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Day's 1 to 6 12/8/2014 to 17/8/2014
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- Day 1 - Wangaratta to Renmark
- Day 2 - Renmark to 30km's out of Port Augusta
- Day 3 - 37kms North of Port Augusta to Mabel Creek
- Day 4 - Mabel Creek- 60kms in to Anne B to Anne Beadell 25kms short of Emu 15-8-2014
- Day 5 -Anne Beadell near Emu to The Unamed Conservation Park 16-8-2014
- Day 6 - UCP to 25kms south of Vokes Corner 17-8-2014
- Day's 7 to 12 - 18/8/2014 to 23/8/2014 >
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As the evening darkened and died in Renmark and we enjoyed the venison and gnocchi, the whispering feet and voice of the Goon Fairy were heard, whispering in our ears and then slipping away quietly to bed as we were tempted by his delights. We did not sucumb and rose early, readying ourselves for another day covering off some bitumen miles. Out of Renmark we went down the Sturt Higway for a little way and then turned off up the Goyder, crossing to our favourite little town, Burra. The Riverland irrigated orchards turned to dry land and then back to prime cropping land in the ranges. We cut across to Crystal Brook which saved us a little time, and we went straight to the Port Augusta Airport to catch up with the Flying Doctors. At the PA Airport they base their Central Operations, controlling operations in South Australia, Northern Territory and parts of New South Wales. After a very informative tour we went back to PA and stocked up for 5 or 6 days out in the scrub. The day was wandering off so we sent out a forward party to scout out a camp which they found at the 135 kms to Pimba marker; off the highway it proved a good site for settling and tea although the wind kept us on our toes. All were happy to have the red dirt floor under our feet.
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A crispy fresh morning greeted the team today when they awoke in Wangaratta. With the temperature needle hovering below zero it was going to be a cold start! We gathered together on the Hume Freeway at the BP and set off, farewelling partners, kids and the TTT dog Pip alike (check out Pip's photo here). Getting away at around 8.30 we went down the highway and across to Shepparton, then up to Echuca. Heading west we stopped at struggle town itself, sunny Cohuna, for a coffee and bite to eat before lunch at Swan Hill. The day was getting away so we pushed on to Mildura for a rendezvous at the Mildura Fire Station with Rob McNally who had the TTT clothing for us from Rohman. Our plan was to get to Renmark and as the sun was getting low we pressed on and arrived in Renmark around 7.00pm SA time. Making allowances for the SA language difference we were able to sort out a couple of cabins at the very nice Big 4 Renmark Riverfront Holiday Park, who kindly gave us a discount on behalf of the Flying Doctors. Total kilometres covered for today was around 680, with guys on the bikes a bit tired when they gpot off, but gee'd up by being on the Trak. Tomorrow we will head out early again for a date at the Flying Doctor's Port Augusta base before a big shop-up before heading out into the scrub. We are Ready and Raring to Go!The day before lift-off and we are ready to go. It all came together today with final preparations involving purchasing of supplies, packing up the Chuckwagon and the D-Max Ute and making sure that everything fits in. Due to a fantastic effort on the trailer from The Mechanical Genius and his sidekick the trailer looks like being a fantastic new addition to the team. The support we have received from G & S Chassis and a great group of local Wangaratta businesses including Wangaratta Caravans, Exact Sheetmetal, Lloyd's Trailers, Northeast Fasteners, Wurth Australia, Sign Effects Wangaratta, Batten's Auto Electrical, Premier Panels, Cafe' Martini's, Wangaratta Bearings, Guests 4WD Service Centre, Wangaratta Steel Supplies and Ullrich Aluminium of Albury has menat that we now have equipment that is surely over and above what the requirements of the toughest road in Australia will place on us in the coming days. The plan is to meet tonight for the last supper, then hit the road at 0730 hours to head for our firsts stop, Renmark South Australia.
More kilometres to kill, but we are ready. Tuesday October 15th 2013 was our day of parting and finishing this trek. A happy/sad mood was present as we loaded up bikes, bags, memories and thoughts into our own little spaces and places, separating what was going where and with who. At this point some were going to Wang, some to Melbourne with a stop in Charlton and one was staying here at his Mildura home. We packed, fueled and said 'see ya next year', and 'all the best'. Special thoughts and best wishes went with Scotty for his up-coming wedding to Lacie. Leaving Mildura at 0930, Wang got home around 5.00pm. Charlton was in our sights at 12.30, and we got to the centre of Melbourne at 4.00pm. Last one home was Ferg who had to take the train back to Warrnambool from Melbourne; he got home at about 10.15. Everyone home safe and sound. Our reflections over the last day or so were similar; what a fantastic trek. We had well-made plans and preparations, but they went out the door almost from day 1. However, even when it looked bleak and we thought we would not get to Maralinga at all, we were able to persevere, adapt and overcome. Considerations for the future are that this is the Chuck Wagon's last trek. We have asked much of the wagon over the years, probably too much and certainly this year way too much. Planning on 'New Chuck' was starting already. To conclude, TTT4 - Ground Zero has been our hardest and best trek so far. The amount of stuff that happened, the places we went, the things we saw could not be repeated. We hope that this website shares that experience with you, but alos that it inspires you to chase your dreams. You can sit around and think and talk about things or get out and do them. We are doing them, and t The sands of time for me are running low... Today we had to do 666 kilometres to get from Parachilna to Mildura. And it would be a devil of a day for a couple of the team. At Maralinga we had learnt of the aboriginal’s kurdaitcha man. To put it in white man terms, he is man who hands out the punishment according to traditional values and culture. He wears emu feather boots so he can sneak around and do things without anyone hearing him or tracking him. Well it would appear that he sneaked into the Parachilna Prairie Hotel and touched two of our guys; neither of who felt like eating much for most of the morning. There were also some very strange noises early in the morning, like a liquid barking sound. Of course they claimed that they had only been doing diplomatic and economic work at the Pub, drinking with the German girls that were working there. Anyway, the devil followed them around for a bit during the morning. After awards to Rohan for putting the KTM on the trailer the day before and for Carl for his spectacular gastro-enteritical efforts, we packed and dashed early, dodging the assorted kangaroos, emus, sheep and cattle on or near the road, heading down the B83 Barndioota Road to Hawker. This was the closest town that had a tyre repair joint and both Rohan and Hooch were able to get their respective vehicles fixed; great for Rohan as it got him off the trailer. We had breaky at the Hawker General Store, where the chef practiced devil looks and grunts on us, obviously not happy that he had to knock up ten breakfasts on an otherwise empty morning. We kept running hurry up offence during the day, splashing and dashing the fuel stops and using reserve tanks on the D-Max. We picked up an old route and went through Orroroo and Peterborough, again landing at old mate Burra. People in the street are now starting to say g’day to us and call us by name!...”it’s those devil’s the TTT boys again!”. Not mucking about we continued on towards the Riverland and Renmark, where we again had a break with some fuel for the bikes. As we ground on the ipod kept the tunes up and old mate Iron Maiden (The Number of the Beast) came on. One of our favourite songs goes ‘…the sands of time for me are running low’ and that is how we were starting to feel as we neared our destination and the end of the trip. It has been a fantastic trip full of challenges, twists and turns. On we went, stopping at Renmark for final food and fuel and a bit of cleaning up, turfing out some fruit to avoid fruit fly issues and some of our un-needed containers. At this point we learnt of one of our closest calls of the whole trip. Brocky related to us that just before Renmark a roo came out of nowhere into his path. He had no options to move anywhere due to an oncoming truck and being at highway speed, with the roo just popping out. Some luck came his and our way as the roo got across him and he only went over its tail. We hoped that the roo has a sore one now! At Mildura we first went to the fire station to drop Robin McNally’s stuff off. He had done a fantastic job on his new bike, going anywhere anyone else did. Then we finished at Hotel Mildura, hitting the showers and refreshments. It didn’t finish there however…we had a couple more presentations to make. The final premiership cup was presented to Rohan for his sterling effort over the course of the morning…that’s early morning. Joel picked up the Outback Spectacular hat award for his efforts in diplomatic relationships. Then before tea we rounded it off with the sticker competition (see here), and some final words. We had tea and finished the night all absolutely knackered. On to the edge of the Flinders Ranges We had a ripping night at the William Creek Hotel as you would expect from this fine establishment. The French bartender was an interesting guy; he has been travelling the world for 10 years, returning home every so often. He had been in Tasmania when we saw an ad on gumtree for the job in William Creek. He was going to Cairns for a couple of months on Tuesday...to wash the dust out of his system! We also met Nicholas and Berta from Switzerland, recently retired and in Australia for the 6th time, and John and Carole, an English couple travelling to meet their daughter in Sydney. We got talking to them about what we had been doing and Carole shared with us her family link with Maralinga; her uncle, William Cook, had been a scientist working on the project. He lived in Adelaide with his wife but spent most of his time at Maralinga. The family knew little of what he did, due to the secrecy of his work which he never talked about. They were gracious enough to allow us to interview them for the movie There was also a group of indigenous people having tea at the pub and staying at the camping ground where we were. They were in the area working on identifying aboriginal heritage and cultural sites. Peter Watts was in this group and he has some musical talent. Hector gave him a run on the bagpipes and he got a more than adequate sound out of them. The next morning Peter shared with us there work on the renaming of Lake Eyre with a traditional aboriginal name. Our day got off to a slow start as Roh-man had a flat back tyre on the KTM. It was a persistent bugger; he changed the tube but unknowingly pinched it when he was putting it back in. So the tube came out again for a patch and then went back in. The poor bugger had to do this himself as we all buggered off inside to watch the start of the Bathurst car race. Sadly after we got going he stopped to check it 5 kilometres down the road and it was going flat again. He put a can of tyre seal into it but it was still flat on the bottom so the KTM went on to the trailer. This wasn’t bad for him in some ways; it was a coolish day but there was a very strong side wind, making riding and even driving difficult. We stopped at the Strangways Springs for a walk around these interesting phenomena and some associated building ruins. It was getting on to 12.00noon so we had some lunch; literally sandwiches as the wind was kicking up a lot of gritty dust. We continued on down the Oodnadatta Track that we were now travelling on, through relatively bare country. There was a bit to look at though as the old Ghan railway once went this way and there are lots of relics of this history along the road side. We also brushed around the bottom of Lake Eyre South, all salt and dust, no water. At this point in time we had an emergency call that needed urgent attention. Not sure what Carl had eaten the night before but he had an urgent call to stop on the bike but had no paper; not even enough for him to practice his one-sheet bum-wiping routine. The gradually more urgent calls on the radio for help were answered by Hooch and Hector who ran out a roll for him. At 3.15 we got to Marree for a pie and an ice cream and leg stretch. Back on the bikes and in the cars to push for Lyndhurst. Our plan was to stop here for some more bike tubes and to maybe catch the end of the car race. The day was running late though so we missed what was apparently a great finish as Mark Winterbottom’s Ford took the honours and Big Scotty scooped the cash in our Bathurst Lotto competition. We continued on eventually arriving at our destination for the evening, Parachilna and the Prairie Hotel. Obviously once a thriving town when the train ran through, the place is struggling now, although the pub is a ripper with excellent an excellent menu of Australian bush meats such as emu, camel and kangaroo. We stayed at the community caravan park for $10 a head, old mate the local who managed the palce was happy for us to be there and was on for a chat. We had another crack at Rohan's back wheel. He had bought some tubes at the pub in Lyndhurst and after much work we gotone in but it still woldn't pump up. At the puWe met John and Carole the English couple again, and John had a go at the road kill mixed grill which they enjoyed, as did several of our team. Many of us grabbed an early night as the night before was catching up along with the pace and the heavy wind of the day. Of course a couple of the team members stayed on at the pub just to make sure that the place was safe and to boost the local economy. Good work lads! Back on the highways again. A quick recap. Nine days ago we gathered and headed to Ned’s Corner in the far north-east corner of Victoria. We crossed over into South Australia and started striking trouble with the chuck wagon; major repairs were effected in Burra. We continued on and up to Coober Pedy; more repairs to the small trailer and stuff stolen. Out onto the Anne Beadell Highway and major trouble. A brutal road broke a trailer spring, disabling the chuck wagon. We sent a team back to Coober for parts, and then decided to leave the wagon here and strike on to Maralinga with a light load; enough food and water for three days. We would return, rebuild the wagon and then return by Coober Pedy instead of by the coast as originally planned. Once at Maralinga we had the experience of a lifetime, and changed our plans again. Expert local knowledge gave us an easier but longer path back to the wagon; to the east and north rather than back the way we had come. We took it, and completed a circle of the Anne Beadell, down the Emu Road to Maralinga, across the Nowa Road to the Dingo Flat Gate, then back around the Tallaringa Conservation Park on the dog fence track, returning along the Anne Beadell to the trailer four days later. Now our last challenge; get the chuck wagon back to Coober Pedy. Re-built the night before, alterations effected to the treg hitch, we prepared to leave our home campsite on the track. A quick awards session, with hector getting the Outback Spectacular Hat for his bagpipe playing up the Maralinga Water Tower, and the Premiership Cup being dedicated in absence to our families, friends and supporters back home who without their love and support we would not even be thinking about this boys own adventure. The D-Max left at 9.30 pulling the chuck wagon with the rest of the team following a bit later. It took us an hour and a quarter to cover the 30 kilometres to the dog fence. A quick check, no problems, keep going. We rolled on and happily with no more dramas or breakages we got into Coober Pedy at about 1.30pm. Planning on the roll, we quickly re-fuelled and re-stocked, and rolled on to William Creek. Out through big sky country with few trees or even shrubs we continued on. The team has a sense of going home now, mission accomplished. We have ridden and driven the hardest part of the Anne Beadell Highway not once, not twice but three times…and we have the movie to prove it. We arrived at William Creek at about 5.00pm and set up camp at the camping ground, had a beer and relaxed; that’s what it’s all about Joel! The circle is complete, we get back to home. The circle is complete. Today we travelled back to the east and then north, with a small run into the west and the dying sun. Although happy to be leaving Maralinga and heading home, we felt that we were leaving much behind. Much more to see, much more to hear…but the trak must be trekked and the trailer picked up. Preparations were quick as much work had been done the night before. Some Maralinga Mementos were presented to the boys and then farewells said to Robin as he gave us a quick tour of the old hospital which is his home. The building is largely intact from the 50’s and 60’s and contains some amazing photos and artefacts. We travelled away from this village of amazing and yet sad history, thinking of the lives impacted and curtailed for the avancement of the science of war. We left the Maralinga area at Nawa Junction and headed off down a road that was only to be found on one of our number of paper and electronic maps. We were travelling in the Great Victorian Desert, a place of varying but magnificent landscapes. Initially we travelled through the swales of the dunes that run east-west, with a lot of trees and a great display of flowers. The track made for easy rolling, although it had the bad habit of taking a little unforeseen dogleg every now and then; being sandy, several of the riders went straight when they were supposed to go left. We came out of the sand dunes and into more savannah-like country. We had another breakage, with the roof rack on the Pajero getting tired and drooping down to rest on the roof. Running repairs were made and we continued. We had left the Maralinga grounds at 9.30 and we got to our lunch spot, the Dingo Flat Gate in the dog fence at about 1.45pm, a very solid stint of demanding driving and riding. Lunch was the left-over rissoles and sausages that we had; no bread as this had run out. There were odd bits of fruit and muesli bars. The last banana was auctioned to raise money for the flying doctors; Joel paid $10 for this. A tough haggle then followed for the last remaining sausage; Garry forked out $11.50, but promptly on-sold half to Rohan for $6.00. Nothing like and old clearing sale man to make a bargain. At this spot we picked up the Dingo fence and ran north, then east and then north again, making faster time. The countryside ranged, with sand, stone and also gibber in and around Igy Corner. We named this road the dingo fence road of death; dead animals abounded. Camel carcasses abounded and in the traps set regularly along the fence there were dingos, foxes and even a feral cat (all humanely passed away of course, no animals are harmed by TTT). An old worker’s accommodation trailer was found by Joel and some nice salt lakes were also sighted. The last of our convoy, the D-Max, pulled into the intersection of the Dingo Fence and the Anne Beadell at 6.30 pm. Ahead of us was the last 30 kilometres of our 383 kilometre total for the day. That last 30 was the hardest of the day and took the cars an hour. The bikes skipped ahead and found the chuck wagon, which we had left alongside the track four days previously, with most of our stuff locked inside, was still there, intact, unharmed and it even looked as if no one had gone past in this time. The bike boys opened it up got out the chairs and re-started our fire of previous days. It was just like being home again. After the cars arrived, it was on; we split into teams, with tea cooked (Kerry’s ripper lamb curry with even more rice), the axle , springs and wheels put back in chuck, swags spread out and equipment sorted. Once all done, well after dark, we sat around and looked tiredly at each other. Again a monster day, again the TTT team pulled through. Tomorrow we leave the Anne Beadell behind with a last run back into Coober Pedy…would it bite us again? Maralinga – Fields of Thunder. Firstly a note of recognition and thanks to Robin Mathews, the Maralinga Caretaker and also the Maralinga Tjarutja people for the opportunity to stay in their beautiful country and see the significant sights of Maralinga and hear Robin’s amazing historical knowledge. The aboriginal word ‘Maralinga’means Fields of Thunder. In the 1950’s there was thunder across the land that we now look back on as unnecessary but at the time was deemed as so important as to warrant millions of dollars, incredible secrecy, and directly and indirectly affect thousands of people’s lives. After a morning of the obligatory bacon and eggs and a bit of a look around, award presentations were held. Ferg took out both awards with his effort to get the news of our travels out; the only places to get phone coverage in Maralinga are at the old fountain near the pool and on top of the water tower/ In fact he is on top of the tower posting as this is written. We started our tour with Robin. He has been the caretaker at Maralinga for 5 years with his wife of 30 years Della. We jumped into the cars and followed Robin around. He explained that prior to the arrival of the atomic age there was only the nomadic indigenous using this country. It had been explored by Giles and Tietkens tried to find water to establish a grazing lese but he was unsuccessful. First stop was the dam. The water system for Maralinga is very reliable. Water that runs off the parking area at the airport goes into the holding dam and is then pumped up into tanks. The annual rainfall is about 12 inches, but it can be inconsistent; lots or nothing. When we say tanks, the tanks are big. When full the place is self-sufficient for four years. Next stop the airport. To put things into perspective, first consider that the airstrip is the only one in the southern hemisphere that is big enough to land the space shuttle on. It is 2.4 kilometres long. The landing pads have 5 metres thick concrete. Over 8000 people worked at Maralinga over its years of operation, many coming from overseas and flying into the base. The airport terminal was typical of the buildings here of Maralinga, although only a few remain. Pre-fabricated in England, as everything here was, they are made of aluminium, with special ventilation systems (no air-conditioning). ll power is from generators. From here we went out into the forward area where we visited a number of the sites where atomic bombs were set off. Seven in total were set off, mainly in September and October due to friendly wind directions. Four went in 1956 and three in 1957. Another was set up to go but was stopped by an international treaty agreement signed by Britain. The site are named mainly after Papua New Guinea sites of note or battlefields such as Taranaki, Wewak and Marcoo. Sme of the ombs were on towers, some on the ground, one dropped and some suspended bu ballons. Kittes and Vixen Tests. Vixen trial. The Vixen A trials were conducted at the Wewak and TM sites. In the Vixen B trials, a nuclear bomb was placed on a heavy, steel structure known as a ‘featherbed’. The bomb was detonated in a manner which prevented a nuclear explosion, but the heat and power of the chemical explosion hurled molten uranium andplutonium almost a kilometre into the air. In the years 1960 – 63, fifteen Vixen B trials were conducted at Taranaki, dispersing 22 kg of plutonium and a similar amount of uranium far and wide. Three of the trials were calibration rounds with cores of uranium only. To put it mildly, the British didn’t do a lot to clean up there mess, dumping stuff in pits and ploughing the plutonium contaminated ground up. Robin explained that subsequent projects to clean the site were more successful including a major project conducted by Theiss to clean up pits and buried contaminated soil properly and another project involving insitu-vitrification, which is applying huge amounts of electricity to soil and waste and turning it to glass. We visited the largest burial trench which was excavated at Taranaki. When dug it measured 205m long by 140m wide by 15m deep. 8000 people who worked there during the tests were researched in 1987; over 6000 died of cancer. Other highlights of this interesting day was an attempt at a well dug in 1867 (by enforced labour by Tietkins, the man the plain was named after), the sheer size of the complex (over 240 kilometres of sealed roads) and a growing awareness of just how big and how secret this project was. Once our tour finished we spent time cleaning bikes and equipment, setting up for our next day and a little bit of washing. We were traveling back to the Anne Beadell to pick up the chuck wagon. We would complete a circle by driving along a road that Robin had showed us to pick up the dog fence to the east of where the trailer was. With over 380 kilometres to travel the next day we eased into the evening and the dark of night and the beautiful stars. We listened to Robin’s fantastic stories of his life and life at Maralinga, and we shared with him our lovely roast diner prepared by Hooch. The Malt Fairy also made an appearance, and as darkness fell Hector made his way to the top of the water tower for some bagpipe music which capped off a truly amazing day. So we have got Emu Fields, the first Australian mainland atomic test site. A fair campground (fair for us at the moment is provision of a table and chairs and space to park, and some fire wood). A quiet night as everyone is tired from the heat of the last two days and the dramas with the trailers and Coober Pedy. We break camp after a quick breakfast, eager to press on and get this last 200 kilometres covered before it gets too hot; on Sunday the prediction was that this day would be the hottest of the lot. During the previous two nights, the blustery north wind had dropped after dark, but this night it stayed all night. A quick award ceremony was held as we had missed the day before; Hector and Hooch got the Premiership Cup for their mercy dash back to Coober Pedy and the chuck wagon trailer got the Outback Spectacular Hat award for its efforts to disrupt us, culminating in the broken spring. First order of business was a quick blast up the airport at Emu. Built adjacent a large clay pan, the runs up and down were fun. Next stop was the site of the village at Emu Junction. Nothing remains except for the foundations of the huts and the mainly temporary buildings for this site. After this brief look at the history of the site we hit the track, which again, as is our want, meant ignoring a ‘stop – no entry’ sign (we did have a permit though). The track was a change from the Anne Beadell in that old mate corrugation was gone, however his pal sand turned up for the day. Sand doesn’t slow the cars like the corrugations do but it makes it difficult for the bikes, with much more physical effort required to manoeuvre and stay upright. The cars also required a lot of concentration to drive due to the narrowness and twisty nature of the track. However, the guys all said later that the issue was the heat. The heat was building really fast, and aided by very strong winds was drying us to a crisp. We bashed away at the dunes and sand, and got to Observatory Hill for a look around. On from there to a claypan with unique geography for lunch. This was at about 12 O’clock. Earlier in the day in jest it was suggested that the maximum temperature today would be 48 degrees. Out on the claypan the external temperature gauge on the Pajero said…48 degrees. Rohan took a bit of a blast around the pan on the KTM and later related that it was like having a hair blow dryer turned on flat out in your face. We still had a fair way to go to get to Maralinga. The welfare of the riders became paramount with regular stops for water and hydrate. The track conditions improved after our stop at Lean Beadell’s tree, where the great man had cut a blaze and nailed up a marker. At this point we were half way; according to Len we had covered 60 miles from Emu, and we had 60 miles to go. The word was – drink lots and push on. As the track had improved we reached a higher average speed, and so we were reaching our destination quicker. As we got closer to Maralinga there was more infrastructure, and then we found the paths were laid with gold; which for us meant that the roads within the restricted area were sealed! To top this off the wind swung around to the southwest, and cooled…down to about 35 degrees. That didn’t matter, it was cooler than the upper 40’s that we had experienced. Hooch got on the wireless and made contact with our host at Maralinga, Robin Mathews. Robin has turned out to be a ripper bloke and a welcoming host. He also took great delight in letting us know that the temperature that day at Maralinga had reached 46.7 degrees. We pulled into the village at around 4.30 and were welcomed with air conditioned dongas, showers, kitchens and a ‘glad to see you blokes’ smile. Better still, Robin helped us with our forward planning; he knew a quicker way back to the chuck wagon, which we still had to retrieve from the Anne Beadell Highway. Instead of going back up to Emu and along the Beadell, there was a little used but good condition road that would take us east to the dog fence, then north along the fence and back west along the highway maybe 30 kilometres to the chuck wagon. This was bigger gold than the sealed asphalt roads! We unpacked, cleaned up and discussed a few days that have probably seen us get through the toughest conditions faced by any off road, off the beaten track traveller in Australia. First an uncompromisingly tough track with the worst corrugations in the country for two days, including a double stint for Hector and Hooch, and a significant mechanical issue with a key support unit, all in high 30 degree temperature. Then a physically difficult track in mid to high 40 degree heat and wind. As a team we worked well together, supporting each other and pitching in to complete difficult jobs. Decisions were made with group consultation; decisions that could have meant extreme difficulty for us if we got them wrong. In much of what we do as Trek The Trak we look back at explorers of older days and the difficulty that they had in these areas. While not in any way comparing ourselves to them with the technology and knowledge that we have, we dip our lids even further to them for what they did with what they had. We as a civilisation now could not achieve the same. But in a significant way we have seen this hardship, and we have beaten it, and we are proud of what we have done. And we are only half way through the trek! Further on into the evening as we reflected we grew to look forward to the day ahead. We had seen enough already to know that we were in for a very special day with a tour of the area around Maralinga. As we ate Linda’s curried sausages we contemplated this and readied ourselves for a good night’s sleep and a day to remember – again – the very next day. As we ate this home-cooked meal thought of all our family and friends who support us in doing this and make up for us being away; a tiny sliver of phone coverage exists here at the fountain near the old swimming pool; we made good use of that to keep in touch and say thank-you. |
AuthorThe Wordsmith writes that its a team effort; without the team there would be nothing to write. Archives
August 2014
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