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Long Way Across for Childhood Cancer

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Day 15 Ayer Creek to Dions Lookout

Why are the Eagles still above us? Ahhhhh, Big Red isn’t far off and there could be carnage?

We left one of our best camps so far and headed for Big Red, the biggest and meanest dune of all. Shaymo had prepped himself by doing his usual calisthenics in lycra before sun up and was eager to shed the monkey of having to drive the Nissan while the sand was over ankle depth. All Shaymo muttered around the breakfast camp table was “Today I going to do it boys, climb Big Red on black beauty” This conjured up all sorts of terrible thoughts amongst the other guys, Tony wanted to call 000 and have the Ambo’s on standby and even Statt his bestest mate ever, looked at Shaymo in shear amazement thinking this Irishman is crazy. “The black death has tried to kill you for the last 6 days and now you want to risk it all Shaymo?

Statty scoffed and then thought if we all give Shaymo some tips he might just pull this off? We sat Shaymo down and all threw our best chance tips and probably the only one he remembered was “to just hold it wide open and keep your elbows up”

We returned off the Eyre Creek detour back onto the QAA line and it was a mad dash to Big Red. Once stopped at the bottom it didn’t look real bad at all. Robbo held the 530 on the limiter and hit the bottom so fast he ran out of gears, by the time he hit the steepest part at the top he was still in 4^th gear with the throttle still wide open. A little bit of air at the top and the 530 was the first one parked at the top. Matty was next on Statts bike and he rode it like it was a mongrel dog, rang the neck off it and soon was parked on top also. Matty said “you couldn’t kill me with a shovel right now” “that was awesome and I am happy my car broke in half so I could ride the Simpson”

Troy was next, his bike suffering a stuffed radiator was heating up a little and didn’t want to stress it any further and almost reached the top. A quick turnaround for another try and the result was the same. Didn’t quite make it to the top and that was where she and Sharlene the emu stayed for the rest of the extravaganza. Almost, but not quite on top!

Stat on board the Tenere was into a mild tank slap on the run up but gave the throttle cable a good stretch and she got to the top with ease. Scotty too gave his 690 some punishment and slipped over the top with the grace end elegance of Bruce Lee fighting 20 Ninjas’, arms and legs everywhere.

Stat thought it would be great to get back on his 400EXC and absolutely tear this dune apart……….If it wasn’t for Tony giving him a good slapping and told him to stop on his 8^th attempt, Statt would still be flogging the dead horse to try and get her up. The funniest thing you could ever want to see, and Matt not having ridden a bike for 12 years and getting up with ease on the first go really messed with Statts head. There were all kind of innuendo flying around from the 122kg Tassie electrician, ”lucky 1^st try Matty”, “you chopped it up and I can’t get a good run up”, “the engine is hot now”, The boys on top of Big Red were nearly wetting themselves. Anyway, Statt took the chicken track and hailed it a success.

Look out lads, here comes Shaymo………..Shaymo lined up Big Red, took too many deep breaths and hit the launch control button on the Tenacious Tenere. All hell broke loose and in the distance the small black speck grew bigger and bigger until we could make out the crazy Irishman strapped to the Tenere. He was on song, elbows up and the throttle on the stopper. Only problem was he was way off line and the inevitable happen 78% of the way up. It’s almost like the Tenere has an ejector seat once it lists/ leans more than 5.5 ͦin either direction from the true point of balance. End result was Shaymo unceremoniously departing the Tenere while still going forward at pace. Should have called 000 when we had the chance Tony yelled from a safe distance. Tony has seen Shaymo in action and understands the pain in which the Tenere can inflict if it lands on a person in thongs and ruggers.

Once righted Shaymo had good intentions of just riding up the 22% incline but didn’t really hear the other guys say “don’t bury it, have another go”

Here we go again with Shaymos favourite saying “just give me a second Lads” Well after 40 seconds of full throttle she is right down past the belly pan and everyone is walking off not hoping Shaymo can see them as this recovery will take some effort and probably destroy some more vertebrae.

The second attempt was a carbon copy of the first and Shaymo was a shattered man. He sat there lifeless, looking like a bemused Greek goat herder that has just lost all his entire flock. How could he go on? What is left for Shaymo? Matty said that he will shout the bar with his favourite drink “ginger kisses” and that seemed to spark the pilot light in Shaymo and he mounted the Tenere for the trip back down to the bottom.

After what seemed like half a day of playtime and the first phone range for days, we headed into Birdsville for lunch.

A quick photo session out the front of the pub and we bustled inside for that well-earned drink. Matt tells the story of he and his best mate White Boy (Phil) sneaking into the Federal Hotel in Kalgoorlie of a Friday afternoon and always carried a hip flask of Stones green ginger wine. As they were 9 years old at the time, they could only buy a tall lemonade and while no one was watching they would tip 50/50 from the hip flask into each glass. The Skimpy’s name one night was Ginger Kisses and they believed that is a God called Karma and the name ”ginger kisses” stuck. What a story!

We all ordered the special steak sandwich, except Shaymo opted for the Coral Trout and Robbo asked for the fresh Scallops and a bed of cauliflower and pea Puree with bacon crumble. Well the publican nearly shat himself and said “I have no idea what you just said boy, but we aint got any of that fancy stuff” Ok, 6 x steak sandwiches and 1 x coral trout please!

True to his word Matt bought the drinks and we sat around the table and absorbed what we just did, crossed the Simpson…….We got low on fuel, low on water, wrecked one car, broke the Irishmans heart and spirit, and loved every waking second of it!

Another hour in the iconic hotel and we were asked so many questions as to why Nissan 1 was packed so ridiculously with most of the gear on top of the roof rack and not in the tray. Once the public saw the G-string winch cable running from the bulbar over the top of the windscreen and roofrack and lifting the rear of the tray up, there was laughter all around.

Heading East again and we are not looking forward to the next three days of 1600km of unfenced and bitumen roads. Give us the Simpson, Finke track and Gunbarrel any day!