A group of merry men gathered at the Frances Pub on a Friday night in readiness for a two day ride through the Little Desert to Pinnaroo.
As with most adventures that start in a pub there was much amber liquid consumed. On this particular night Coopers Pale Ale was the poison of choice. There was extra incentive this evening because Mr Cooper was offering Free gifts for the lucky soles who’s scratchy returned a triumphant “Well done, you have won a price.” The Coopers towels, stubby holders and hats were adorned by many.
Saturday Ride
The ride stumbled a little for one rider by the name of “Whoopsie” before it even began, as he was gearing up he realised his helmet had gone awol, more specifically it has been left in the boot in Bambra. Some quick thinking and sheer luck that the first local person he asked knew someone who owned a helmet. A short walk later, a helmet was procured (and it fitted reasonably well too).
The second rider to hit a snag was Leigh Rodgers, whose rear tyre decided it wasn’t up for the ride about 20 to 30kms in. After a failed attempt to remove the mouse and fix the issue with a regular tube, he resorted to riding back on a tyre-less rear rim, I was impressed with the speed he could get in sand with no apparent grip.
The rest of us continued onto Serviceton where we had our first fuel stop, and also checked out the local Railway station which looks a little out of place in such a small town. The rest of the ride saw Shan have a puncture, he had all the gear to repair it except the all important pump. So very kind hearted Mark and Paul road back to help him out. We made our way to the Big Desert Wilderness Area after a short rest and lunch. This enabled everyone to fuel up which was handy for some of the 2 stroke bikes, I’m talking about you Mark Paton, who was relying heavily on the DRZ 400 as a fuel tanker to get him to lunch.
The Big Desert Wilderness Area saw the softness of the sand over all terrain step up a bit. The track was awesome but after three hours riding in there I have to admit I was a little over the sand. We exited the desert just before sunset and made our way to Pinnaroo via Murrayville. Because of the hold-ups we were a few hours behind schedule and spent the last hour or so riding in the dark. Mark’s 2 stroke needed the fuel tanker’s help at Murrayville, the Husky was a thirsty bastard. Mick who drove the support vehicle had ventured about 26 kms into the Big Desert Wilderness to meet us for our last fuel stopped. He was last to arrive at the Golden Grain Pub in Pinnaroo, mainly because he had gotten bogged in the sand on his way out. Super human effort Mick to get back in one piece.
Sunday Ride
This ride was a more straight forward, straight down the border track, it was uneventful except Scotty McMinn did manage to kick the dirt on one corner and lucky for us it was caught on camera. You can view it at the very end of the video.
