This story starts as a adventure i set out on with my dad, 2005, my dad and i set out to compete in the Alice Springs FINKE DESERT RACE.
My dad used to run old V8 petrol dodge trucks and would regularly do runs up to Alice Springs backwhen he was in his early 20's, he told me how back then just about all the roads were dirt,and how in the heat of the summer sometimes the fuel would evaporate while it was being squirted into the old carbies causing the truck to sit idle until the weather and truck cooled down enough that they could continue on there way.Blown tyres, trailer and engine bay fires, swagman hitching rides to the next station, and some of his old pit stop places where himself and one of his brothers would pull over for the night and camp, one of these was right beside the Ghan rail line and when it blew past for the first time my dad jumped up so quickly in fright that he split open his forehead on the old bumper while sleeping under the front of the dodge.
Dad also spoke of the Ghan being called The Afghan Express and Alice Springs being named Stuart, didnt know my dad new so much.
It wasnt until my dad and i hit Alice Springs that we had to pull in and visit the trucking museum, my dad pointed out this old landrover that was used in an expidition to search for a massive lost gold reef back in the mid to late 70's, my eyes lit up and i couldnt get enough info at the time about it.
So then it was off to the desert race exciting stuff, i kicked my HUSABERG FC550 in the guts and wrang its neck for as long and as hard as i could, UNTIL some lovley ladies lifted their shirts up as i was going past at warp factor plus 2, which undoubtedly drew my attention away from the track, including my left hand to wave, and that was the end of that, the steering dampener was not turned up high enough and i remember cartwheeling through the air and intermitantly hearing the husabergs rev limiter chattering at me, death revs is what there commonly referred to as.
After picking myself up with the asistance of some campers and being handed a beer for such an entertaing display of 101 not to do on a desert race, i managed to start the big girl and slowly make my way to the finsh, unfortunately the revs, hard riding, and crash had taken its toll on the bike and it packed it in 200mt befor the finish line day 1, we later found out the hardening on the crankshaft bearings had let go and the piston was coming up and hitting the head and valves.SPEEEEEEEEWING.........so dad and i sat at FINKE around our campfire watching and listening to the v8 buggies and bikes prepping up for the race back to ALICE the next day, and still in the back of my mind i couldnt help but think about that adventure those people had heading off into the outback looking for a lost gold reef.
A few weeks after we arrived back home my dad mailed me a book, i wasnt really interested in this fellow called LASSETER, most of the books i read have quite an abundant amount of glossy pictures in them, but this had a note attached to it that said, "do you remember asking me if i thought that gold reef was real, hope this helps" the book was called lasseters last ride by ion idriess, from the moment i opend that book i couldnt put it down, the research from that moment has been imense, what keept me interested was the intrigue and mystery that surrounded this story, countless expiditions, one even funded by Dick Smith, further research just kept me delving deeper into this story, from downloaded audio files from the ABC to finally scoring a copy of the famous LASSETER DIARY of the net, simply called "Flight of the Ducks" it took some countless hours and deep digging to come accross this site to locate a copy that i could print out of LASSETERS diary, the one item that could maybe leed too the find of the lost gold reef that had fruit plum sized gold hanging out of a quartz reef. http://www.duckdigital.net/FOD/ it is a very strange and culturally sensitive site, if i thought some of the research wasnt strange enough, you couldnt imagine what i thought when i stumbled accross this site, difficult to navigate your way through but certainly worth the effort.
I have met more people who scoff at the thought of a massive lost gold reef than believe it might possibly exist, one bloke said to me "if he found it once why couldnt he find it again".........not sure about you mate but ive spent half an hour one day looking for a pair of saftey glasses that were on my head, ive been out bush looking for spots where ive been prospecting and never marked, and go back out a couple of days later and be buggard if i can find the same place.
I like to think its out there, laying in wait, AUSTRALIA dosnt have many stories of mystery like other places in the world i like to think this is one that will keep us guessing for a long time to come,i know i wont stop researching it and hopefully one day go out for a serious stickybeak, even if it dose mean a trip to the glorious outback............................... be a bloody great adventure........................
My dad used to run old V8 petrol dodge trucks and would regularly do runs up to Alice Springs backwhen he was in his early 20's, he told me how back then just about all the roads were dirt,and how in the heat of the summer sometimes the fuel would evaporate while it was being squirted into the old carbies causing the truck to sit idle until the weather and truck cooled down enough that they could continue on there way.Blown tyres, trailer and engine bay fires, swagman hitching rides to the next station, and some of his old pit stop places where himself and one of his brothers would pull over for the night and camp, one of these was right beside the Ghan rail line and when it blew past for the first time my dad jumped up so quickly in fright that he split open his forehead on the old bumper while sleeping under the front of the dodge.
Dad also spoke of the Ghan being called The Afghan Express and Alice Springs being named Stuart, didnt know my dad new so much.
It wasnt until my dad and i hit Alice Springs that we had to pull in and visit the trucking museum, my dad pointed out this old landrover that was used in an expidition to search for a massive lost gold reef back in the mid to late 70's, my eyes lit up and i couldnt get enough info at the time about it.
So then it was off to the desert race exciting stuff, i kicked my HUSABERG FC550 in the guts and wrang its neck for as long and as hard as i could, UNTIL some lovley ladies lifted their shirts up as i was going past at warp factor plus 2, which undoubtedly drew my attention away from the track, including my left hand to wave, and that was the end of that, the steering dampener was not turned up high enough and i remember cartwheeling through the air and intermitantly hearing the husabergs rev limiter chattering at me, death revs is what there commonly referred to as.
After picking myself up with the asistance of some campers and being handed a beer for such an entertaing display of 101 not to do on a desert race, i managed to start the big girl and slowly make my way to the finsh, unfortunately the revs, hard riding, and crash had taken its toll on the bike and it packed it in 200mt befor the finish line day 1, we later found out the hardening on the crankshaft bearings had let go and the piston was coming up and hitting the head and valves.SPEEEEEEEEWING.........so dad and i sat at FINKE around our campfire watching and listening to the v8 buggies and bikes prepping up for the race back to ALICE the next day, and still in the back of my mind i couldnt help but think about that adventure those people had heading off into the outback looking for a lost gold reef.
A few weeks after we arrived back home my dad mailed me a book, i wasnt really interested in this fellow called LASSETER, most of the books i read have quite an abundant amount of glossy pictures in them, but this had a note attached to it that said, "do you remember asking me if i thought that gold reef was real, hope this helps" the book was called lasseters last ride by ion idriess, from the moment i opend that book i couldnt put it down, the research from that moment has been imense, what keept me interested was the intrigue and mystery that surrounded this story, countless expiditions, one even funded by Dick Smith, further research just kept me delving deeper into this story, from downloaded audio files from the ABC to finally scoring a copy of the famous LASSETER DIARY of the net, simply called "Flight of the Ducks" it took some countless hours and deep digging to come accross this site to locate a copy that i could print out of LASSETERS diary, the one item that could maybe leed too the find of the lost gold reef that had fruit plum sized gold hanging out of a quartz reef. http://www.duckdigital.net/FOD/ it is a very strange and culturally sensitive site, if i thought some of the research wasnt strange enough, you couldnt imagine what i thought when i stumbled accross this site, difficult to navigate your way through but certainly worth the effort.
I have met more people who scoff at the thought of a massive lost gold reef than believe it might possibly exist, one bloke said to me "if he found it once why couldnt he find it again".........not sure about you mate but ive spent half an hour one day looking for a pair of saftey glasses that were on my head, ive been out bush looking for spots where ive been prospecting and never marked, and go back out a couple of days later and be buggard if i can find the same place.
I like to think its out there, laying in wait, AUSTRALIA dosnt have many stories of mystery like other places in the world i like to think this is one that will keep us guessing for a long time to come,i know i wont stop researching it and hopefully one day go out for a serious stickybeak, even if it dose mean a trip to the glorious outback............................... be a bloody great adventure........................
