Recently we took the family and rode the Simpson dessert on our trail bikes which will go down as one of our best family memories as everyone played a part and extended themselves.
But I had one more mission in the year I turned 60 and this was to ride the Vic/Sa
border track before it closes till autumn.
We had already proved our bikes and systems and the
border track was to be a relatively easy 1 day task after the 4 solid days in the Simpson.
Our
camp site was at Coburn Pines, a quiet out of the way place, off Firebreak track 10km east of the vic/
sa border.
I had mapped out a 120km return loop from
camp which went south down the border thru the one way section and the big hills then looping around and up Centre track back to
camp via Scorpian springs and Firebreak track.
This loop was just within the range of our 4 bikes, (DRZ400,KLX450,Wr450,TTR230).
The day before, on the drive into
camp we had to travel Firebreak track pulling our bike trailer and the warm conditions had made the sand soft, with 24 psi in the tyres the GU Patrol had simply bogged down even with both difflocks engaged and we had to go to 16psi on the tyres to make it to
camp.
Aren't mobile phones great - there is a shortcut and we text our friends who were a couple of hours behind us and advised them of the easy way in - pity that they didn't watch there GPS and ended up at a farmhouse, but thats another story
that they will have to live down.
On the morning of the bike ride we all loaded up. The sun was shining and off we headed. Soon the soft sand on Firebreak track was slowing us down, but being fresh and fit it was ok, but by the time we got to the start of the
actual
border track I needed to catch my breath. Everyone else seemed ok.
My bike was heavier than the others but was equipped with a steering stabilizer to assist in the sand.
Heading down the
border track was fairly easy and the 4 riders were really enjoying the ride.
Soon it started to drizzle.
The riding was getting harder, it requires a lot of phyiscal effort in the sand as you are constantly adjusting your steering and body position to try and keep the front wheel in the ruts made by cars. After a couple of hours we were at the big hills. There were no wheel marks from cars on the inside harder
tracks over the hills and it was sheer delight to just apply the power and pull the bikes up and over the toughest hills.
Feeling pretty pleased with ourselves we rested after the big efforts and then turned towards Centre track and the drizzle which had now become rain.
This track is quite easy, but the sand sections were getting mushy and the occasional flat clay sections had started to turn ice slippery.
At least I wasn't the first to fall, but soon I was lagging behind and wasn't sure were the others were, despite the use of UHF radios.
The next 20km became a lone battle for me to stay upright and moving , with real exhaustion setting in, rain and cold and slippery tracks it was much harder going than the Simpson ever was.
I had already had two falls when I encounted an easy sand
hill and just couldn't keep the bike straight. I bounced off the
embankment and this time just lay there for a while winded. It was a huge effort to extract the Suzuki DRZ400 alone.
I knew it was heavier than my mates enduro bikes, but it had never felt this heavy.
Its was here I think that I also lost my spare fuel container, and the hand grip had seperated from the handlebars.
Several kms ahead my friends were waiting at Scorpian springs where we had a short rest and discussed the situation.
They were averaging about 50 whilst I was sitting around 35 kmh.
We were only 20 km from
camp and pretty wet, but hard riding keeps you warm and, not wanting to hold the others up I said I was ok and we pressed on.
I was riding a lot slower now and completely exhausted by the time we reached the end of our loop section and were back at Firebreak track only 10km from
camp. At this stop I had really had enough and just couldn't go on and convinced
my relucant friends to push on to
camp, while they seemed in better condition than me, one had already misjuded it and hit Mallee stump and had a rapidly swelling foot injury and needed some pain killers.
They wouldn't leave me at first, but as it was a straight run, and we were now back into mobile phone coverage I convinced them to go on the understanding that if I wasn't at
camp within 1 hour of them they would come looking.
I also assured them that I would not deviate from this one straight track.
They headed for home and I sat down and ate a large cherry ripe bar and drank a liter of
water over the next 1/2 hour.
I received a text message that they arrived in
camp as I headed off however another rider had hit a tree hard, and had wrenched their shoulder and arm.
Whilst some have a hard time admitting it was obvious that tiredness was contributing to making mistakes.
The rain stopped and the sun came out.
The rest had helped, but after riding only 2 km I was down again as the tiredness came back, I could see the fall coming but just couldn't prevent it.
My steering stabilizer appeared to have gone soft from the constant pounding and this wasn't helping.
The sand was so soft underneath - you can look at the wheel ruts made by cars and judge the difficulty for bikes.
If the tyre mark is flat and fully there its easy but when the sand is soft it flows back into wheel track and is hard to ride, or drive.
In this case it had flowed back in and had some wet slush over the top as
well.
It took an hour to struggle the remaining 6km back to
camp, sometimes only 2 or 3 hundred meters at a time.
I was in direct
UHF radio contact with
camp by now so they didn't need to come back and eventually I rode, completely stuffed, into
camp, very glad that this challenge was over.
My 3 riding friends had just made it back, with one now saying it was the hardest ride they had done.
Al were onto their reserve tanks while my slower bike had used less fuel and was still on the main
tank after the tricky 120km ride.
With 2 injured and unable to ride my friends had to leave for home the next day.
I had found it hard to have had to stop when the others kept going.
But I was just fully stuffed and after a days rest, during which we made an emergency dash into town to get some instant cappicino's my wife hadn't packed, I was able to head off on a shorter solo ride to explore some tracks I had never seen before.
Sometimes you just can't get enough of being out there!