Day 51 Monday August 18th

What an absolutely fantastic day!

Up at 7am and packed away the tents etc and off riding by 9:00am

Straight away we noticed that there are very deep sections of the road with maybe 12 inches of water totally filling the roadway, but in wet weather it would be 3 ft deep at least and probably totally un-passable.

By mid morning we came across our first major obstacle. A bridge with lots of the planks missing and with a steep upward ramp at the exit end, a
So with many missing planks. As a team we foraged around and took planks from different parts of the bridge and managed to fashion a reasonable runway along the bridge.









Then came the moment of truth and Paul volunteered to be the first to give it a go.

Then Geoff, and then Frank
Then our riding buddy Edward.


and finally Dave.


We then pressed on with Geoff leading the way.

We came to a large pool of water and Geoff stopped to contemplate the best line of attack. Just as everyone arrived at the crossing Geoff decided upon his line and set off. Big mistake he should have got off and walked the pool first to decide his line of attack. Needless. To say he hit a deep section and then large boulders and he was off. His bike horizontal under water he struggled to get free only to loose his footing again and swan dive helmet and all under the water. He was totally soaked from head to foot. Help arrived and we lifted the bike back to vertical, and after a short rest to get his adrenalin levels back to normal Geoff got on the bike and it started straight away and he changed his route and made it across the pool. Needless to say nobody else used Geoff's route!

Paul had come off his bike at a river crossing but managed to avoid splashing about in deep water.

We all crossed and made a cup of tea, and Geoff stripped totally and put on dry underclothes and then wet motorcycle outfit and away we went again. While Geoff was wet he went into the pool to be in position to help Frank when Frank crossed. Frank proceeded to head straight for Geoff who tried to step backwards out of the way and ended up flat on his arse again in the water.

We arrived at another bridge that was only slightly in better repair than the last
and Frank took the lead and showed the way,or not because he caught a lump of wood at the exit and went over sideways.


Everyone else easily managed the crossing and couldn't see why Frank hand made such hard work of it!

We came to another river crossing and it was fast flowing fairly deep water and so we decided to stop and eat our dinner early so that we wouldn't be eating where we were going to camp and therefore attract bears. Dinner consisted of mushroom soup made as a sauce and added to pasta. Delious!

Then came the team effort of getting everyone across the river. We went for the slow approach with two people helping to stabilise the bike and give it a push.

Here are Frank and Dave crossing.






Paul's bike continues to play up at every wet crossing. This problem has been with that bike ever since he bought it and we still have not managed to isolate the problem. Although nobody is convinced it is the sender unit that sends a pulse from the crankshaft to the ignition control circuit this is the only thing we have not tried swapping. Also the bike stopped just when the bottom of the engine where the sender cable leaves the clutch housing was under water and nowhere near the plug, coil or ignition control unit!!

When you come river crossings often there is a rubber mat or tin plate with coins on. We think this is some formed good luck charm for crossing the river.

At another location we could hardly believe our eyes. From a distance it looked like a naked woman with sun glasses beconing. In fact as we got closer it turned out to be a shop manikin scantily dressed and holding a plastic cup with money in. Also there were teddy bears and lots of ribbons tied in the trees.




We stopped at a riverside camping area and Edward decided to carry on alone as he has much further than us to go. We said our goodbyes, and Geoff went to get his phone to take down Edwards email address only to discover that the. Fresh zip-lock bag that he had put his phone into had worn a hole through vibration, and his phone was not working. When Geoff had fallen off in the water his tank bag had been totally submerged in the water!!

The campsite was only just ok it was on stony ground at it was difficult to get tent pegs into the ground.









The water in the rivers is very clean but also very cold

We all now have to wear mosquito hats and nets because they are ferocious. They even bite you through your trousers and shirt!

More later

RRs






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