Day 84 Motorcross

27/05/13
After a leisurely breakfast we hired bikes and were away by about 11.30. For Ollie it was only his second time on a bike. 7km down the road we paid our entrance fees for the hot springs further up the hill and boy were they hot. When the water surfaces it is 80-100 degrees, the hottest pool claimed to be 37 degrees, we didn't have a thermometer but it felt like 50! We started at '32 degrees' which was hotter than I would have a bath and after we had turned pink we braved the '37 degree' pool. It honestly felt like I was cooking and it took a whole 5 minutes before I submerged myself and it wasn't long before I got out again and headed to the cooling 35 degree water. We went back to Pai for lunch then headed 7km in another direction to a waterfall, it was nothing spectacular but it did drop 20m and had quite a deep plunge pool. I alone swam in the pool and I will admit that it was hardly the same temperature as the hot springs in the morning, it was much closer to the temperature of English river water. On the way to the waterfall we saw a sign for a view point, further along the road so as it was mid-afternoon we decided to make our way to it. The road that led away from the waterfall was switchback after switchback and it wasn't long before this road gave way to a dirt track. It was along these dirt tracks, on our town bikes, that I had the most enjoyable riding experience of my life. I loved the fact that you needed to be totally concentrated, in the zone the whole time and the feel of the when you feathered the accelerator and the back wheel slide about struggling to get grip on the loose surface, or standing up on the pegs, bouncing the bike over a particularly rough section and that's not to mention the momentary 'air' you get as the bike shoots out of a channel, eroded by rain water. After about an hour of this riding we reached a turn off to the view point, opposite it were a couple of bikes, it didn't take long to realise why they were there. This track made the previous one look like a granite work surface. We had crossed a couple of wooden planked bridges on our way here but not any where there were gaps in, gaps big enough to lose a front wheel down, fortunately none of us did. The track was so steep and bumpy that most the time our bikes were stuck in 1st gear and even then we crawled up half the hills, I nearly had to get off the bike at one point because it was struggling so much. Another time my front wheel got caught in a rain water channel and as I didn't want to stop I dropped it down into 1st and the combination of the extra revs and getting out of the ditch led to me popping a wheelie. The surprise of having my front wheel a metre off the ground and being tipped back made me pulled on the accelerator even more meaning I held the wheelie for 4/5 seconds before I came to my senses and eased off the throttle. I was really glad that I chose to do this stunt on a flat, stone free, tarmac road without a 300m drop down one side... The rest of the ride to the top was just as fun riding, pushing both our concentration and the bikes to the max (at the top the engines were easily hot enough to cook on). Rob and I reached the top together and George and Ollie followed 5 minutes later, the view was incredible and totally worth the effort. We didn't want to stay too long on the top and get caught out by the sun and end up descending in the dark so we headed off once again, I was leading. It was 10 times worse on the descent, mainly because the bikes had such little grip, especially on any gravely spots (which were rather frequent). One particular episode was just at the bottom of the turn off I was full breaking and felt the bike slipping out from beneath me so I aided it to the ground. Rob rather arrogantly thought his riding skills far superior to mine and tried doing the same but ended up dropping his bike less gracefully. Even walking the bike down was a big effort as the back end kept sliding all over the shop. Ollie managed the best on his automatic as he could fully break and balance his bike with his feet. There were many more slopes where they were rather treacherous, many which I went down in controlled and not so controlled slides, it was a relief to get back onto the 'flat' dirt track. Was it dangerous? Yes. Could one of us seriously injured ourselves? Yes. Did one of us ride the whole way back with a flat rear tire? Yes (Ollie). Did I thoroughly enjoy it? Yes. Would I do it again? You bet!

George, Ollie, Rob on the 'flat' dirt road

The view from the top!