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July 28, 2001
Overland Australia - Update 6
Maytown, Palmer River Goldfield
'The worst case scenario'
"So, what happens if someone comes off their bike and breaks a leg?
We'll be 30 kms from any chance of rescue. This is the worst case
scenario we should plan for." - planning meeting, Jowelbinna.
After a relatively shambolic first week, as one might reasonably expect of a group of strangers coming together to ride across the wilds of Australia, we needed to pull our socks up for the next section of the ride: the notorious Maytown track leading from Jowelbinna along one of the main arteries to the now ghostown of Maytown of the Palmer River Goldfield. We could expect no vehicular support from John, and the chances of getting a vehicle up there in a hurry, even if we were able to alert someone, were slim. So were someone were to get seriously injured, we should be prepared for a good 2-day hike down the mountain with a makeshift stretcher.
As the leader of this ramshackle mob the business of implementing
structure and 'what if' safety mechanisms for every possible occurrence is rather foreign to me. Not only have previous expedition participants been well known to me as friends before any section they might join up for - thereby making internal decision making that much easier - but the country we're passing through is more rugged and inhospitable than any I've previously passed through. So a good 3-4 hours was spent on our day off in Jowelbinna in planning meetings: calculating and providing enough food and water for the 2-days it could potentially take us to complete the 40km ride (if something was to go wrong); re-packing the medical kits with splints and antibiotics; packing a tree saw for cutting poles for a stretcher etc etc.
This process, although time consuming and all together rather tedious at the time, is always a solid investment in allowing things to run smoothly on the day. An extra half an hour going over the plan just one more time so everyone is clear about things like rendezvous points and what to do if they get lost etc, is a small price to pay in comparison to the disastrous mess that a large group can get into once out in the field.
The 'Maytown Track Day' turned out to be a day any of us will be hard
pushed to forget for the rest of our lives. Writing this the following
morning on the banks of the Palmer River it seems like a week since we started hauling our bikes and BOB trailers through the first 3kms of sand to the foot of the first grade.
I won't go into too much detail now, as you'll be able to see all the sweat, tears, laughs, punctures and wipe-outs on the TV documentary coming out at the end of all this. Suffice to say it proved the most incredible track to ride, with its twists and turns, hair-raising descents and backbreaking inclines. How the early prospectors made it along this track with their bullock drawn loads of mining equipment and supplies defeats the imagination. But by the time we limped into camp in the dark after 13 hours out on the road we were all totally gaa-gaa with fatigue, almost too tired to congratulate ourselves on a pretty full-on achievement, certainly to tired to write an update for the website - hence this being a day late.
We now have a day off to lick our wounds before pushing onto Bellevue at first light tomorrow morning. Mike needs some time to recover from heat-fatigue, and the bikes and BOB trailers are so badly battered from the abuse sustained from the track it'll take a fair amount of time throughout the day to get our trusty mounts back into some sort of workable order. We also plan to take some time to explore the local town with its mining past, now only visible in the mangled hulks of old mining equipment and open mine-shafts that litter the once bustling hillsides all around us.
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Posted on July 28, 2001 5:02 AM