Harrow 2013....a bit of an anti-climax/let down for me, but more on that later.
As Pete said, we left on Friday morning and met at the Ballan Maccas, where Pete gave me a radio so we could talk crap all the way! A mate of Pete's had given him directions to Harrow, via all the back roads, so we could 'freight-train' it all the way there. Well, Pete's directions had us back on the highway at Beaufort, having driven mor k's than if we just stayed on the highway! Any-hoo, we had lunch there and made our way back to the back-road route for the rest of the trip. The drive was uneventful (but long) and we pulled into Harrow around 4:00, where we quickly set up camp and settled into adult, fizzy refreshments with the rest of my Vinduro cronies. Dinner was had, beers were drunk and a good night was had by all.
Saturday dawned, with no real need to get up early, but some of the blokes we were camping with still did, so we were all up by about 8:00. We had a long breakfast and sat around the fire, or walked around the camp, catching up with other guys, till it was time to head to the practice track. 'Practice' is optional, so we chose not to, but plenty did, and some mean lap times were set. As Pete said, some of these blokes don't hold back and were hitting it
hard! After practice, it was back to camp and more drinkies, and impound our bikes in the parc fermme for the cold start. There was an optional dinner at the local mechanics hall, but we chose to have a quite night at camp. Most folk take it pretty easy on Saturday night, and we were all in bed about 10:30.
The rain started at around 4:00 AM! I didn't like the sound of it, but it was there. We rose at around 8:00 and had brekky and geared up. The rain had stopped by then, but it was moist on the ground. We went down to the bikes, listened to the riders briefing and pushed our machines to their starting grid. At 9:14, we were told to 'start-your-engines' and I'm happy to say with-in two kicks, we were all under-way!
The course consisted of 6 loops, each of around 9 k's length, giving a total 'lap' distance of around 55 k's. The first loop and a half were dry, but then the rain started! And it continued...hard! Typical of Harrow, there was a mixture of tight, single lane sections and open, grassy hills. sandy, creek beds and rocky, granite gardens. Long, up-hills and equally long, down hills. the tracks were grouse, but the rain was miserable! At the half way point, we had to ford the Glenelg River, and I didn't care that I stalled it near the end, 'cos I couldn't have gotten any wetter! It got muddy, boggy and slippery and I wasn't sad when we pulled into camp after our first loop. Pete said "a quick lunch and out again?" I said "Really?" He sad, "Get stuffed, I'm not going out in that again!" And that was our assault! One lap and we were spent!
So after waiting for 12 months, the event was over (for us) after 2 hours. We could have gone out again (as some did), but it was just getting treacherous. So we got changed, packed up, collected our bronze medals and GTFOOT!
The drive home was a b!tch. Rain and wind all the way, but we made it home safely. I had a great weekend with Tony, Pete and the other guys, but was just a bit dissapointed with the outcome. still, only 12 months till next Harrow!
Before the rain, ready for action!
Pete and Tony, a little bit wet.
Me, a lot wet!
Team AMTRA
Pete, being Pete!
