the boys were coming back so they booked an extra room at the palace that they were staying in and whipped around to the hospital letting them know that Larkey was coming in. After getting sorted out they retired for a good sleep as they faced a big day the next day. Alice to Dalhousie would be just over 500 kilometres in a day (506.2 roughly on the OH-SO Big-Max speedometer).
Back to the bush crew. After leaving Old Andado and stuffing around with Joc’s bike tyre we got to Mt. Dare just on lunch time. Carl had gone ahead as he still wasn’t top of his game after the head knock the previous day. He reported that his reactions weren’t 100% and he had a fairly sore head. Mt. Dare Pub host Tony served us up some pies and pasties as well as some nice cold Coopers beers. We chopped out a couple of hours with photography, reading, chatting, napping; Carl and Eddie caught up with Tony from days gone by and also recent times in Mt. Dare and we generally tried to keep cool. Just like yesterday the temp was above 40 and nothing was moving about too much.
The plan was all coming together. From Mt Dare we rang Old Andado and found that the city boys were up there having a cuppa, putting them about 130 kilometres behind us. No dramas in the bulldust for them. Unbeknown to us Rohan had also ducked past the pub while we were there, popping up to the NT/SA border for a look. He had covered nearly 2000 kilometres in 2 days to meet up with us. The bush crew headed down to Old Andado, struggling across a pretty dodgy road from Blood Creek into Dalhousie Springs. Dalhousie Springs is as the name implies a spring that fills a quite large water hole with water that is around 38 degrees; just like a bath. The water was soothing, washing our bodies and our clothes. Just what we needed after a couple of days chasing around in 40 degrees. The bush riders got there the same time as Rohan, with the Troopy and the Max not far behind. Around 6.00pm Brock and Brad pulled in, then the Big Max came in on the last remaining light with OHSO and Larkie.
Our plan had worked, we had got the band back together, yet again. Sixteen days ago we had come together in Perth to start this business. We have got past halfway before we were torn asunder by bloody bulldust. We also had some extra players come in to join the team, one old, some new but all known to us. Yet again we sat in the dirt of the outback, in the car park of the Dalhousie Springs campsite, our swags spread about, a full moon risen above our heads, a good fairy flitting about, and threads and streams of conversation flowing across our group which was now thirteen strong. Again we form, but we skip the storm. We know we can perform.
So the night was spent in different ways by different members of the team. Larkey was in the air-conditioned Alice Springs Hospital being tended to by attractive young Doctors and Nurses. Brock, Brad and OHSO were swanning about in air-conditioned 41/2 star comfort at the Casino, having beer served up by attractive young barmaids. All of them probably had a nice warm shower with soap and shampoo. We were on the side of the Old Andado Track, with temperatures over 30 degrees all night, and a hot, blustery wind that rustled our swags and made it very uncomfortable. For cleaning we wiped our bums and faces with baby wipes (not the same wipe) and brushed our teeth in a cup of water. We did have Cynthia’s lamb burgers for tea, with pasta and vegies, and the goon fairy made a special appearance for Eddie on his first night out camping with us. Then the sun came up at 5.15am and started grilling us again. And we were happy to know that the guys in comfort in Alice were spewing that they weren’t with us. We try hard to keep the team together and now we were spread over a couple of hundred kilometres.
The bush crew had been in touch a couple of times with the city crew on the sat phone and knew that Larkey was in good hands in the hospital and would most likely have his shoulder relocated, strapped up and would be back with us in the next day or so. We would not be moving on too far without him. With Brock, Brad and OHSO on scene, the incident was under control. The crew out on the Old Andado track decided to head down to the Mt Dare pub and hang there until they knew the other crew were on the road and then they would move on to all come together at Dalhousie Springs. We knew that a friend of the Stibilj family from Merton days, Tony Scott, was running the pub so we would be very welcome there. The other side of things to consider also was that old mate Roh-man was on the second day of his run up from Mildura to meet us at Dalhousie, so if the plan all came together we would be laughing and set for the Simpson.
The bush crew had a mixed morning, finding a nugget of gold in the bush at Old Andado but struggling with a flatting rear tyre on Joc’s bike. Carl had presented Joc with the Anything But Average award that morning; his efforts in turning up this year after last year, helping wounded guys the previous day, holding his own machine up after brake failure and just generally providing great entertainment for everyone made him a worthy winner. As for his flat tyre, it turns out that the small nut that screws down on the valve to the rim had been done up tight. When Joc lights it up in the dirt, spinning the tyre, he can get movement of the tyre on the rim which pulls the tube. If the valve is locked in place, especially under low pressure on dirt, it can pull the valve out of the tube. Anyway, Joc impressed us when he changed a rear tyre without Brad’s help. He did have Rob and Ferg helping, along with the rest of the road crew, which just about made up for Brad.
The nugget we found at Old Andado was the summer caretaker, Cobby Bob. When we turned up, Bob came out and welcomed us. It’s hard to describe his appearance here (look at the photos), but he was the epitome of a ‘bushie’. Now in his early sixties, Bob has had a life growing up and working in the bush, interspersed with time working on fishing boats in Queensland. Dressed for the heat in a pair of shorts and a fair dinkum bushman’s hat, Bob entertained us with stories of his life as a caretaker, and the history of Old Andado. This original homestead had been occupied for many years by Mac and Molly Clark. Mac passed away leaving Molly to manage the house. She made it open to any travellers or passer-by who wished to drop in on their way by on this isolated track to camp for the night, have a shower and be entertained by Molly. A charitable trust now manages the property, installing caretakers to maintain the property and greet travellers, helping them out and sharing with them some of the history of the property. It is a strong recommendation of the TTT crew that you try and get by this place one day; if you catch Bob then it will be even better.
For the city crew they spent the night in 41/2 star luxury. Larkey got let out of hospital around 8.30pm, having received very thorough and professional treatment. His trip back to Alice with Ohso had helped the situation; some of the bumps along the way helped drop his shoulder back into place. They had dropped into Santa Teresa for initial assessment where the word was just go straight to Alice. Brock and Brad had got the word on the sat phone that the boys were coming back so they booked an extra room at the palace that they were staying in and whipped around to the hospital letting them know that Larkey was coming in. After getting sorted out they retired for a good sleep as they faced a big day the next day. Alice to Dalhousie would be just over 500 kilometres in a day (506.2 roughly on the OH-SO Big-Max speedometer).
Back to the bush crew. After leaving Old Andado and stuffing around with Joc’s bike tyre we got to Mt. Dare just on lunch time. Carl had gone ahead as he still wasn’t top of his game after the head knock the previous day. He reported that his reactions weren’t 100% and he had a fairly sore head. Mt. Dare Pub host Tony served us up some pies and pasties as well as some nice cold Coopers beers. We chopped out a couple of hours with photography, reading, chatting, napping; Carl and Eddie caught up with Tony from days gone by and also recent times in Mt. Dare and we generally tried to keep cool. Just like yesterday the temp was above 40 and nothing was moving about too much.
The plan was all coming together. From Mt Dare we rang Old Andado and found that the city boys were up there having a cuppa, putting them about 130 kilometres behind us. No dramas in the bulldust for them. Unbeknown to us Rohan had also ducked past the pub while we were there, popping up to the NT/SA border for a look. He had covered nearly 2000 kilometres in 2 days to meet up with us. The bush crew headed down to Old Andado, struggling across a pretty dodgy road from Blood Creek into Dalhousie Springs. Dalhousie Springs is as the name implies a spring that fills a quite large water hole with water that is around 38 degrees; just like a bath. The water was soothing, washing our bodies and our clothes. Just what we needed after a couple of days chasing around in 40 degrees. The bush riders got there the same time as Rohan, with the Troopy and the Max not far behind. Around 6.00pm Brock and Brad pulled in, then the Big Max came in on the last remaining light with OHSO and Larkie.
Our plan had worked, we had got the band back together, yet again. Sixteen days ago we had come together in Perth to start this business. We have got past halfway before we were torn asunder by bloody bulldust. We also had some extra players come in to join the team, one old, some new but all known to us. Yet again we sat in the dirt of the outback, in the car park of the Dalhousie Springs campsite, our swags spread about, a full moon risen above our heads, a good fairy flitting about, and threads and streams of conversation flowing across our group which was now thirteen strong. Again we form, but we skip the storm. We know we can perform.