Desert Bash 2022
Day 1
BIG debate at BIG Billy Bore campsite in BIG Desert. Unicorn bike, unicorn route, unicorn state or is it unicorn trip with the fit for purpose bike that makes it a 🦄. What is it about campfires that ignite this BIG debate?
This trip was different in a lot of ways. Ride participants was expected to make their own way to BIG Billy Bore Campsite, BIG Desert on Friday before dark. Robbo and I pulled up a spot over lunch time with our BIG Rigg in BIG Desert. Surprised to find all the crew finishing off setting up camp. Excitement levels was high. Eager to turn up the dials on the 1st short squirt in the sand tracks that the Mallee country is so famous for.
Turned out to be a tough rodeo. The horses bucked and we got thrown high and hard. Some of the bull riders (reference to ADV bike) had their hands full.
Not a word of a lie. I’m the most faithful to my steed, but after that lesson in humiliation even I had a glance at the new, young, sexy redhead with her ass so tight and light. Also further made appealing with a nip and tuck Scott’s steering damper job that cost her sugar daddy a fortune I’m sure. Blokes were all over her like cheap perfume. Everyone wanted a ride.
No matter, that eve around the mainspring heat source camp fire Robbo put some fast healing plaster on the deep wounds cut into our pride. His plan was to go further north the next day. “There, there. All will be better and we shall ride another day”.
Day 2
The BIG pile of wood gathered and cut to size prevented that heat source from ever going out the whole time we were in BIG Desert.
Early morning warm-up, coffee and breakfast and we sprinted away. Bull riders sitting this one out 🙈🙉🙊
To our disappointment Colin’s loaner bike gave drama 2 km’s from camp. In gear, yet rear wheel did not engage. More about this later on as the worst was anticipated. Clutch? Gearbox? BIG money? Dig a BIG hole and that’s the end of that? Bike was recovered and Colin had all morning to gather BIG wood. Count your blessings. Things happen for a reason.
Another tough morning playing in the sand. 60 km’s 3 or 4 hours. BIG launch as per Birchy instructional video’s. Get on the pegs straight away. Heels down, weight back. Don’t fight the steering. Keep momentum. We all had our turn on little offs , but at least no BIG downs like the day before. Get up, lift up, BIG launch…very testing. Hard yakka for such little distance.
Back at camp for lunch Robbo and Martin had a closer look at Colin’s loaner bike. Turns out it’s not a BIG fault. Merely the idiot that serviced it to replace sprockets and chain. The front sprocket came off the spleen. Martin gathered some tools from all round and within 30 min bike was AC~DC. Ready to rock!
Filled up with fuel we set off for the arvo sprint. 8 km to BIG Dune. By the sounds of the engines there was growing confidence in the air, however we were knackered. Fatigue set in quickly. I was fearing silly mistakes.
BIG Dune is exactly that. A colossal challenge. Only the young redhead made it up all the way.
The way back to the main drag from BIG Dune was only 8 km’s, but felt far-reaching. A momentous effort to just keep going. When you this tired silly thoughts enter your think tank. I wondered which will be easier. Correct the bike in the sand or drop it, pick it up and start again.
Once back at camp, relaxing in front of the fire, made sizable by everyone adding wood, we felt alive again. A 🦄 day for sure. A BIG box ticked for most. Rolf happy he finally found a challenge worthy of his ever growing skill. Happy he finally decided on the 🦄 bike for him to get once restrictions come to an end.
Day 3
Camp came alive early morning. Even before we had time to grind coffee the 4WD’s clan, our neighbor’s, had early breakfast to set off. Today the plan was to relocate to Hattah Outback Roadhouse. A favorite spot for meeting up and ride in Murray-Sunset. Once there camp was set up in a BIG haste. Fueled up, we roared across the Calder Hwy to ride parallel to the railway line. After about 19 very quick km’s we reached Nowingi Line Track. Followed that west and found an amazing playground to test what air one could get from a ADV bike and what suspension travel one could get from a Chicken chaser.
Opted for a counter meal that eve in Ouyen. Then closed out the evening sitting around the fire impressed with the days ride. Looking forward to tomorrow when we will do it all again.
Day 4
The riding we did on this day cultivates happiness. The stuff of dreams. The ride that has made so many give up a day job and go travel the world. Mixture of surfaces, mixture of speed. Whoops with close calls. Sights that presents unseen. After this day, for this trip the sun has set for us in the Murray ’till 2023. For tomorrow we pack up and return home.
“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love… and then we return home.”
– Australian Aboriginal Proverb