Sunday the 28th. Amtra Port Gawler ride.
Officially, the ride would be cancelled if it was over 30 C, but I knew that a
few would still tough it out, even if it did get that hot.
The weather forecast was 32 C and high winds. Oh well, I'm sure it wont
actually get that hot out there.
So I dragged my sorry self from the bed. Darn, I must have had too many
preparatory wines the night before, things were looking a bit grim. However,
as it was the end of daylight savings, I had an extra hour to spare for
recovery.
Its a bit of a hike to the park, about 80km for me, but I got the blue beastie
loaded, and set out around 10:30am. Sheesh, a late start eh!
Once I arrived at the park, I found a few of the guys (& gals) already there.
Unfortunately, so was the wind :-(
While it definitely hadn't reached 32 C, the wind was certainly whipping past,
and creating quite large dust storms.
But anyway, I jumped on the Beastie and went for a burn around the enduro
loop. Jeez did that suck! The sand was very dry, and not much fun to ride in.
Usually when i've been there before the sand has been a little moist, and
better traction is the result.
Oh well, I tried the MX track next. Much better, still dry, but since I got my
suspension done, she hooks up a lot better, and apart from the whoops, I was
having fun.
The trouble was, after a couple of laps, my throat felt like salty sandpaper
had been used to rub my tonsils down! Back to the car for some water and a
chat with the guys.
Skip & Rodney had arrived at around 7:30 in the morning, but unfortunately,
Skips clutch had died on the big 520, and Rodney's CRM had also spat the
dummy, so they were packing up ready to go home.
Ben got the 525 off the truck, and had a squirt around, but wasn't impressed
with the conditions either. Daniel was trying out his new heavier duty
springs, and Brian was just hooning around the MX track.
"Crash" Beck was there, but I didn't actually see him come off. Maybe he
didn't?
After a bit of a chat, the wind had died down, and the cool change was
starting to come through. I went back out to the MX track and put in about
15-20 laps, and when I came back most of the guys were heading off.
Not being use to MX, I figured i'd probably done enough, and the cool change
was coming in, so I packed it up as well and headed on home.
It rained a bit on way home, so I left with about 15 minutes to spare.
Unfortunately, I spent the next two days with aching back muscles! Seems I
need more MX practise :-(