Day 3
Briefing the evening before learned that it would be a challenging stage on the 'Mysterious Mountain': difficult navigation and muddy slopes if there were
rain and clouds... and there were. I tried to convince myself that this
would be fun... but the thought of me struggling with 200kilo steel trying
to get that up a slippery slope... dropping it and worse... having to pick it up several times... I decided to skip this one and take the scenic route to
the next hotel. Along the way looking for rear brake pads: yesterday's mud ate most of them away.
looking for brake pads in the nearest large city
no brake pads, but nice flowers ... yes
taking the scenic route
Sure I arrived early at the hotel and when riders and stories started to trickle in I didn't regret my decision earlier that day. It sure has been quite
a struggle.
even the 4WD quads had quite an efford to conquer that slope...
the yellow brigade comes roaring by...
The other heavy bike, BMW HP2, smoked and burned its clutch plates while being stuck somewhere in the mud.
No chance to get it fixed within days: end of rally for this guy:
A few other crews had to work late to restore all the damage done:
Dakarian sceneries
I'd found and replaced the rear pads long before that and hit the sack after having a few beers.
Day 4
Ah! Sunny day... mood swing! Let's go! But... on our way to CP1 and riding through a small village one of the guys pulled one wheely too many: flipped the bike
which landed on his foot... AUCH!!! He didn't dare to take of his boot so decided to ride on and see how far he would make it on asperine and ibuprofen
The special is a long stretch of winding forest road through a narrow valley...
wonderful riding and got in to a nice rithm with growing confidence to a point I actually deliberately jumped the bike over
one of these drainage pipes across the road
YEAHAAA!! First controlled jump ever!
Arrived at CP2 and thanked the organisation for this stage: made it all worthwile!... not knowing what was yet to come...
Second half of the day we went through fields, even more forest and up and down a mountain on rocky grounds. At some point the roadbook pointed us up on a steep
and rocky path... I didn't make it; hit one big bolder and then another one, lost control, let go of the bike to see it end up next to the path:
now what?
aren't we having fun? Sure we do...
RH footpeg is dangling: half of the footrest support is snapped off.
Where it happened:
https://maps.google.com/?q=Eastern+E...18582&t=h&z=16
While we're having a look at the situation, a guy comes walking down the slope. He's an experienced motocrosser and we ask him were is bike is: it's a bit
up the slope... he didn't make it in one go...
Still he states it's not difficult... if you choose the right track... sure...
I'm in doubt and already decided to not go further up the mountain untill someone makes notice of the 4WD quad brigade behind... these guys will blast their vehicles
up that path with ease... and there's no room for me to swerve around them if I meet them head on while going down...
... well that's just the mental push I needed. So after putting the Ten back on track and one more tip over we arrive on top:
do I look relieved? I think I do! Still... more to come
Now we only need to get down... Not easy at all... very rocky track, hardly a road, I'm getting tired, my arms feel like wood and all of my confidence of that morning is gone.
Mousse tires are shot and I can feel rocks battering the rims while attempting to keep the Ten at speed / stability. It is a struggle and I'm glad to reach paved road.
Tomorrow is rest day and we'll have a look at the damage.
Three riders are injured today: one broken collarbone, the other 5 broken ribs and broken metatarsal in a foot. End of rally for them...
what happens if you do try a "don't try this at home"
Day 5
There's a hill climb on a local ski slope for the ones that didn't have enough yet... me not included.
The bike needs some TLC: first clean the bike before we start working on it:
getting rid of kilos mud
Then on to the local black smith:
sure looks like a black smith
"we need precision tools for this job..." ... they mostly work on lorries!
Then back to technical assistence. Did buy someones tubes for the price of one beer per tube! Had one good rear tube to fill the rear tire.
Front one turned out to be leaking... so took a fresh, but more firm, mousse to see if that would hold for the rest of the week.
smooth ride
After that the bike was ready to go... but what about me?
Only a handful riders made it to the top of the hill climb. One of the quad-guys made the ultimate attempt but had to leave his quad as a total-loss on
that ski slope.
coming up (not me)...
...and further up on his way to CP1... then on through the forest over rocks to the top...not sure if he made it...