My Wild Boar adventure actually began when I met up with three strangers’ on a Friday arvo for my ride west – being Amsar lad’s Garry “Gazza” Hall, John “Homer” Hudson and Greg Eicke. It had never taken me so long to leave the Gold Coast before. First, Gazza and I left his factory complex in his trick Toyota Landcruiser 4WD, which has small TV screens planted behind the headrests and one in the middle of the front dash with a flash DVD/Stereo player nestled in below for passenger entertainment. Gazza’s enclosed trailer following closely behind was also very smart, but I won’t go into that in this story as we hadn’t even reached his house 20 minutes away where we had to grab some more gear, and make sure his pet bird was picked up safely by a neighbour, and after that we grabbed the dog to drop off at the dog-sitters in Brisbane, where we also had to pick up Homer and Eicke. 


Flash forward, the dog’s dropped off, we finished off our plate of spag boll thanks to Homer’s misses Cathy, and the boys’ gear was also loaded into the trailer, which now weighed a tonne! Gazza, to ensure his missus was happy before it officially became the boys’ week away, made one last detour to drop a package off at her work. We sliced our way through Brisbane city with a longing to be out of range – away from the traffic lights, heavy crowds, pollution, pets and of most importance, away from bloody mobile phone reception … Woo hoo!

Capt:Plenty of time for soicalising on the Wild Boar.

“Cashel Vale” 

We arrived at Cashel Vale, a 40,000-acre sheep farm owned by Wild Boar organiser Stuart “Stuie” Mitchell, on Saturday lunchtime. Cashel Vale is a 10-minute drive from Bollon, a small country town that’s a seven hour drive west of Brisbane. We arrived fresh and amped for the ride after spending the night in our swags at Craig Hartley’s (Dalby Moto owner) in Dalby. We could have made the journey leaving the coast early Saturday morning but the lads were so keen to hit the road, crack that first coldie, and keep the flow going until the end of the adventure.  

The Wild Boar ride was to leave early Sunday morning, so that Saturday afternoon we spent sorting our gear and first day’s route sheets. Plus meeting the other 25 riders, and support crew, which consisted of local volunteers; mainly farmers, but also a builder and Bollon’s Police Seargent Greg Wheeler, which I thought at the time could be really good, or maybe not so good, knowing how much some of the lads like to get on it! Either way, I had a feeling things in the Outback were a little different from the city, and after spending a short amount of time with country folk that night around the dinner table enjoying a huge feast put on by Stuie’s wife Ba (not sure if the name has anything to do with the sheep?), it quickly became clear they’re some of the friendliest and most chilled-out people you are ever likely to meet.

25 cartons of XXXX, 14 of rum and coke, 158 kilos of ham and bacon, 260 kilos of beef, 40 dozen eggs, 70 loaves of bread, thousands of litres of fuel and water, and enough swags, tents, spare parts and bags to keep us all happy for a week in the outback filled Ronnie Sevil’s cattle truck, the ultimate Mutha Ship, that included a big cold room for the meat that Ronnie himself built especially for the journey.

Any trail or adventure rider knows the joys of riding with less weight so thanks to the Mutha Ship, the 28 of us motored out of Cashel Vale early Sunday morning with as little as a Camelbak, tool bag and a spare tube for the first day’s adventure.

Capt: Craig Hartley led the adventure most of the way. Here he talks to organiser Stuie Mitchell.

The beauty of every rider using a route sheet, as opposed to the corner man system, is that the faster riders can spread out early in the day to let the group automatically find its own rhythm on the trail, instead of having to wait until the last rider comes through and then set about racing through the dust towards the front of the pack which is often dangerous.

To give you an idea, there were six or so riders on the Wild Boar who contested the 2004 Safari, and they obviously had their bikes and gear fully prepped. Their bikes ranged from a big KTM 950 Adventurer, a factory KTM 660 Rally to the bulletproof Honda XR 650, and lighter, more nimble Yamaha WR 450 and KTM 450s. These guys could go as fast as they wished, while the guys riding bikes as small as a Yamaha WR 250 or a quad - and not forgetting Sam, the only female starter also riding one of three quads - who just wanted to cruise along at their own pace, could, as long as they kept to the route sheet or waited for one of the sweep riders to flow through if they weren’t sure which way to go.

20 minutes into the ride I witnessed how easily it is to not fully take in the little warnings on the route sheets when one of the more experienced riders aboard a KTM 640, Rik Yulcher, found himself and his motorcycle’s front-end waist deep in the first boar drain crossing. Now, these were hard-to-see little buggers of around three-feet wide that momentum and a squirt of the throttle would have you sailing over easily. But when you’re not sure for the first time, the instant reaction when you see them at the last second is to brake hard and slide straight into the water. Credit to Rik though as he wasn’t the only one who visited the drain by the time the lot of us crossed a dozen or so. It did serve as a warning for others and myself to be more aware via the route sheet of what lies hidden ahead

Capt: 2500kms on a quad, you'd have to have a tough arse indeed!

So Dry, So Isolated!

We passed through many smaller private properties similar to Stuie’s on that first day. Good, open dry and dusty access roads linking each property together, and it amazed me how people and animals could survive on such dry land. It’s going through one of the worst droughts in the outback ever. But as dry as it was, it only made the riders even thirstier when they arrived sporadically at Eulo pub on footy grand final day 330 kilometres later.

Arriving at an outback pub with a mouth as dry as the dust it’s filled with in the middle of nowhere was a regular pattern over the coming days. Most of us would set up our swags, have a quick shower thanks to a bore water pump, check over the bike, and ease into the night, while the keen drinkers didn’t let a minute at the bar go to waste and found it easier to set up swag late at night and spend time on the bikes come morning. This plan was good for most except for Brownie, who got too crossed up and couldn’t find his gear, and only managed to find his way into the back of Ronnie’s Mutha Ship with no mattress or sleeping bag. The big fella paid for his big night though, skipping breakfast, and only managing to gather himself together in the nick of time to climb aboard his KTM 640 with a headache for the ride out of Eulo. Brownie did set the mark high, though, for many great individual performances that were to yet unfold by the colourful characters of the Wild Boar adventure on the journey ahead.

Capt: The greatest outback pub I've seen.

So Red, So Barren

The further we rode on the days ahead the more the colour of the dirt turned to red, and the feeling of great space became more apparent as the trails reached out as far as the eye could see. The terrain changed with every 100 kilometres we passed. There were clearly marked dirt roads where you could race side-by-side, sliding, two-wheel drifting at speeds up to 130 KPH, which quickly gave you an insight into the riding level and composure of the stranger riding beside you, as if he’s not watching your line as well as his, and vice versa, things could turn ugly real quick at those speeds if you don’t give each other room.

Then you’d find yourself riding through someone’s front yard with their kids sitting on a wooden fence screaming and yelling as each bike passed. As I was taking a photo at this point I heard the young daughter yell out, “Mummy, come quick, I can see a quad coming! Look there’s a quad coming, hurry up or you’ll miss it,” as if it was the most exciting thing to happen in a long time, or maybe not, but the kids certainly showed a lot of excitement for the occasion.

The terrain would then switch to carving across huge claypans where the rear wheel would evoke a dust storm in its wake, to riding dreamingly along 4WD type open trails where you’d come across patches of grass and small flowers that would light up the path, and mixed with the red dirt it created a sight worth pulling over for.

The lay of the land was mostly flat until we came across a rocky playground and mountain ranges the fourth day on the ride to Innamincka. The tracks were covered in marble-like rocks that ranged from 10cm to 200cm in diameter, and if you didn’t scope the path far enough ahead and be very gentle with the front brake it was very easy to come unstuck. The feeling of riding this 40-kilometre section was unusual as at times it felt like you could have been in another country. Underneath a bright blue sky the ground was red, the rocks were red, the mountains were red with the odd tufts of pale green bushes and some dry trees here and there. It was very surreal.

Capt: The rocky trail to Innamincka.

The Man With The Plan

The riding was exceptional and so were some of the places we stayed. Locals would welcome us with open hearts wherever we went. The freedom to blast through 2.4 million acres of privately owned cattle land that took us two full days of the whole trip was incredible, then to have the manager of the ranch join us on his land by Yandacoopa waterhole for a barby where we camped, even more special.

I really started thinking halfway through the trip about how all this was possible. How 28 riders, two support 4wds and the Mutha Ship could just open and close gate after gate for kilometres on end without a problem in the world. And not long after, I got the chance to ask Stuie a few questions when I got to ride in his support 4WD for a day and a half after my borrowed WR 450 (thanks to Sids Les Jensen and Yamaha) strangely stopped.

Stuie gave up his ride to man the fuel support vehicle. You can be sure he'll be riding in 2006.

“The Wild Boar concept came about after I was approached by the headmaster of my kids’ school, Bollon State Primary. Most of these little outback schools don’t have much money, and they struggle to make it, so knowing that I was into bikes he asked me if I was interested in organising a ride to raise money. I thought it was a great idea, especially as it gave me a good excuse to spend the next eight months riding out in the bush working the course out,” Stuie laughed, as the Toyota Landcruiser rumbled along the sandy 4WD track at 100kmh.

It wasn’t all fun though as Stuie, with the help of offsider “Woodsy”, had to personally visit around 50 property owners to sit down and talk through the Wild Boar concept. Without their support the ride would have been restricted to the more common main dirt roads. And thanks to Stuie having a good reputation in the area after years spent exploring the land, only one farmer turned him away with plenty of excuses why he couldn’t access his land, but with no real reason.

Hundreds of hours were also spent planning the route with help from local former Safari legend, Mac Haig, with their aim being to make it like a mini Safari. And as the plan started coming together many locals’, friends’ and industry support soon followed, with Stuie pointing out, “None of this could have been possible without the support of our local community supplying beasts for meat, eggs, goods to raffle, and the big one - their service with cooking, back-up vehicles etc on the journey. I’ve also had to rely on the help of Daryl Petch from MA, who spent hours helping with the route sheets, administration and the insurance side of things.”

And the support didn’t stop there as Yamaha put its name behind the Wild Boar concept, as did industry players Emu M/C’s, Craig Hartley and Dalby Moto, Yamaha Tribe, The Chain Gang, Silkolene, B&B Aluminium Products, Thor and the list goes on… It all comes back around though, as Stuie - being the kind of bloke he is - worked out a way the property owners have some form of ownership of the ride to ensure its future by donating some of the money made to the much relied on Flying Doctor service on their behalf … Good deeds go a long way out in the bush!

Capt: Many kilometres of fast open flowing terrain with good scenary to keep you feeling alive.

On A Personal Note!

I was blown away with my first ride in the outback. Not just for the fact we got to visit cool places like organic beef properties where the manager rolled out the red carpet and made us feel welcome by having a shady bar out of the sun and away from the thousands of flies, plus a cold pool to cool us down. Or visiting interesting towns like Camerons Corner - where the three borders meet (Qld, NSW, SA), and Noccundra - owned by Kerry Packer, which is basically a pub on a road with nothing else to be seen, and Innamincka, which has the coolest pub imaginable and is close to the famous “Dig Tree”, which we visited, and the place where Australian icons Burke and Wills last gathered before passing away nearby.

It was more because of the intention behind the cause, and the people that were drawn to be a part of it. It was a dead-set laugh from start to finish. From the antics of the Brisbane duo that were named B1 and B2, which is a story in itself, to the Aussie verses England dash across the Yandacoopa waterhole at midnight by Ronnie and Pommy Nick, to the endless service without one complaint from Jason Jensen and Greg Wheeler - the cooks and support vehicle backup, Gordan and Nury - sweep vehicle, and Dougie - help when ever you needed it.

The tour flowed smoothly. The route sheets were correct, most of the time. The endless flow of cakes and cookies baked by the Bollon housewives kept our energy flowing. Riders never hesitated to pitch in and lend a hand when someone broke down, which I was a contender, and I have to give a big thanks to Curl, and Griffo - who broke his leg on the third last day, and didn’t know at the time I borrowed his bike -  from Emu M/Cs, Goondiwindi, a big thanks for making my completion of the journey a reality, love your work! There’s so much more I could mention, but I’ll end with saying that the Wild Boar was a huge success in raising $10,000 for the school, and that I’ll be back for sure in 2006, which promises to be even better now that Stuie and Woodsy have another 12 months to explore many more incredible tracks. Thanks for the rare experience Stuie and the Bollon crew! Goba.

Capt: Make sure you give way to these suckers.

Capt: One of the few water crossings.