Tussock Buster/ X Country, 26-27 March

[thecharmed01]

I love camping, we spent a lot of time camping when I was a kid, difference was, my parents spent a lot of money on decent tents and gear...

I've spent all my money on my bike, so got a cheap arse TWH tent hahahahaha
Suffice to say, it didn't survive bad weather :-(

If I could spend some decent money.... I'd be fine in a tent - if I was confident it wouldn't a) blow away and b) leak
But, right now, I'd rather spend a grand on my bike hahahaha

[L Rider]

I love camping, we spent a lot of time camping when I was a kid, difference was, my parents spent a lot of money on decent tents and gear...

I've spent all my money on my bike, so got a cheap arse TWH tent hahahahaha
Suffice to say, it didn't survive bad weather :-(

If I could spend some decent money.... I'd be fine in a tent - if I was confident it wouldn't a) blow away and b) leak
But, right now, I'd rather spend a grand on my bike hahahaha

Fair enough, if i had choice of $$ on bike or tent i'd go for the bike too

[SpikedPunch]

The lodge sounds like a good score.
I love camping even in winter. Our tent was huge with even a big room that we had set up for cooking and sitting around and relaxing in.

Did you guys bring that wicked big army tent again?

[L Rider]

Did you guys bring that wicked big army tent again?

No we didn't have that one. Friend has a massive family tent - heaps of room for 2 of us haha. Big 'bedroom' each then another big room for cooking and lazing around. Plus had a gazebo up as well.

[random rider]

Loved it. Got down to ride on the Friday for the first time ever (3rd tussock for me) and then I managed to complete the Dam Buster ride on the Saturday. Small ride on Sunday had.
Previous years I have not had the skill or the ability to complete that sort of ride (dam buster). Parts were amazing "vistas" but other area's took a bit of concentration.

Managed to get up a rather big hill with a heap of people waiting on top of it...think I got up only cos I was too stubborn to bail on it!

I did decide to take my bike for a bath on a river crossing....oh well 2/3 successful crossings ain't bad

Not sure who the guy was but a father helped his son across and then helped me sort out my bike....water in every part possible. Thankfully have my spare sparkplug in a cover so we tipped the bike up and drained all the water. So who ever he was I am grateful for his help and advice.....99.8% of riders at TB were/are great.

Mental note....watch out for horses next year. Had a lonesome horse barrel across in front of me and another guy...he only just missed hitting it

Didn't camp but didn't miss it this year.......warm room and hot shower was what I needed after my impromptu bath

[MXNUT]

Arrived friday night and set up the tent in the dark. Absolutely pissed down from about 2 to 5.30 am. Was lying in bed in the tent thinking this is going to be a shit fest tommorow. Saturday morning dawned slightly overcast and the weather generally got better from then on.

Did the longest loop 1st on saturday Azim / lion and B20 at 110 kms, but wimped out on the water crossing the first time round as i didnt fancy wet boots for the rest of the day.

That B20 loop is just awesome, 3rd/4th gear full throttle and just hang on untill the top, would have to be my favourite off road section in the whole country.

In the afternoon we did the water crossing whilst doing the the snippers alley loop, man tht hill goes down for a long way. I did not think that we had climbed that high.

Finished the day off with the marsden loop at 20 kms for a total of 190 kms for the day. I was pretty tired and sore that night untill the Whiskeys kicked in.

Next morning the whiskeys had worn off but the Body was in worse shape than the mind.
Went out and did the Tussock Buster loop and loved it so much we did another 2 laps.
I remember being on this loop a couple of years back on my RM250 and thinking i wish i had more top end speed, no such problem this year as i still had another gear to go but the Kahuna`s just weren't big enough.

90 kms for the Sunday was enough and we had just packed up at 1.00 on sunday afternoon when the rain came. Pretty lucky with the weather then, O and no dust.

My wife said that for the last couple of days i was walking like i had a carrot up my arse and wanted to know what really happens on these boys weekends