Four Wheeled Demons
We had talked about renting some motorcycles and heading off into the hills, but when it came time for action it turned out that I was the only one who had even driven a motorcycle. After much discussion we settled on a guided trip on four wheelers. We apparently requested two automatics and one Blaster, a manual transmission. The trip was all arranged for the next day and we set off into the sunset.
The day of the big race arrived and we set off in a taxi from the rental agency. After driving about 25 minutes out of the city the cab driver suddenly asked us which road we wanted him to turn up onto. We were thrown for a loop! We had naturally assumed the guy at the rental company had told the driver where to go. After about 15 minutes of asking around he decided to drop us off on a random side street and assured us someone was coming to meet us. Sure enough one of our guides showed up as soon as we had bought a beer and sat down. He took us up the street to a private yard where the bikes were waiting for us to practice.
Here was our second major hitch, the Blaster which apparently we had requested specially was giving Adrial major problems. He could not shift worth a damn and was getting incredibly frustrated. I decided to trade my automatic with him and proceeded to learn the ins and outs of shifting. Feeling like driving around the yard wasn't going to improved my abilities any more I said I was ready and off we went.
We started up a road switch backing up the hill for a few miles before turning onto a trail. Several miles more brought us to a open flat area where we could practice going fast sliding around corners, racing each other and even in my case almost rolling over and bailing off my bike.
Continuing on we encountered our first mud and were encouraged to blast through it as fast as possible. Huge messes, stuck bikes and fun ensued. I got so much mud all over me that it got into my shoes! Adrial got his bike stuck and it required two bikes and both guides to get it out. Jammie somehow emerged from this whole section completely mud free, baffling.
Our final stop on our adventure was a area with a little jump. I stress little because although it felt like we were flying miles through the air, photographic evidence reveals mere inches of space under our wheels. Still it was incredibly fun.
Wet, muddy and filled with adrenaline we headed back to the trail head and onto hot showers and a hot meal.