Day 11 White Cliffs

Glorious goats

Place I forget the name of. Sorry

Baby Tool Tree

Grown Up Tool Tree

Pete lost it here. Went through the rut (far RHS of track) and you can see his tyre marks on the right

Bloody Lazy bike - Lying down AGAIN!!!!!

Pete relaxing after accident - not really with it

White Cliffs District Hospital - even have their own ambulance

Pete about to be discharged. 

Waking up decantly late (8am) and finally departing Tibooburra after 10ish we headed off to White Cliffs. White Cliffs is a small opal mining town in NSW and would be say a small Coober Pedy.

The road from Tibooburra is called the Silver City Hwy which becomes the Calder Hwy coming all the way down into Melbourne. We have picks of the very start of the Calder Hwy, being dirt of course. The main dirt roads here are excellent. The Silver City Hwy was like  a  4 laned hwy made out of clay. There were some banked turns, I just wished for say 5 minutes of rain and my car. Drift for about a km around the corner. I would have sooo much fun.

We stopped off at a historic town (the name escapes me) about 40kms sth of Tibooburra. It was a gold mining town of yester-year and is now basically ruins and not worth the bother    :(

What was great to see on the way down was the wildlife. GOATS!!!! And me without my rifle. Stefan - missing out here. We saw many many herds of them, and even had a few that wanted to play kamakasi with the bike on the road. I did have a scare with emu's today. We have learnt, that an emu just standing there is ok, but once he starts to move you need to slow down. They are big flightless birds with a peanut for a brain. I had one who was running along side me - say 50 mtrs parallel to me and then he did the smart thing, decided to turn towards what was freaking him out. I had already slowed down, but really did hit the brakes as he was about to t-bone me. He passed about 10 mtrs in front of me and I was just amazed - if he had hit me - his whole force and weight nice and fwd - would do some real damage. Stupid animals. Once we stopped, Pete asked did I see one of the emus behind me. No, was my response and he said an emu came out of the bushes running and just missed my rear end.

Yesterday we had a couple of emus and one freaked out and run along side and then headed in front of me. So I let himgo by, but his mate was staying put. So I passed by the two (one left and the other on the right) and the stupid one then thought, hmm I better go back and then passed in front of Pete. Seriously stupid birds. I think if they had wings, they would get confused on how to fly. Is it both wings or left first and then right.

Attached are two pics of some Tool Trees. Baby tool tree and a fully grown one. Someone had created a sculpture with spanners, hammers etc to a tree like structure. People are bored up here and do create some interesting things.

We left the main dirt road which would have taken us to Broken Hill, NSW and headed for White Cliffs. Magnificent road (NSW gets my vote for best gov't roads followed by QLD).

What we do on the bikes is extremely dangerous. Pete had a major off on the Birdsville Track which I am amazed he walked away from. Unfortunately, Pete had another off today and was not so lucky. I was leading and every 3-5 min do my check - is Pete behind me and slow down or stop until I see him or his headlight and then continue on. (Safety first!!). I knew Pete was riding close so I knew he was not far. I waited for about 1 min and no Pete. I doubled back and about 2 min later, saw Pete standing next to his bike (which was being lazy and lying on the ground). Pete was dazed, like he was drunk. So I did what my vast training had taught me (no training by the way - just common sense). Secure the scene - OK - No Goats to hit and no stupid kamakasi emus. No fuel leaking from lazy bike. All oncoming cars could see us - tick.

Then checked on Pete. He had a very sore shoulder but thats about it. He told me what happened. So after giving him water and some TLC we righted his bike up. Then came the scary bit - Pete just lost all memory of what happened. Did I drop the bike, Which way were we going. He had no idea. I asked the question - what did we do over the last week - no idea.

What the???? My vast training did not include head trauma. Every min he would ask - which way were we going? Was he leading? How did the accident happen? I will be honest - scared the #$%^& shit out of me. Do I activate Spot and get RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service) or do we push on for the 22km remaining. Pete was confused but could ride and no visible injuries. So after ensuring his bike was OK, he hopped on and we headed for White Cliffs. 40kms an hr. Long ride in and thankfully the last 5kms was bitumen. The Garmin Zumo GPS is amazing. On the 22km trip in, I checked for doctors, found the White Clifs District hospital and plotted the course.

We stopped a few times and Pete did well. The District Hosptial up here is basically 2 nurses who call the RFDS if they need doctor advice. We arrived and Pete was still pretty groggy and disorientated. The 2 nurses tended to him straight away, got vitals which were all good and got further advice from the RFDS.
I left Pete in their great care and sorted out some lodgings. (Thanks Karen for your quick help on that front). Once organised I had a shower and went to see how Pete was going. The RFDS were ready to medivac Pete out to Broken Hill. (plane was currently in Adelaide) for a days obvservation. Head trauma is not a nice thing. He said no and I spoke to the nurse before I saw Pete and was a tad angry. However after chatting with Pete, he was back to his usual self. So against medical advice he is not going to Broken Hill and is now discharged . He has some major cartlidge / muscle damage to his chest and back.

So no plane trip for him but it means I need to walk over to his motel room (or call him) and see if he is OK every 2 hrs this evening.

Very traumatic day, but all ok. Will be an interesting trip home.
Cheers - Richard

Pete's bit
Well it had been a great ride down from Tibooburra (can almost handle the local lingo now) that was until about 22 kms out of White Cliffs.  Yeaph she was  BIG one - run into a big rut (apparrently it rained up here a few days ago) at over 80 kph - did alright until the end - pulled the front wheel over the lip but at that speed the back wheel kicked skywards leaving me in a front wheel down mode of travel on gravel.  Now those of you who are motorcyclists out there will know immediately that's not the best combination for ongoing forward travel ..... the front end went one way and I caught it, the rear hit the ground, the front went the other way and caught - then my momentum meant that the bike and I simply parted company ...... essentially I think I just went over the high side for a very painful landing.  Can remember much after that except for Puffy taking control !!!

All the protective gear seems to have worked well but I was obviously reasonably out of it for a while and the right shoulder / upper back and right rib cage were all bloody sore.  Richard packed me back on the bike and we headed for the local medical clinic.  What an interesting experience - Puffy booked me and after about three checks of vitals the local nurse pronounced that there was nothing broken and nothing seemingly untowards however that she would like me to stay there for nother two hours for observation.  Puffy pushed off to arrange accommodation and after about 3/4 hour the nurse came back to announce the RFDS wanted me monitored continously, put in a neck brace and immobilised in a pressure splint and furthermore there were also making arrangements to medivac me to Broken Hill for further observation and a scan.
I discussed the situation with two RFDS Doctors (including a Naiomi from Nelson in NZ) and at some length and the local Nurse -after careful consideration I politely declined the RFDS kind offer for relocation.  I was already feeling better and the two panadols were kicking in somewhat - although the shoulder hurt like hell.  I explained carefully to the Nurse that I could self monitor my condition and that I knew the symptoms to watch for - she was kind enough to give Richard her phone number and she also made him promise to look in on me every two hours during the night - just in case ...... Nurse Puffe.  I also have to go back for a further check in the morning.

In essence it was my own fault - I'm not sure how, but my attention wandered and I missed a glaringly obvious road hazard that was so bloody big Blind Freedy could have seen it - so NO excuses.
Thanks so much to the Melbourne Support Team that swung into action who immediately started to work out accommodation options in White Cliffs and how I might get back from Broken Hill.
So I'm hurting heaps but still in one piece and YES Richard has pictures !!!

Todays observations:
     Getting worried about Richard - he's started talking to his bike .......
     Having problems with my hair - Phil where are you with your hair dryer :-)

Rest day tomorrow .... more to come  Cheers Peter