Crazy Christmas 2013 - Recovery

Rideable!

So after all the excitement of Christmas, Carl and I thought we ought to burn off a few serves of Christmas pudding. Thankfully, the next door neighbour has a motocross enduro track on his farm and he had graciously given us permission to ride around it! We talked Dad into dropping us up there, which meant that on average, our ride would be downhill. Can't get better than that!
    

See - we made it!

We actually rode parts of this track about two years ago and I think for both of us there was a significant increase in our skill level over that time. Having undertaken part of the outback odyssey probably helped a whole lot too! We spun up rocky hills and bumped our way down others, letting the bike roll where previously I would have been cautiously on the brakes. Even the sand didn't slow us down as much as it had previously and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on this beautiful, flowing course!
 
   

 

 Happy Cycling!

Unfortunately, the good times wouldn't last and soon my tyre was making that unpleasant hissing sound that indicated that soon I would need to stop and attend to it. Thankfully, using slime tubes meant chucking some air in it, giving it a spin and we were good to go. But as a precaution we decided to head in the direction of home. 

Patient Pitchy

In my defence, I was having so much fun I really didn't want to leave, so when I suggested taking a slight detour down a track I really thought it would only be a little bit extra. As it turns out - it was, but it was also covered in prickles that decimated my tyres and produced a rotating slime geyser as I rode! Very impressive, but also slightly worrying as we were about 10km from home. Still, we pumped some air in, spun it round and took off. We had to do this a few times, but eventually we made it back.

Can we make it?

Turns out we weren't the only ones with a flat tyre, Dad had somehow managed to get one on the Toyota and so we all spent the afternoon fixing tyres. I have to say, bike tyres are a lot easier to fix than car tyres!

The view from the road

   

After cleaning up, we headed inside an out of the sun. As it turns out, sunscreen only lasts so long and I had managed to get sunburnt again. So staying inside and chilling out seemed to be the best plan for the afternoon. This include a game of "Terror on the Skies", an airship pirate board game I had brought with me. As it turns out, Dad was excellent at it, and proceeded to mercilessly kill all our crew!

Not just a roadie!

The following day was going to be our last on the farm, but with my recent over exposure to the sun I needed to keep time outside to a minimum. Mum had requested that we check out a new road they were putting in to their sand pit, as she had plans to ride it herself and she wanted to know how hard it would be. So Carl and I set off to explore.


 
 

Up we go!

As it turns out, the road had a certain amount of kick to it, 11% in places. For comparison (and because riding is too much fun to stop) we also rode the hill on the road into the farm from the highway. That one turned out to be easier.

My road

With the last of the riding behind us (especially as my other tyre went flat later that afternoon), Carl and I spent the remainder of the afternoon chilling out with my family and getting beaten by Dad in Terror of the skies. However there was time for one more adventure once the sun was low enough to head outside, and Carl and I grabbed our cameras and headed down the creek.   

My childhood playground

This is a bit of a tradition for me, as a great deal of my childhood was spent running around in the creek, I always like to fit in a bit of a walk to see what's changed. It's also a good excuse to pull out the cameras. Carl and I enjoyed this very leisurely evening walk, using the golden light of the setting sun to enhance our photos.
 

 

 Sunset at Salt Creek

Eventually we wandered back to the house and had a lovely, candlelit dinner, courtesy of my mother! Admittedly the candles had batteries and were Christmas coloured, but it was still very relaxing, and a great way to finish up our Christmas holiday.