New bikes first ride TASSIE

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Push and Shove

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We wanted to 'run in' the 690 so thought a trip down to the west coast would be nice seeing as Helen has never been down there.


We wanted to do as many tracks or gravel roads as possible so we bought a heap of maps and planned a bit of a ride.
We set off at about 9:30am and headed up behind westbury, osmarsden, meander and eventually popped out at molecreek.
From molecreek we went through paradise to sheffield where we had some lunch and topped up with fuel.
We spoke to a local guy who tried to give us some ideas as to how to get to waratah via tracks/forestry roads.
So we ended up going through barrington, paloona, wilmont and fueled up then through upper castra then we hit the bush at nietta.
This is where the adventure really started!! We learnt a few things on this trip but the main one was that the maps dont really update regularly enough and what they call 'vehicular tracks' and whats reality can be very different.


We were going through what you would call over grown single track for several klm's. It was reasonably easy type of stuff so for a few hours we were having a lot of fun the whole time not really knowing if we were going to pop out onto a forestry road.

After riding through this one track for quite a long time we got to a river that at first thought looked unpassable. After contemplating going back we decided to have a crack at dropping down the river bank and getting up out the other side. Well it took us almost an hour to get the 690, us and all the gear about 30 meters! But we done it, all the time hoping that was as adventurous as it was gunna get!
We then kept going along this track for about 10 or so kays. It was very slippery and over grown. The tyres on the 690 were getting no grip at all so i was trying to ride it without spinning up the tyre but this was impossible making it a lot of fun slipping around the place. We almost crashed several times but was lucky enough to slide to a halt with the bike upright everytime. So after all this fun we realised from the gps that we were doing a big loop back to where we come from, so we back tracked to a turn off that we passed and tried our luck on it.


To our absolute relief this track eventually took us to a main forestry road. It is now late in the afternoon, raining and we are not totally sure if the forestry road is going to take us to somewhere familiar. The gps didnt have any of these roads and the map was useless. After about another half hour or so we popped out up the back of south rianna!

At this stage we decided we had been adventerous enough and took the black top all the way down to waratah. It was now pissing down with rain so we arrived at the pub just before dark to a much appreciated shower.

Roland and his wife and Robbie and his wife were already there and had a bit of a giggle at us walk in soaking wet and with mud from head to toe. They knick named us push and shove after telling them about the river crossing and how we got the bike through. They were also relieved they didnt come with us LOL


Waratah pub is very bike friendly, they put our bikes in the back shed locked up, let us hang all our gear around the heaters and offered to dry anything we needed in the dryer etc. They had a local tranny at the bar amongst other locals that kept us amused for some of the night.
After a nice counter meal and a few drinks we hit the sack at about 11pm after covering 300 or so kays on day one.
We woke up early enough the next morning to quite a bit of fog and as usual for the area it had been raining. We were contemplating going home via the western explorer track but choose to leave it for another trip when we have people with us.
Roland had to do some repairs before they could leave and helen fell arse over head on some slippery steps

The others and ourselves all left in different directions. We decided to go up over the cradle link road for a look and do a bit of touristy type stuff while getting home pretty much the shorter way.


Only took about 200 kays getting home but we were happy to get out of the cold and be home
We learnt that we need smaller boots, different helmets and better gloves.
 
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