FUMINA - SATURDAY 13 OF FEB 2010!!Anthony and I arrived at the car park around 7:30am, not long after that David and Rowan rolled up, followed by Nathan, Tafun, Paul and then AL and family.
We set off at about 8:20am to mineshaft track with AL leading the pack, the first narrow 4WD track of the day was steep and slippery but everyone made it up to meet Tafun at the top who was first to cornerman. The conditions were overcast and very humid with no breeze and therefore very little dust (however there were rocks, but more on that later
) overall fairly good riding conditions.
After going through a river crossing we all met up on the main road to meet with Al's wife who was kindly following us in Al's 4WD with supplies for a breif morning tea stop. By this stage we had done around 30km however I personally felt like we had ridden 60km - it was tough work lugging the TE510 around narrow tracks.
We then headed off down the road to more narrow 4WD tracks with David Smith out in front. One of the highlights prior to lunch was a incline clay hill (slip & slide) that had everone struggling to get up, but eventually everyone made it to the top with Anthony finishing it off with a nice mono to the main road. Then there were a few more narrow 4WD tracks with Nathan, Tafun and Rowen showing us how its done. It was around about this time that I swapped bikes with Paul L KTM250 which was great for me as i found it easier to manouver than the te510, big thanks to Paul for letting me ride your KTM. Around midday we headed to the carpark for lunch to again to meet with "Mrs Al" who had hotdogs and soft drink for everone. Big thank you to Al and family for the premier hospitality it was greatly appreciated by all.
After lunch we all refueled our bikes and set off to more narrow 4WD tracks, not far into it Nathan was going at great pace but unfortunatley his foot hit a tree stump breaking his big toe causing him a fair bit of pain however he soldiered on for the rest of the ride - great effort mate!
David set off out in front to stop at the top of the hill to record footage of us all getting up (or trying to get up) this rutted slippery snotty hill complete with plenty of tree roots, Rowan made it look easy as the rest of us struggled. At this stage we had done around 130km and most were getting tired. Tafun and Nathan were keen to do more narrow tracks but majority ruled and we all set off to more open flowing 4WD tracks to head back to the car park. I welcomed this opportunity to unleash the beast and whilst fanging along at break neck speed I happened to notice Nathan and Tafun up in front and decided (perhaps stupidly) it would be fun to fly past them. As I got closer and closer to Tafun a F**king meteorite of a rock came flying up from his rear tyre to almost taking my head clean off
..Thank God for saftey gear. Safe to say I backed off the pace after that.
We all made it back to the car park safetly at around 5:00pm - the only casualities being Nathan's big toe, my nose and thermofan which broke off the 510.
All in all it was a great ride big thanks to Al and family for their generosity, thank you to David Smith for filming and leading some of the ride, Rowen and Paul for tailman duties.
Shout out!!
Lastly a shout to Rob Cecelja to get better, looking forward to seeing him back out on the tracks soon.
Ride List
Al Wr250 - ride leader
Tafun Wr250
Nathan Te310
David Wr450
Rowen Ktm250
Anthony Wr450
Steve Te510
Paul Ktm250
