Another great weekend with another Muscular Dystrophy Ride done and dusted. I wasn’t sure if I’d make it last week because Ann came back from Melbourne on Sunday night with a rather nasty Gastro Bug, but fortunately, apart from a slightly queezy stomach (from the thought of catching it) I made it through the week and managed to escape on Friday morning (with nothing more than the odd fart...or two). Once again this year, the trip started for me at the beginning of November ...
Yes well, another one gone and another one gone and another one bites the dust! The plan for 2012 was to do the Awakino Gorge and around the mountain (ie Mt Egmont/Taranaki), so that's what we did with a few diversions via Mauriceville, Halcombe-Stanway and Aria thrown in for good measure and to provide the 'road-less-travelled' requirement into our mix. The lead-up for me was to resurrect and check the route out of the archives, since it was an option drawn up 2-3 ...
This year's C1KC (or Capital 1000Km Cruise) actually started for me about 2 to 3 years ago when playing with Google Maps &/or MapSource to come up with some options for a nice wee pootle. With the Awakino Gorge probably rating in my top 5 rides in the country, I thought, “that would be nice!” and set about seeing how it could be done within the prescribed Km's …without being predominantly a horrid boring grind up and back on SH1 & SH3. Well that can't be avoided really, but we did OK. Anyway, the ...
The fifth Capital 1,000Km Cruise is now done and dusted with 36 bikes starting and 36 finishing. (one with a hardy pillion). The route was an easy choice this year as it was rumoured last year that the Gentle Annie (Taihape – Napier Road) was to be sealed, so I prepared a route (along with a reserve) then once I saw from Banditrider’s Blog in July that this had been completed, I was soon on Mapsource to sort the finer details, finally coming up with a wee doozy that took in our new ...
The GC and Getting Home The decent ride on Friday helped to get a good nights sleep and I was up by 0600 again, scrub-up, breakfast, then prep the gear and go over the fuel stops again. We were surprised how dead it seemed at the Turangi Cabins as usually, the place is littered with bikes and there are heaps of people about, tinkering and chewing the fat, but this year it was very quiet and it turned out, there were only 67 starters for the main event. We had been pre-warned a month ...
Getting There and The Extension Being the 25th GC (Grand Challenge – 1,000miles in 24 hours), the anniversary event was marked with a 900Km extension on the Friday, to make the event up to a 2,500Km Long Weekend. As soon as the event was promoted I registered my interest and must have got in pretty quick as I was surprised a couple of months ago, when I got my registration pack in the mail, to see that I was #1. Also, as per the 20th GC, a video was being made of this event. ...
....................DAY 2. Nooooooo! The alarm went off at 0530 and dragged me from my coma! Up up and away, I got dressed, packed the luggage panier, extracting the day’s supply of bananas and water for the top-box, checked the tyres – 42psi on the button, exchanged the summer gloves for winter ones out of the wets and fuel panier, tidied the topbox, snacked, had a nice hot cup of tea….and we were gone at 0630. I thought it was bloody winter as scooted ...
I hit the sack at 2100 on Thursday night, worried that it was too early to go to sleep, but I went out with the lights, only to be rudely awakened by the alarm at 1230. Excited to be on my way after a couple of months of plotting and planning with screeds of emails between Jantar, Gremlin and myself, I dragged myself from the bed with a groan, scrubbed up, boarded the already packed and prep’d Enterprise and scooted the 10Km down to the Bluebridge Terminal….where I waited, with the 10 ...
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