After a bit of an abscence riding, the Easter long weekend was to be my return to real, hard riding.
With a bit of a trip required to the riding spot (6 hours!), I thought it best to try and team up with another club Member to share the driving load/keep each other awake.
Travis answered my email, and arrived around 3pm on Thursday afternoon.
He has a great setup Patrol ute, with a myriad of compartments in the back making it excellent to stow camping gear, food etc. It even has a small bar fridge wired in, which served perfectly for the food that needed refrigeration.
We loaded up the gear and the Berg and climbed into the ute for the long journey ahead.
We grabbed KFC along the way for dinner and arrived at the campsite around 10pm later that night. The last few kilometers serving as a perfect test for the new lights on the mighty Patrol ute, and lighting up the campground quite well, so we could find the rest of the Amtra crew.
Russell and Matt met us there, and helped point us in the right direction for camping spots.
It only took about 10 minutes for me to get the Tent out and setup, while Travis had a swag, which took him about 20 seconds to get setup! We loosened off the bikes a bit, and left them to be fully unloaded in the morning.
We found some more likely looking lads surrounding the fire, so we brought over our chairs, grabbed a beer and settled in for a chat before turning in.
The first thing that became obvious on the Friday morning was that a Tent doesn't stop much sun from shining in! I was awake at sparrowfart, so headed over to the fire to throw some more branches on and get it ready to boil the billy.
Looking around I noticed that Mike, Russell D, and Big Dave had all arrived overnight, and I'd slept straight through any noise they'd made.
After a breakfast of tinned pears, and a Nescafe Cappucino (good for camping, easy to organise and no milk needed), it was time to get ready to hit the trails.
Matt was having trouble getting his Leatt Brace to sit comfortably, but after a bit of fiddling/advice from others it was organised and fitting nicely.
After the usual Amtra "Jacket on/Jacket off" discussion which seems to happen when there are some clouds around, we were off with Mark in the lead and Big Dave doing tail duties.
The trails in the Pyrenees were in perfect condition, if not a tad slippery due to plenty of rain and flooding easrlier in the year.
There were lots of trees down, causing some interesting gumby moments for those of us feeling a bit rusty.
Being a shortarse caused some serious problems at one of the tricky hills later in the day, and after a couple of tries, I had to get Big Dave to ride the FE570 up over the top. I gave up after accidentally rolling backwards into a ditch and then getting stuck in a rut. Having a bit of extra leg length would be quite handy on occaison.
Travis lightly boiled the CRF450 in one tight section, and we caught up with some 4wd's a couple of times while out on the trail, overall it was a day of great trails and riding.
We all got back to the camp in the late afternoon and organised dinner, sausages in hot dog buns for me, steak and shasliks I think for Travis, and a variety of other things were soon being cooked around the campsites. I took the opportunity to take photo's of all the bikes there.
Matts brand new HRC special edition CRF450
Russell's 520 has seen some sensational riding over the last few years.
Mikes faithful WR450 and Super tanker fuel tank
Dave's 620. Perfect for The Zen Master
Marks BMW is really still being run in.
Russell D's CRF, ready for the next days trail riding.
Big Dave's XR650 - He makes it look easy wrestling it around the trails.
Travis' CRF 450 ready to rumble. Wow, a lot of Honda's on the ride
The Berg 570 with the first days dirt already drying.
After dinner, we all sat around the fire again and chatted about bikes, rides camping etc. Matt had become a Leatt Brace convert and was now quite comfortable wearing it. For those considering one, persevere. The first 30 minutes of so of riding might be a little uncomfotable, but its definitely a short term thing.
Saturday was more of the same in the morning, but there was certainly no need of the Jacket discussion, with a beautiful sunny day promising great conditions. Matt volunteered to go Tail rider for the day, and away we went.
Heading out on Saturday we took a bit of road at first to get to a different section of trails, and came across a slight problem caused by floods a few weeks before. The Bridge was completely washed away!
After a quick discussion with the locals, we figured out how to get around that obstacle, and continued on to more excellent trails for the day. Plenty of tricky hills, and a bit drier in the sun. Lunch was in a very quiet valley, with some ruins nearby.
More great scenery during the day, and some great hills climbs and descents throughout the day made for great riding.
Back at camp Saturday night, Russell and Rachels daughter Jenna performed the "Bonkers Dance", which had Matt and Rachel in stitches.
Mike and others headed off to organise some firewood to ensure that things were warm by the campfire later in the night. A Cold beer, nice fire after a day of hard trail riding. It doesn't get much better than that.
Sunday morning Russell, Rachel and Jenna had to head off, so we had a bit later start as we wished them a good trip home and headed off again with Mike doing tail main duties.
More great trails through the day ending with a quite tricky hill that only Dave and Mark made it up, despite most of use having at least one go. Big Dave and Russell D had a couple of tries at it, but the hill won in the end.
We took the easier way around the hill, and saw a Kangaroos along the way, with one of them coming within inches of crashing into me as we neared the top of the hill. Scared the crap out of me, so i'm sure that Skippy was a bit stressed afterwards as well.
The view from the top of the hill was worth it though. But was to be topped just a few minutes later after riding around to the spot where they launch the hang gliders from.
We headed back to camp next and after a little discussion, Travis and I decided it would be worth packing up and hitting the road back on the Sunday night, rather than staying another night.
We dined on KFC again Sunday night, and after a steady trip home, Travis dropped me home at around 11pm, and continued on home himself.
Thanks heaps for the lift Travis, and Mark, Big Dave, Matt and Mike for Lead/Tail duties.
