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!