Ouyen Ride 12 & 13 july

OUYEN, WHAT A SANDBLAST

12 & 13 July 2008 by Wade Evans

After a 6 hour drive to get to the start of Big Als Desert ride saw me walking into the Ouyen pub at 9 o’clock Friday night looking for someone I knew and finding none at first, hmmm not a good start until, Mark Salter’s familiar face came into view. After a beer I found out that the rest of the crew were still eating elsewhere in the pub after Al and few others had been out riding most of dayand they looked stuffed. Must have been one very tough day Alex. More amtra members arrived over the next 2 hours and at midnight feeling tired I found my room and went to bed.

Saturday morning, with breakfast and Als bike maintenance session done 16 riders filed out of town heading for Hattah Lakes 35km north following the sandy, tight and at times whooped out trail next to the railway line. This gave Serge and Aaron our back up crew loads of photo opportunities. Having never ridden in sand before the 35km was a real education for me. Deep loose sand plays havoc with your steering, following tyre tracks from riders in front rather than where you want your front wheel to go. Stand on the pegs lean back and keep the power on and don’t stop, was the advice from Shane. This worked but took some confidence to master.We cleaned out the general store at Hattah Lakes of all their hot food and refuelled our bikes ready for more trails. Another facet of riding the desert is speed. There many wide open roads that must be travelled to connect up with the more challenging tracks, so speeds up to 100km/h on hard packed sand are the norm slowing at times for the odd bend or soft sand section and the thought of kangaroos bounding out of the scrub and into your path are never far away. The challenging tracks were worth the long drive they were AWESOME some following fence lines, round dry salt lakes others tightly twisting through the mallee bush like a skier on a slalom course, and up and down whooped out sand ridges resulting in smiles and sweaty faces at the next regroup. Mopoke is name of a bush camp where would stop for lunch, Serge and Aaron had set up in a hut here and had salad rolls tea, coffee, soup, fruit and cakes ready for 16 grateful riders. Well done to you both. Mark at this stage had hurt his left foot and elected to ride the DR650 back to Ouyen with John and Steve, and then all the way to Melbourne the next day. Upon his return Mark spent most of the next week in Alfred Hospital with broken bones in his left foot.
Dave had been tailman up until lunch so I took over from him, more fantastic tracks after lunch, more high speed straights and corners to miss. I then had the opportunity to take a few pictures along the way. Hayden and Rowan were having a big day out riding the wheels off their bikes giving the back markers, mostly me a good sand blast on their way past to the front again. It was now late in the afternoon, Al had us all on our way home, which seemed the long way back, however heading in the right direction and still in daylight until we rolled up behind Haydens Husky which had ceased all forward motion. Tim and Hayden checked the Husky’s engine for signs of life and finding none decided that the Husqvarna should be towed home and not be set on fire as some had suggested. Alex had volunteered as the tow truck on the all conquering KTM450 for the slow, cold trip back to Ouyen. In the now fast disappearing daylight for the rest of us it was back to business lights on following the ever winding sandy track along side the railway line to Ouyen.
Ouyen pub on Saturday night is the focal point for local entertainment being that nothing else was open we had our meals and liquid refreshments here, and while most of the crew partied well into the night the tired old bloke with his eyes hanging out his cheeks called it quits at 10pm.
Sunday and nearly a full nights does wonders to an aching body, only waking once to the noise of some pissed as locals out in the street trying coax some life out the dead Husky on Hayden’s trailer.
Breakfast, Big Al looking bright as a button was in the centre of much discussion over where we would ride, who was riding or not, which bike was going back on whose trailer etc. while light rain fell on cold early morning. Back to Hattah was the popular decision and at about 9 we were underway again this time using some of opposite side of the railway line before changing over to the now well formed 30 odd km track used the day before. Again topping up fuel tanks at Hattah saw us heading for parts unknown under a dry, but uncertain sky. Exploring some that tracks took us in a North West direction (I think) we moved onward and with Tafun as tailman there would be no slacking off. Moving quickly through low mulga scrub slowing only when a mob of Kangaroos crossed our path and a quick stop to check out some old buildings, eventually ending up at water tank on private property with sheep carcases scattered about the place and know land marks to go by. After some back tracking with Jay keeping us entertained along the way leaping the Yamaha off anything he could find to leap off (making mental here not to crash in front him) Al got us back to what he thought was the right road only problem was a 4WD vehicle some way down the road was seemingly blocking our path. Was this an angry farmer whose land we had mistaking been riding around on. One way to find out and that was to send Shane down there and ask and that way only he would get shot at instead of all of us. Sounded reasonable to me. Shane came back explaining that the police had been called and we had better get out of here Quick! I had my finger on the start button until Shane took his helmet off revealing a smile. Jake had parked his 4WD down the road with lunch and drinks waiting for us to turn up.
Some open roads after lunch and speeds were up using the banks on either side as berms or if you over cook the corner as a jump, lots of fun to be had but sadly the afternoon shadows were pointing the direction we had to return to. A short haul back over some more sandy ridges saw the group back at the railway and sandblasting our way back to Ouyen for the last time.A big thank you to Alan White for all his organising, navigating and never ending wit also Aaron & Serge for their support roles and photography, Saturday lunch was fantastic guys.

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