Debrief

Neil is back at work, Tom is riding his bike back to QLD then is off to Sth America. Still have some donations coming in, however the total at this point raised is $32,233.52. With Tom working for BHP Billiton, the matched giving scheme will match this total, plus time and expenses, up to a value of $50k, so the final total raised for the RFDS should be in the order of $80,000+

Day 59 - Perth

Our last day dawned with Neil making his way into Bunbury in the early morning to meet Tom, who was finally back in the saddle. Since it was the first time we had ridden together since Mt Isa (!) we promptly got split up going round the first roundabout we came to... some things never change.
We eventually made it to the rendevouz point where we met up with Pat, who when he combines his powers with that of his KTM950Adventure becomes...Pumpkinzilla.

L to R: P-Zilla, Mang, Tyso

P-Zilla formed our advance guard, up the highway to Mandurah and on to the bottom of the freeway to Perth, where we pulled in and met up with a couple of the Barrick guys who had come out to escort us in to the RFDS base at Jandakot airport.
We headed in with our little convoy, and on arrival met with the RFDS base staff, Dave from Barrick, and Peter from Nexus. Dave was present to hand over the latest in a long series of cheque's from Barrick to the RFDS - this one was for $40,000! Fortunately the 'Barrick' RFDS plane was in that day too, so we got some great snaps for Barrick's publicity... and so we should too - we went to all of the Barrick sites on mainland Australia, and were welcomed warmly at all of them.
Between all of the Barrick sites we collected well over $10,000, all donated by the employees on site for the benefit of the RFDS in their state.... we take off our helmets to you.

All in all a great way to finish the ride. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen!

Cheers,

Neil and Tom

Days 55-58 Albany, Pemberton, Augusta, Marg Riv

The next few days were rancho relaxo for the DFTD team - we meandered our way through the SW doing the tourist thing to kill time before we needed to head into Perth on the Thursday. Neil headed down to Augusta, whilst Tom headed into Perth and collected his bike from the Nexus haulage yard. Peter from Nexus had freighted the Dakar down from Darwin free of charge, so Tom rode it out to Bunbury in preparation for the ride in. The following pics are a super summary of the touristy bits.

Stirling Range NP

Next stop Antarctica..... I wonder if I can get the bike there???

10,000km's of scrub, saltbush and spinafex.... then this.

.......
More trees....
Nice day at Prevelly

Day 54 - Kal-Flying Fox

We left Kal the next morning after breakfast with the lads we had been staying with in the KB flat. Mang was a few k's ahead as we headed West for Coolgardie. As Neil entered Coolgardie he saw a set of flashing lights, two policemen, one slightly dented Hyundai Tuscon City, and Mango, looking a bit sheepish while a ticket was getting written out.

He slowed down to get a good look, but decided against stopping. The plan instead was to do the good bloke thing and pull up 200m down the road, and take a photo zoomed into the rearview mirror, to preserve the moment for posterity.
Luckily for Mango he had both camera's in the car.....

Meanwhile, Mango's luck took a turn for the better. Noticing the BMW riding past, he asked if Mango was travelling with someone. From this he learnt the whole story about the ride, at which point the copper told his mate to stop writing the ticket - there was no way he was going to ticket someone fundraising for the RFDS. For that he gets our top bloke of the day award, and Mango gets away without a ticket. Cheers!

Heading West we saw heaps of groups of bikes, including two sets of three bikies all being tailed at a distance of 10m or so by highway patrol. We must have seen over 100 bikes and about 7 cop cars. Turns out most of the bikes were on their way to Phillip Island for the MotoGP, and the bikies were on their way to a do somewhere that the cops had found out about. Needless to say we both obeyed the speed limit for the rest of the day.

FLYING FOX
Sunset saw us arriving at Cosmic Boy Camp, the camp servicing Western Areas' new Flying Fox Mine. We were greeted by Peter and Jon, who pointed us to our rooms, and who had arranged a site BBQ for the wet mess.

Mark the first aider had done a fantastic job on the barbie, and all the guys on site turned out in a strong show of support - it was fresh in their minds there having been an evacuation from site in the last couple of weeks.

The lads and ladies chipped in $483.80, which has been matched by Western Areas for a grand total raised of $967.60 - a fantastic result for our last mine visit and one that almost made up for the tragic result in the rugby later that evening.

Tom, Mark and Peter. Smiling about donations, not about rugby.

Day 53 - Superpit

Day 53 started a bit fuzzily thanks to the beverages the evening before. We had breaky at a nearby scottish restraunt, and then headed over to the Superpit shop where we completed our inductions. We then headed off to site, where we were treated to a pit tour of this rather large hole in the ground. Not content with being big, the Superpit is also notable for mining through old underground workings - you can see the old drives and stopes daylighting into the walls.... full on.
After our eye opening tour we toured the offices, selling raffle tickets for the KB raffle.


The results of the raffle were impressive as well: thanks to Delsa's tireless efforts the raffle raised $1,388.45 for the RFDS - magic. We then met with the GM of the Superpit and the GM of KB for a media shoot at the lip of the Pit, with a representative from the RFDS along as well.

Day 52 - Kal, KB

Up early for the run into Kal, and a 7am interview with ABC Kal, which went pretty well. We then had a lazy breakfast before heading out to Kanowna Belle, another Barrick operation outside of Kal. We were taken on a mill tour, our first for the trip funnily enough, and Mango's gamble of wearing shorts didn't pay off, he ended up in a 'sperm suit' for the duration of the visit. Unlucky....

Mango wasn't there to win fashions in the field.

We then had a tasty BBQ, also our first in a while, while Delsa ran around selling raffle tickets. We then got a lift out to KB's sister operation Raleigh, where we sold a few more tickets for the raffle, with prizes put up by KB.
Mang was in a foul mood - he had backed the hire car into a power pole when we pulled up at the flat we were staying at that afternoon. I considered it my duty then to take him out to the Exchange, and medicate with rum. Which we did, until prudence suggested it might be time to leave or risk blowing a reading the next day.

Day 51 - Long Victor

The next morning saw us out at Long Victor a mine only about 5 km out of Kambalda to meet the guys at the weekly safety meeting. Organised by Heinz the donations were encouraged after a breaky BBQ that saw the guys toss $413.80 into the collection bag for the RFDS.

After the meeting we accepted an offer for an underground tour and what a tour. Going underground we toured the whole workings which are large and were expertly guided by AJ who was every ready with an answer for the myriad of questions. Being half reasonably large scale mechanical mining and half air leg this was a real treat!

Neil was rather impressed with the underground BBQ set up all ready for a quiet crib break - bug change from those coal mining restrictions!

Day 50 - Kambalda

Leaving Granny Smith with somewhat of a sore head we headed for Kambalda down the main drag. The number of mines on either side of the road had both of us amazed. It would appear that the favourite past time is to dig lots of holes! With many that we didn't even know existed or what they were mining the monotony of the open road was broken up.

On arrival at Kambalda we checked into the ESS camp who had once again kindly assisted our appeal by putting us up for a couple of nights.

Day 49 - Granny Smith

For the run into Granny Smith we had to back track out to the main highway south before trecking into the mine site. On arrival we found the main office unattended but the large screen tv in the mess playing the rugby. With our WC fix for another day we were given a tour of the open pit and the salt sculptures that have been created in the wall from the ultra saline ground water the flows in from the salt lake above.

Whilst on site Neil raised a quick $100 in donations by fixing a scheduling problem that had caused the engineers some frustration!

At the event in the mess there was a great turnout from all the guys on site. With the GM Mark LeMessurier offering to be a nipper underground for half a shift if there was plenty of donations all were very generous. Special thanks to Anita who organised our visit to site and a great raffle. With the donations totalling $1051.25 this was a great effort from all at the mess.

Day 48 - Lawlers-Darlot

We had only a short way to go from Lawlers to Darlot. After a quick fuel stop in Leinster we headed south, and after turning off the highway there was another 50km or so of dirt to negotiate. Once on site we caught up with some important business that afternoon, ie watching replays of the world cup rugby from the weekend. We were also met by another mate Steve, who unfortunately couldn't stay and watch footy with us, it being end of month. We got a decent turn out to the mess that evening, and Steve and the girls had organised the guessing game for a couple of $50 notes, which everyone had a crack at. It was also the NRL GF, followed by a few games of rubgy, so plenty of footy was watched, because thankfully the aerial pingpong had ended the night before. We hear some Victorians won for a change...After last drinks had been sold we ended up with $148.80 for the night, and thanks go to all who organised and ran the games for us whilst doing their end of month work as well.

The Darlot Crew

Day 47 - Cue-Lawlers

After an exciting evening staying in our little shed in Cue, we headed off - Mt Magnet, then across through Sandstone to Lawlers, just outside Leinster. We spent the arvo catching up on admin and washing, then headed to the wet mess. The guys on site ran a 'Guess The Last Two Digits on a $100 Note', and there was a fairly solid turn out in the wet mess, thanks to Mel and Gemma publicising our visit. All said and done the Lawlers guys raised $476.80 for us, with Barrick chipping in a further $200, we ended up with $676.80 - great effort from a small site.

Day 46 - Plutonic-Cue

We kicked off day 46 with a photo shoot. Travis from site is a keen photographer, and as you can see the results are professional, he almost managed to make us look good. We then headed off for Mt Magnet, but later on with the sun going down we stopped in Cue, and tiny dot on the map where retirees head to try their hand at gold detecting.

Day 45 - Tom Price-Plutonic

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO OKTOBERFEST

Dessert didn't sit too well with either of us. Tom woke up to hear Neil racing down the stairs from the loft juggling the remains of his dinner.... We both woke up crook, and had to cancel our planned visit to the Skilled offices again, and make our way out of town. Tom rang up the mess and let them know what we thought of dinner, they responded by suggesting we provide a stool sample. Not wanting to delay his departure any longer Neil declined the offer to crap in a cup, and left for Newman. Tom stuck round, and went to the doctor's, however they couldn't fit him in until the afternoon, so he ended up on the road as well.

Pat Was On The Case For Us

We then made our separate ways to Newman, and on down to Barrick's Plutonic operation where we were to take part in their Oktoberfest celebrations. We turned up just on dark and pretty stuffed. German beer is not the best thing to get stuck into when you are dehydrated from food poisoning, however we both manned up and gave it a shot. We were met by Mel the entertainment coordinator (what a job...), and uni mate and fellow GijimaAST lurker Pat.

Beer Makes Mel's Hair Go Funny

Much beer was consumed, though not by us. Prizes were raffled, and steins were auctioned. By the time the second stein was on offer Kira the barmaid upped the ante with a kiss to the winner, and bidding quickly raced up to $200. Some of the boys really wanted that stein....All in all a great night, with the efforts of the Plutonic workers totalling $1890.65 - a great night.

Day 44 - Onslow-Tom Price

Day 44 saw us away from Onlsow early, on the road to Tom Price. After winding our way over to Paraburdoo for a much needed fuel stop, we headed North again to Tom Price. On arrival we dropped into the Skilled offices where we met with Ian Dollery, who was busily working to arrange our visit to site.

Circular Pool

Unfortunately just prior to our arrival something happened out on site and we were unable to undertake the visit as planned. Undeterred we lined up to meet with Ian for dinner to see if we could re-shedule for the next day, and then took the opportunity to make our way over to the nearby Karinijee NP. Check out the photos, had a good swim at Forescue Falls then headed back to Tom Price, where we had dinner with Ian at the mess.

Fotescue Falls