Do you offer help when you see someone in trouble?

Like he said

Come on, i happen to be classified as a grey nomad, and we have helped quite a few travelers in trouble..
baz

To be fair, they were both Grey Nomads........the one that helped and the one that only came out to shoot his mouth off after.
But to be honest....... I do find the yobos/ bogans etc down the beach a lot quicker to offer help not just advice. LOL

Now now Baz ...... don't get your knickers in a knot. Obviously my comment does not apply across the board (there are a few good apples in every barrel).

However I wasn't too far off the mark was I.

Rosco, presumably you are not planning on ever joining the ranks of the grey nomads. We and just about every other grey nomad we know will - and do - offer assistance. Usually its welcome but there are exceptions.

Cheers,

Val.

Val

I'll let you in on a little secret ... but keep it to yourself. I am more than eligible to join the ranks of this august body.

I have no doubt whatsoever that the majority of greys would be pleased to help. I have merely been unlucky insomuch as I have only encountered the minority.

Agree with Hairy in that the 'yobos/ bogans' are often a lot more interested in helping.

I reckon it's our duty as Australians to help out foreigners in trouble.

Aussie's can get rescued too, however then some bush currency might be discussed lol

Sage advice as always Baz.

Cheers

I see your point Ron, but this bloke sat in his van while there was only one bloke and a young (around 10 year old) girl there bogged, and got out when we turned up???? Im over 6ft 120kg, long haired beared tattooed type if ya know what I mean with 4 other people.......two being young fit blokes?????? I don't think fear was his issue.
No one asked for any great exertion......maybe a tow, or even a bit of rope..........possibly just a Gday, does the young girl need a drink or something...........na this bloke just got out to enlighten us with his own brilliance.
If he was scared of the bloke and his young daughter he should have helped so he could leave?LOL

And smelly and dreadlocked? Plus the 'tude? Cheers, Toni

Bloody good point I say KeithB. Reality, however, combined with sod's law generally demands in my case at least, that those who shouldn't, do. This was one of those occasions much to my chagrin. You didn't miss much ;)

Bob, I can recall sometime in the late 1970's, coming across an old German bloke stopped with a VW fastback between Coolgardie and Southern Cross.
I was driving our old Magirus-Deutz truck and tandem axle float, which was empty, and I had my big toolbox nestled between the frame rails of the gooseneck, as I always did.

I stopped and asked the old bloke if he was O.K. (he was situated well West of Coolgardie along the long isolated stretch to SX).
He told me in a heavy accent, "da engine, she just stop!". He also advised he'd sent his son back to Coolgardie to seek help.

Knowing how reliable the old Vee-Dubs were, I reckoned it was worth a look to see if I could see anything obvious.
We lifted the engine cover and couldn't see too much amiss at an initial check - so I told him to hit the starter while I checked what might be happening.
He no sooner cranked her over, than fuel started pouring everywhere over the engine! All over the fins and pouring through onto the ground! It was coming from the bottom of the carburettor bowl!
I put my head down and peered under the carby, and lo and behold, the drain plug for the carby bowl was missing!
I thought to myself, "Gee, this might be a hard one to fix! I reckon that drain plug is long gone!"
Regardless, I started to have a look around underneath the bowl - and within a minute, I'd found the drain plug stuck in the cooling fins of one of the cylinders!

I grabbed a screwdriver and re-installed the plug (luckily, it had a tight copper washer that had stayed on it!), and asked the old fella to crank her up. Within seconds, the old fastback was purring and all was sweet with the world!
The old bloke told me he'd only recently had the engine serviced, and it was obvious the mechanic had missed tightening the plug!

He was that grateful, it was embarrassing. He tried to give me $25 (which was quite a bit in those days) but I refused it, saying I was sure he'd help someone else out, if he could.
He still insisted I take something, and I think I took $5 just to keep him happy.
He then said he'd have to roar back to Coolgardie to find his son, and intercept the cavalry!
He spun around in a U-turn and roared off, waving happily, and I don't think there was a happier traveler for miles!
I think it also made his day to see me driving another example of Germanys finest air-cooled products!

Cheers, Ron.

Ah, the old air-cooled V8 Magirus-Deutz
Back in the late 50, early 60s Ansett Freight had quite a few and they went like the clappers across the Hay Plains - and sounded like it too :-) They looked a bit like a Veedub on steroids!
There were also a few painted a light/mid grey on the Adelaide - Sydney run. I helped unload a full load of coke back in Adelaide a few times when I was 17 - dirty job but paid well for part time work.
I used to drive something a little less grand on the Sydney run - a single axle drive Commer knocker semi :-)
Cheers

Andrew - Reg Ansett made a substantial amount of money from his fleet of "round-nose" ("rundhauber" - round-bonnet) Magirus-Deutzes.
They were built like the proverbial brick outhouse, were exceptionally good to drive, and they were FAST! They were built for German autobahns.

The rear axle on the single drive Deutz was factory rated at 12 tonnes! - and they used a hub reduction system that incorporated extremely expensive, all-position, barrel-roller bearings.
These bearings were designed to cope with axle deflection under heavy load, and they were extremely long-life bearings.

I can still remember the sheer pleasure of driving the old Deutz, as compared to the International R190 that it replaced.
It was a delight to drive, comfortable ride, good (manual) steering and brakes (German Westinghouse air), good vision, and plenty of power.

The R190 was quite a good truck, but it was dreadfully thirsty (2mpg loaded, 4mpg empty), had vacuum hydraulic brakes, and a good hill would see you going for bog cog.
The 406 cubic inch Inter 6 was 145HP and peaked out at 80kmh.
The Deutz did over 95kmh (keeping in mind 80kmh was still the blanket truck speed limit in those days), and it had power to spare, with 195HP on tap from that huge V8.

I actually drove a Commer Knocker from Geelong to Norseman for a drivers fee in 1995!
THAT was some trip, I can tell you! That old Commer had seen better days and the only reason the bloke in Norseman bought it, was because it was cheap, and because it had a Hiab and a tipper body fitted to it!

Cheers, Ron.

Bob, as soon as I saw young lady mentioned I knew why you pulled up and trotted back to help, good to see you have joined the good sarmatian club. LOL.

Hey Phil, I think you are a lot safer if you aren't driving around in a movie....

So your best advice now is to avoid travellers in blue suits in case they happen to be Mormons????

Mormons - JW's - Amway floggers - Commercial Salesmen - Ivan Milat types.

They're all extremely dangerous, and you help them at serious risk to yourself. [;-)

Go on, admit it. Who can honestly say they stopped to help a bunch of broken-down blackfellas?? LOL

I can remember an old Jewish woolbuyer who had a traytop ute, and who travelled around the wheatbelt buying odd bales and crutchings in the early 1970's.
He stopped to give a lift to some blackfellas who were hitching a ride. The blackfellas hopped on the back, as they all did in those days, and off he went.

About 20kms up the road, in the middle of nowhere, the blackfellas yelled out, this was their stop.
So he stopped and let them off, and drove off.
He got to the next town - only to discover the blackfellas had kicked a bale of wool off the ute, and robbed him of several hundred dollars worth of wool!

Gee, you should have heard him carry on about the low-life, thieving black scumbags who had repaid his generosity by robbing him!!
I reckon if he ever spotted blacks hitchhiking again, he'd line them up with the bullbar!! LOL

I think some of the funniest performances I've had, or heard of, is trying help out blackfellas who have gotten into trouble by not taking even the slightest amount of preparation for a trip.

Cheers, Ron.

Yeah.....I can. Ive stopped to help out heaps of Blackfellas.

Me too on more than one occasion.

Yep, count me in, a couple of times this year along the Great Central Road...as well as travelling with a group in the Western Deserts region.

But then, I lived in Papua New Guinea for a period where white was minority!

Cheers, Baz - The Landy

You can add me to the list. The funniest was when we were heading from Halls Creek to Billiluna before starting out on the CSR.

We had camped the night before in a dry creek bed a good distance off the road. Late evening and into the night a steady stream of cars kept going past head heading towards Halls Creek. Turned out to be a bunch of Variety Club Bash vehicles that had come up the Tanami track.
Anyway we started out again the next morning and every so often a green can would be either on or just off the road. A bit further on the empty carton was in the middle of the road. You can imagine it was with some trepidation we stopped by being flagged down not too much further on by a couple of blacks with a very early model broken down Nissan Patrol parked in the middle of the track. There was also about another 8 or so adults and kids sitting around a campfire in the bush happily munching on a partially cooked kangaroo.
Turned out they had hit this 'roo which had a joey in it's pouch, they were most concerned about the joey's welfare as they had no water for it. It's mum of course wound up on the camp fire. They were also very interested to know if we had an Engel on board. Well the carton was finished.
After stopping they had tried to start the Nissan diesel without much luck because the battery was flat. For some unknown reason the driver had decided to undo all the banjo bolts to the fuel filter and pump.
Cut a long story a bit shorter, we tightened up the fuel lines and offered to try a tow strart. The driver said nah, just stick your 'roo bar against what was left of the back door and give it a shove Going by the condition of that door I reckon that got more use than the starter motor. Now there was no windscreen or any other glass left so it was quite easy for him to lean forward and squirt some Aerostart or whatever into the intake while started pushing this lot down the road. Amazingly it started fairly easily. We left them some water and left them to load their crew together with the remains of a blood dripping 'roo carcase into the wagon. Apart from the fact that their carton had run out and we weren't about to offer any of our grog they seemed a pretty happy little group. I guess the contents of the carton had helped a bit.

Cheers
Pop

Good one, Pop! They're a barrel of laughs every time they travel, never thinking more than 5 mins ahead.
Brother and I used to live on our gold mine at Higginsville in the early 1980's.
He goes to drive into Kalgoorlie one day in his HJ61 Landcruiser, and a bunch of blackfellas standing by a broken down HD Holden wave him down on the Coolgardie Rd, near the track to Wannaway.
He pulls up and sees the HD has a shredded front tyre.
One of the blackfellas says, "G'day mate, we got a little problem with a flat tyre - and no spare!
Do you think you could lend us your spare?"
Brother says, "My spare's no use to you! You got a Holden, I got a Landcruiser! No way my spare will fit!"
The blackfella looks very crestfallen at this news, and then he brightens up, and says, "Oh! Well, if you can't help us with a spare - have you got 5 litres of oil?"
The brother says, "No, I'm not carrying any oil, sorry. Why do you need so much oil?"
Back came the answer - "Well, when we blew the tyre, it knocked the cork out of the sump! - and all the oil ran out!" ROFL

Cheers, Ron.

You're right Ron, it's amazing what they get away with and how far they can in cars that I wouldn't use to go to the local deli.
Also back in the early 80's I was leasing a workshop in a garage in Bullsbrook. Just north of Perth for those not too familiar with WA.
Anyway these 2 black girls in about a late 70's HJ HX Holden wagon with about 6 kids in the back pull in and asked if I could have a look at the rear axle of their car as it was making a funny noise and the brakes weren't working too good. Actually as it turned out the foot brake wasn't working at all and the hand brake was getting a bit dodgy too.
The problem was the LH rear wheel bearing had chucked it in a fair way back up the highway. By the time they got to the garage the bearing had collapsed completely and what was left of it was busily grinding it's way through the outer bearing race and was doing a number on the axle housing as well. The only reason the axle had not gone on it's merry way was that a groove worn by the inner race was stopping it departing sideways. The reason the brakes were not quite as they should be was that the rear drum had travelled so far vertically that it had pushed the shoes, or what was left of the LH set into the slave cylinder and popped the buckets out one end. The front circuit should have worked except that the master cylinder was leaking fluid so badly and apparently internally as well that there was no front circuit any more.
I tried to impress on the yound lady driving how dangerous it would be to continue but because I didn't have all the bits on hand to fix it on the spot and the cost was going to be a bit beyond her budget she decided to keep going as she had rellies just a few k's down the road.
Anyway we found out later she almost made it to the next garage about 8 k's further on and a mob of these "rellies" had somehow managed to drag this vehicle to said garage and were trying to figure out how to get it to their house about another 10 k's down the track.
What happened after all that I don't know but I reckon that garage just might have become the proud owners of one well used Holden wagon....lol.

Cheers
Pop

Wow, incredible coincidence !
Although it might have felt somewhat good driving past, I feel I would have stopped (maybe after driving a km or so past him and coming back), assisted as best possible, and in the course of the act casually say, 'By the way, do you remember passing me on Cable Beach when I really needed a snatch recovery last week ??"
He would probably have learned a very good lesson in what to do next time, and possible future karma consequences.

A nice thank-you!

I helped a young couple once - they had a couple of 12-ish kids with them and he had bogged his Hilux to the pan in loose sand at the back of a dune, trying to drive up a walking track to the beach and slid sideways onto a tree.

He sent his partner to find me, which she did and I drove with her to their campsite about a km away. Found him asleep at the wheel with a Bundy and coke in his hand and a few empties on the floor and the cabin reeking of smoking products other than tobacco.

After a couple of hours with straps, winch and snatch blocks, got him out with no help from him and no damage to his car.

Had a bit of a chat with Mrs who said thanks, but that was it. Not a word of thanks from him, nor an offer of a can or any other "thank you" gesture.

I guess the benefit to me was the practice recovery on someone else's vehicle with no risk of damage to mine. But that's all I got :-)

..
Terry, the way it should be, not necessarily the dinner, but just genuine appreciation of someones genuine assistance :)

That story of yours Frank, just gotta shake your head at that sort of situation.
You did great to keep up the recovery in those circumstances, drunk and high ?
Who knows where that could go.

I hope the kids weren't left with their idiot father in the vehicle, some people should not be allowed to produce offspring.