Got back late last night after deciding to cut the trip short by a day. During one of our gorge rides Camel was unlucky enough to badly twist his knee after placing his foot on a rock to steady himself.
The ride up there was perfect and the traffic was minimal, reaching the campsite I begun to wonder if we had come at the the right time as there were people everywhere!!
Easter in the Flinders Ranges is a very popular spot and its not hard to see why. With peacefull star lit nights to crisp mornings the atmosphere is relaxed and the people are friendly.
Our bikes attracted alot of interest as many people either had never seen them before or were astonished at the amount of gear we were able to comfortably bring without any trouble at all. This combined with the fact that we able to ride hassle free through the surrounding gorges and creek beds was a instant ice breaker with people keen to come and talk to us about our adventures.
The gorges themselves were quite busy with easter campers from around the globe converging on the area with a spirit of exploration. We met people from America, Germany, Asia and also interstate travellers keen to get away from it all and discover the wonders that our great state has to offer.
The tracks through the gorges where getting rough from tyre wear at times and were alittle scary but our bikes performed flawlessly, with the only thing to start rattling was my dashboard display. With roughly 100+ kms on winding dirt tracks, creek beds and crossings this little hiccup was easily forgotten as the majesty of the terrain was leaving a deep impression on our minds.
At this point id better mention the dropping of my bike before Camel dobs me in!! HA. We had just entered Bunnyeroo Gorge and were crossing our first small creek when I made a split second decision to go around it rather than following my instincts to just go through it. Camel has video of it and you will see the low speed impact was easily avoidable but was a lesson we both had to learn about the bike. My front wheel managed to find some very mushy ground and just dug in, loosing momentum and forcing me to just lay it down as gently as i cound manage.
Resulting damage was a few small scratches on the left panel and a small dent on the top right side of the tank. The dent is still debatable as to weather the spill caused it or at some other stage i managed to do something that i have no memory off!! Either way with pounding these bikes took this small amount of damage was easily acceptable.
Ill post a short slide show and video of our ride, again taken with my HTC desire phone with Camel compiling a more detailed video of the ride taken from his helmet cam...
Hope you enjoy!!
Yamaha Super Tenere Wilpena2nd run