Yank seeks info/partner on WA trip

Hi, all, I'm an Arizona Yank. and have a desire to travel to WA for an extended period and prospect in the outback. I'd like to spend 4-6 months, rough camping, prospecting. Never been "down under" before. but have a mate who has made three trips and been quite successful finding nuggets. My mate has shared a lot of his experiences with me and I'm not naive enough to attempt a solo trip. Wondering how one might go about locating a local who might have the time and inclination to joint venture a prospecting trip. I don't desire to do an adventure with a commercial outfit--I want to be able to travel and camp as I see fit--rather than a structured/scheduled group endeavor. I'm a white male, 61 years old, retired from business and quite healthy. I'm aware of most of the costs and requirements and potential hardships to be endured, and still want to fulfill this "bucket list" dream of mine. I am anticipating a trip during the May through September, 2013 time frame. I'm considering flying into Perth, purchasing/leasing a suitable vehicle, trailor, quad and camping equipment and travelling north. Any insite, pointers, comments, would be appreciated. Curt B.--macgyver5154

Welcome to the forum Curt, you've come to the right place for friendly advice. There will be plenty of members on this forum heading out prospecting through the cooler months me included but as I have work commitments I can only go bush when time off permits. There are people out there like yourself that go solo and meet up with people in the field, best to get in contact with as many people as possible get there email address or phone numbers and keep in touch as you move around. I take a laptop with me when I go prospecting and keep an eye on this forum to see who is out where and catch up if possible.
Make as many friends as possible Curt, hell I'll even catch up with you for a swing so chalk me in, I'll be heading out on my own sometimes, make sure when you get here before you go bush that you have all the necessary equipment plenty water,food,GPS,EPIRB,maps, West Australian Miners Right, 40E permitts, well maintained 4WD vehicle ect ect.


Cheers Kev

Thanks, Kev, I'm prospecting here in NW Arizona, Gold Basin region. Almost too windy to get much serious detecting in today, but I'm trying out my new 18" mono NF. Finding bullets and fragments, but no gold so far. What is the EPIRB you reference.--some sort of locator beacon? Curt

Curt , the personal eperb is only as big as a pack of cigaretes & is handy if you get into a life threatening situation on your own , lost ,injured etc ,set off the beacon if in trouble & you will be found. 300 dollars or so.
Tell you an embarrasing story about one.... The early epirbs were made for marine use , a small cylinder & a protuding toggle switch to activate it , anyhow this fella packed it in a milk crate & stored it under the bed of his ute [4wd ]& many months / years later was prospecting / driving out from Marble Bar in a remote area with 3 friends , separate cars. After 5 hours or so stop / start detecting along the way ,they decided to pull up late arvo & make camp. Well 15 mins later , a twin engine plane started circling high above , 15 mins after that a 4 door helicopter landed in their camp, with this all going on a guy comes running out to greet 3 blokes completely dumfounded ...... WHATS THE EMERGENCY he exclaimed . All 3 with stubbies in hand just looked at one & other... dunno. Then the penny dropped , the one that had the epirb in the milk crate got it out & found the toggle switch had been set off in the milk create & with all the bouncing around & these blokes in the aircraft had been following them for 4 hrs . The guy in the copter notified the police by radio , above in the plane & after a few minutes they replied , glad they have an eperb , realised the blue & said tell em to update & get the newer model one & that was the end of that , lucky for them. Any missuse of these gadgets attract big penalties . Anyhow Curt they work , but only for a life threatening situation . cheers albo.

Hey Curt you got things sorted out I am about to depart Adelaide and travelling deep into the unknown .....lol looking for a camp buddy hey I have all camping gear maps and Intel on where to go are ya up for it or all sorted

Alan

Alan, the original post was over two years ago if you didn't realise.

Whoops so it was