Rawson 16/08/2014
Eight of us met up at the Stockyard Pub in Rawson ready for 8:30 start. Jeff ran through the corner man system and then we headed out. I
was tail man. We hadn’t gone more than a couple of km’s before I came across Tyler messing about on the ground. Waited for him to get going, then followed after him for a short distance when my chain joining link snapped. I didn’t have a spare with me. Took some time for the others to notice I was missing. Nobody ever notices the tail man!
Fortunately Graeme had a spare link with him. Not an easy task to fit the replacement link on the trail but eventually we had it
nailed and we were off again.
Things flowed smoothly. Great tracks, big ups and downs.There were a couple of slippery boggy clay hills that slowed us up a little but
nothing too bad. Views were fantastic. This is trail riding paradise.
My stomach had been telling me for some time that it needed refueling when we
met up with Helen for lunch. She had a fire going, snags and burgers cooked, kettle on the boil, even Swiss roll for pudding. Pure indulgence.
We had done 90+km at this stage so several bikes were on reserve. Helen had also brought our spare fuel with, so we filled up and set
off again.
There was a smattering of snow around and it was a bit chilly. More big hills and some easy river crossing followed before Greg’s bike just decided it had had enough and stopped working. Changed plugs, checked for loose wires,nothing. I had no idea where we were. What to do?
We decided to hide the bike in the bush, I dinked Greg and we all headed up to the top of a nearby hill to see if we could get phone reception. We were in luck and Jeff was soon talking to Helen and arranging a meeting place. While Jeff was talking to Helen I heard
another conversation going on.
Greg was complaining how uncomfortable it is to be dinked on a TE449 because he had to sit on the fuel cap. Tyler kindly asked Charlie if Charlie would like to let Greg ride his bike and then Charlie can jump on the back of mine because he likes sitting on hard objects. The ridiculousness of this chat just cracked me up.
Meeting place sorted, we set off again. It wasn’t too far,maybe 3 or 4 km to the meeting place. Greg didn’t agree. He thought it was much
further. Just shows how relative distance can be.
At the meeting point, with strict instructions not to damage anything I decided to hand my bike over to Greg for him to ride back with the others. Being my son I don’t like the thought of just leaving him in the middle of the forest alone. Not sure why! I then settled down for a long wait until Helen arrived.
Imagine how surprised I was when 15 minutes or so later Helen turned up. Threw my kit in the back and jumped in the Nissan Patrol. Off we went, through the river, then into low range first gear for a short steep rocky climb. I was white knuckling the handle on the dashboard. During the trip we had two oncoming 4WD to negotiate past which Helen did with no problems. Eventually we reached the broken bike. A neat 3 point turn with the trailer on the tight track and we facing the right way. Soon had the broken Husky loaded and we set off
for the return trip.
We were back at Stockyard Pub in Rawson just after 06:00pm. The others had beaten us back by less than half an hour.
Thanks to Jeff for putting on a great day and leading an awesome ride, all the guys for lots of laughs and helping out when required.
Helen was the hero for me though. Thanks for arranging lunch, carting our fuel and driving all over the place rescuing us. I really appreciate it. It would have taken me hours to recover Greg’s bike if not for you.
I would also encourage more guys to give the clubman rides a go. They are quite doable if you are half fit and aren’t a complete novice. Help is always available anyway.
