Then after a refuelling we headed into the wildernesses on dirt track trails.
Unfortunately the route we took was a bit rough and our support truck had to turn back and find a different route
Things were not going well as we soon came to a branch in the track that went off in multiple directions.
Luckily a local was travelling in the opposite direction, so we stoped him and asked for direction. Problem is the map was useless to him as he had problems even understanding it. So he resorted to drawing lines in the sand with a stick.
What started off a nice track soon turned into the track from hell. Steep declines and inclines made of rocks and loose gravel had my bike jumping around. I am so glad I adjusted the suspension the other day. Mentally it was totally challenging. I would be standing with my weight forward applying pressure to the front wheel for grip while the back was jumping around. Then all of a sudden I would hit deep loose gravel or deep soft sand and I would have to squat down to allow the bike to move more freely and transfer my weight back across the rear wheel to lift the front wheel to stop it diving into the loose surface and throwing me off. Quite good fun but not when you are half way around a corner.
This track was 30 miles long so we had to tough it out.
Several times the front wheel would dig in and would go left or right momentarily. This is where more words of wisdom from Clinton Smoot came into my head “pretend you have eggs in your gloves and hold the bars lightly so not to break them and keep the power on”. This helps the front wheel bounce around until it finds its own way forward. If I were to grip too tight the bike would go off balance and throw me. If I were to brake the bike would dig in and we would go down. If I was to power off the front wheel would dig in and I would go down, momentum is the key to staying upright. All the training I have done, and all those YouTube videos on adventure riding paid off, I was keeping up with everyone else’s who are far more experienced.
Then we hit a deep depression with a bend in it. It was about 2m deep (you could not see people when they were in it) and was about 3m long before it rose sharply above ground level. Problem was it was full of sand. So you had to go up, down, right then up again to get out. 7 others had made it, so could I. I went over the top and into the depression and almost instantly the front wheel started moving left and right. I have to steer right so shifted my body weight to the right to “suggest” to the bike that it should go right. I also needed more power to get me out of the depression. The bike swayed left and right and then settled in the right direction. I applied move power and headed to the Vcut into the sand in the top where the other bikes had gone and I made it over. Totally exhausted I backed off on the power and check my mirrors for Henry who was following me, no sign of him. I doubled back and found him over in the sand. Both him and the bike were ok, but a pannier had broken loose. After a quick roadside repair we check to see where the others were, expecting them to be heading back to us. There was no one. As far as the eye could see, no one. We were on our own.
Everyone needs a plan so we planned. We ride ahead to see if we could catch them up. Then we came to a fork in the track. We stopped. We checked the surface and we thought we could see bike tire tracks going left, so we decided to take that track and stop in 10mins time. We road on. 10 mins later we stop. Looking at the track we can no longer see bike tracks. So we walked to higher ground to see if we could see them. No, not anywhere, and now it’s getting hot. We need a new plan.
We knew where we needed to get to and I have a satnav and satellite tracker. We both decided that it would be useless trying work out where we were on the map so I turned on the satnav - Just as Mark appears over a hill in the distance. Apparently the others had stopped just ahead. So we hopped on our bikes and joined them. Only to be greated by the fact that we were all lost! Anyways, as it turned out we were quite near where we should be so headed off in the right direction. Unfortunately this section of track was 100% washboard. As the name implies it looks like an old washboard with close corrigations. It’s insane to ride on and just one big continuous bone jarring vibration. But thankfully it came to an end and we hit the tarmac again and within 15 mins we were sitting having a mint tea at a local cafe.
We then took another track, this time uneventful, to Zagora where we are now in a really nice hotel. So now I am off to the bar. I need a large gin.
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