OZ ATV :: The Australian ATV Forum

[Dino]

This club is based in Far North Qld.
They are very active with trail riding for both 2 and 4wd quads. They've also been very active trying to get a workable form of Quad and SxS rego and licensing happening in Qld. This activity has lead them opening their membership to include all in Qld. And trying to raise a more positive image of recreational riding and driving, for obvious reasons, is part of what this team is doing.

Part of this campaign has involved community work, such as helping with the clean up after Cyclone Yasi, where the club worked side by side with the army in the worst hit areas. Yes, they used the quads and many helping hands.

They've also manage to score a assisting role in the annual, and international, mountain biking event held in Far North Qld, called The Crocodile Trophy. This is some kind of marathon 10 day torture test open to professional, amatuer and handicapped mountain biking people. It was described to me as the holy grail of Mountain Biking, a kind of Bathurst 1000 on pedal power.

I'd like to relay, in there own words, how much of a "assist" the quads and the club was. Over to Colin Thomas.........

Quote:

"Howd'y all. Well the Croc Trophy for 2011 is over and now Gordon and I can get back to reality. May I just say, we had an absolute ball and saved the day on so many levels. I thought I'd take the time and write a log of what we got up to over the 10 days of the event. Day one Cairns to Lake Tinaroo. 102km. The day started with an extremely wet and dark sky which had Gordon and I concerned about whether or not we would be able to get the mountain bikers though the first section above Lake Morris. Because this was our first time doing this kind of thing, we felt that it wasn't our place to tell them what to expect. After all, the race is known around the world as being the hardest mountain bike event. Once the starters gun went off Gordon and I took our place on the road right in front of the Hwy patrol car, which was the rear vehicle for the rolling road block. It was a fantastic feeling riding the quads along the Cairns Esplanade amongst all the people cheering and waving. The official race start was at the lookout on the Lake Morris road. This is where all the fun began. At the lookout we took on-board our respective media personnel. I was paired up with Rafael, who was in charge of the live video footage that was beamed around the globe every night. Gordon was paired up with Regina, who is one of the race organisers and it was her job to take all the fantastic action photos that are on the Croc Trophy web site. The road up to the dam was closed for the event which meant that the riders could cut corners at every chance they had. It was complete mayhem from our vantage point. We both had camera people yelling faster faster, all the while trying not to run any riders over. We learnt very quickly just how fast these "push bike" riders were and that we had to be at the top of our riding game. I soon lost contact with where Gordon was in relation to me, but all came clear once we reached the kiosk at the dam. The rain was pelting down that hard that the lead vehicle became bogged half way up the first clay hill. So the organisers decided to hold all the riders at the kiosk until the lead vehicle was extracted. I later found out that Gordon was up at the pointy end swinging off the handle of a Turfor winch. Working under extremely wet conditions meant the going was tough and the management sort of fell to pieces due to the satellite phones not being able to make contact. The quads came to the rescue with in the first hour of the race, being the only vehicles that could move. We were in our element, much to the surprise of the organisers. At the race directors instruction, I set off to relay a possible alternative for the race, to the lead vehicle. As I was approaching the steep section, I ran into Gordon coming the other way. As it turned out, Gordon was coming back to the dam with the same alternative plan. Go figure. Due to the steepness of the planned terrain, it was decided to send the riders down Clohesy River Rd and out to the hwy. Because of the mayhem, the days stage was cancelled and it became a transit stage to Tinaroo dam. It was at this point that we took the opportunity to utilise the shelter of the toilet block to fix an electrical problem that had cropped up with Gordon's quad. Don't you hate it how this sort of thing happens at the worst possible time. After stripping the bikes plastics off, the problem was found and it turned out to be a simple fix. Thank God. So it was back to the fun. We were now the last vehicles to leave the dam. However, our police permit stated that, we the quad riders, had to stick to the designated race course. We didn't mind that at all so we rode all the way to Lake Tinaroo by ourselves. We arrived into Tinaroo before most of the riders, but we were wet and cold. A nice warm coffee from the local take away made for a very nice treat and as we both sat there enjoying our warm drinks we were wondering just what the hell we'd gotten ourselves into. Day one came to a close for us at around 9 pm, when we abandoned our tent for a newer one that didn't leak as much. We had suffered the Japanese water torture for long enough."

_________________
Remember. We elect politicians, but we have to deal with bureaucracy.
Notice that crazy in the bureaucrats.

Last edited by Dino on Mon May 06, 2013 3:02 pm; edited 3 times in total

[Dino]

Quote:

Day two Lake Tinaroo to Koombooloomba Dam 121km. We woke to some light drizzle and a cool breeze. Once breakfast was done we packed our camp and readied the quads for the days ride. The usual talk around the breakfast table consisted of short sentences of broken English, because most of the competitors use English as a second language. I can still here my mother saying "I told you learning a language in school would come in handy". The first stage of the day was a transit section under the guidance of the police. This made us somewhat nervous due to the whole rego push we have going on. Not far from Tinaroo, Gordon and I thought we'd push the envelope a little and see if we could ride into Atherton in front of the police cordon. We sided up to the lead highway patrol car and simply asked if we could continue on at a more comfortable speed. To our surprise we got a big thumbs up from the officer accompanied with a cheery grin. Cool!! A nice ride down the main street of Atherton ended at the official race start gate. There were people lining the streets along with heaps of school kids making all sorts of racket. Tim joined us at the starting gate with a nice cup of coffee and a very jealous look on his face. Having the quads involved in the event certainly drew some attention from on lookers. David Pretty, an active member in the local mountain biking scene was MC'ing the start and took the opportunity to grab me and shove a microphone in my hand. I gave everybody a brief run down of what part the quads played on the previous day and what our role was for the entire event. The starters gun was getting ready, which gave us our cue to grab our passengers and say goodbye to Tim. The two quads side by side leading a pack of 90 odd riders up the main street of Atherton must've looked fantastic, it certainly felt good from our point of view. Only a k from town we headed into the forest along Riffle Range Rd. This was our first real glimpse of how fast these riders push their machines and bodies. At one point I was keeping pace with the lead rider as he approached the steepest section of the climb. A steady 18kph was on the speedo. That might not seem fast but let me assure you it was extremely impressive considering the grade of the road. Gordon and I were finding our feet with what the film crew wanted at this stage and soon figured out a system of signals between the passenger and ourselves. The call came from Rafael, "rider behind". Holly crap I was being over taken by mountain bikers and they were absolutely motoring. Gordon and I soon realised that we had no chance of staying in front of these guys on a down hill section and had to keep a very close eye on the mirrors, which turned out to be the best accessory we've fitted to the quads. The weather stayed fairly good till we reached Ravenshoe. We were now on the black top again and the rain was coming down. We decided that any other footage of the race could be gained from the dryness of the support vehicles, so we were on our own for the rest of the day. Due to the leaking tent on the previous night, Gordon made the suggestion of riding back to Ravenshoe hardware to buy a tarp. I still don't think Gordon realised just what a godsend that tarp would become that night. So as you do, we rode the quads back into Ravenshoe in search of a hardware store. The owner of the store was interested in what we were doing and kindly told us that we were famous and made the Cairns Post with a shot of a bunch of bikes beside a quad. Once we got our swollen egos back into our helmets we set a course for Koombooloomba Dam. That was one of the worst rides we have ever done. The rain was coming down so hard that I had to ride one handed, whilst covering my face with the other. Riding in the rain was like having acupuncture to the face. It wasn't looking good for a dry camp at the dam. We managed to find a high spot to pitch the tent and use the quads to secure the tarp over the tent. It worked a treat and gave us a chance to get out of the rain for awhile. From our vantage point we could see all the mayhem of the others erecting their camps. There were tarps flying, tents collapsing and still the water kept falling. A call from another camp to join them for coffee lead to a meeting of some other locals that were competing in the event. We were introduced to Steve and his wife Tammy. Their support crew member Warren and our Cairns Post journalist Andrew. We huddled under a tarp and good friendships were formed. From this day on we were privileged to have a first hand insight of what sort of person competes in a race of this type. While enjoying a coffee we watched the idiot truck drivers get one of the support trucks well and truly bogged. Then we watched the other idiots try to use a snatch strap to extract said truck. I couldn't stand by and watch someone get hurt, so I braved the rain and explained how free wheeling hubs worked and told them why you don't hook a strap over a tow-ball. Once the tow vehicle was set up, the truck was easily pulled free from the swamp. The rain and wind didn't let up all night and the dinner tent looked like a train wreck so Gordon and I decided to forgo dinner and rustle up some sort of meal from our own supplies. Dinner that night consisted of a tin of tuna each, mixed with chicken biscuits and some snakes for desert. At least we were dry and took the opportunity to relax over a game of cards, all the while wondering what tomorrow had install for us."

_________________
Remember. We elect politicians, but we have to deal with bureaucracy.
Notice that crazy in the bureaucrats.

[Dino]

Quote:

Day Three Koombooloomba Dam to Gunawarra Lagoon 115km. Cancelled. And it was still raining. We learnt that morning that yesterday had been the wettest October day for some 70 years. No bloody wonder the camp looked like a swimming pool. A short break in the rain gave us a chance to refuel the bikes and make a plan for the day. The days leg was to be along the power line corridor over to Gunnawarra Station. Unfortunately the lead vehicle was unable to get up the first steep hill so the day had to be rearranged. It was decided to return to Ravenshoe and head down the highway till we hit the Silver Valley road. Then we could follow that road all the way to Irvinebank. Due to the rain, Gordon and I were passenger free and decided to head into Ravenshoe for breakfast at the local bakery. We parked up the quads right outside the bakery and took the opportunity to try and get some clothes dry. Breakfast was procured and whilst we were sitting out the front admiring the fact that we were parked in the main street, we were constantly interrupted by curious people asking us all sorts of questions about what we were doing. One of the passer bys was a lovely gentleman that we'd come across on one of our many trips along the Cairns Mail Track. He spotted the 2 camo quads and instantly recognised them. We were beginning to understand what the Quad Squad guys must've faced every time they stopped for a break. About an hour had pasted and we figured it was time to get moving. We were both getting used to riding the quads on the road and having people point and smile, so when we headed out of town along the hwy the looks we got were all pretty normal by now. We were cruising down the road doing about 80k's when I asked Gordon if the Troopie behind him was one of ours or one with red and blue lights on top. Over the radio came the reply, "nope it's not one of ours so get ready to stop". Much to our surprise we were overtaken by the officer and were greeted with a big wave and smile. This was becoming the norm and we were never asked for our police permit for the entire event. After about half an hour of hwy riding we arrived at the start of the Silver Valley Rd. There were very few bikes around, so we could go as hard and fast as we wanted. The rain had pretty much stopped by now but the dirt road was just wet enough to be dust free. We had a fantastic ride all the way to Irvinebank with the only riders to be careful of were approaching Mount Misery. We arrived at Irvinebank to a dry camp site across the road from the pub. That night DJ, the publican, allowed us to use his secret hot shower out the back. It's great when local knowledge works for you. Tim and family decided to come out to Irvinebank with afternoon tea for us and to catch up with what we'd been getting up to. As it turned out, I'd had a request from Rafael to see if I could come up with a quick release for carrying his camera tripod, so with Tim's sewing skills we devised a means of tying the tripod down to the back of my bike. Tim drove back to the factory and made up the straps that we needed and delivered them back out to us later that night. The straps worked perfectly first time and became a very valuable accessory for the rest of the trip. Dinner that night was at the pub accompanied by a few ales. Life was tough that night but we managed to get through it.

[/quote]
_________________
Remember. We elect politicians, but we have to deal with bureaucracy.
Notice that crazy in the bureaucrats.

[Dino]

Quote:

Day Four Gunawarra Lagoon to Irvinebank 106km. changed. Day four was to be a catch up day for the race. Because of the cancelled stage to Gunawarra we had to make up some distance. The days stage was simply going to be a time trial sprint, which consisted of 3 laps around Mont Albion along Hales Siding Rd. Today our local knowledge of the area really came into play. The first lap of the course was basically filming all the riders at some point, but to catch up to the lead riders again we cut through the centre track of Mont Albion popping out in front of the field at the wash plant gate. We had spoken about the views that are possible from on top of the Telstra hill climb and it was agreed that it was worth a go. I'm pretty sure that our Austrian passengers were nervous to see where we planned to take them but I didn't hear any screams as we tackled the climb. Being the video quad it was my job to get close to the riders and stay with them while Rafael controlled the camera. This meant that we had to film a group of riders, then ride flat out to catch up with the the next group. After doing this for a full lap I found that the brakes on the quad were starting to get hot and braking was becoming an issue. Have I said how fast these guys ride. The top riders were doing a full lap in around 50mins. I caught up with Gordon after the race and to my surprise, he was having the same trouble with his brakes. So the end of the 3rd lap was the most important footage that Rafael needed. He wanted me to stay in front of the lead riders so he could film them going through the finish arch at speed. Just like you see in the Tour De France. We parked at the other end of town and waited for them to arrive. Holy crap were they motoring now. "We've got to get going Boss" I yelled. We were not going to be able to stay in front of them if we didn't get a head start, because we had to negotiate an 'S' bend with a wooden bridge on bitumen, at speed. That was going to be a challenge. We managed to stay in front over the bridge, but as soon as we hit the straight I was at full throttle just to maintain a gap. I don't know what speed we went through the gate at, but it was dam scary with cyclists faces filling my mirrors. So with midday come and gone, we figured that our job was done for the day but a sat phone call asking for the "quad riders" help, put an end to what was going to be an afternoon in the pub. The lead vehicle had taken the opportunity to check out the next days stage in case of any problems. Due to the recent rain the track had been washed out and the vehicle was at the end of a winch rope. I might just add that Gordon and I had stripped and repaired that winch before the days race due to it jamming on the cable. Lucky we did a god job because it was getting another work out. We got the low down of where we needed to go from DJ, gathered some tools and some muscle, fuelled the bikes and set off. The gps plot that I'd loaded up for the whole race came in very handy and made it easy to locate where we needed to be. Once we arrived at the washed out road, we were straight into making the track usable again. Chainsaws were screaming. Picks were picking and shovels were shovelling. So we arrived back at Irvinebank around 4pm, still with plenty of time to enjoy a few beers!

_________________
Remember. We elect politicians, but we have to deal with bureaucracy.
Notice that crazy in the bureaucrats.

[Dino]

Quote:

Day Five Irvinebank to Mt Mulligan 105km. Day five was possibly the easiest day for us. The morning started off by riding through Stannary Hills to Muchilba along the road we'd repaired the day before. This road was steep and very rocky. We were expecting to see some real spills and damaged bikes on this leg, but they made it look pretty easy, with only a couple of punctures along the way. The river crossing at the back of Muchilba was a source of much entertainment for us though. There were riders doing all sorts of stunts in the water. Some worked out well, but there were plenty that didn't. After the river we got split up from each other and we made our own way to Mt Mulligan. At approx 11k to go, whilst I was having a great time in the lose gravel on the side of the road, my drive belt decided to part company. Not to worry, I had all the tools and parts to get going again and pulled into camp mid afternoon. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with exploring the river and trying to get some nice scenery footage for Rafael. Whilst we were exploring the river I decided to let Rafael do the driving. It was his first time steering a quad and he couldn't believe the places we'd been at speed and had no close calls. He later said how impressed he was with how Gordon and I could ride along a seemingly impossible track with ease and comfort. That evening I had a good chat with the caretaker of Mt Mulligan in relation to a possible club ride in the area. This will definitely be a place to check for the future and they are more than happy to have us. Day Six Mt Mulligan to Mt Mulgrave 189km. This day turned out to be full of surprises. It started with having breakfast whilst watching the sunrise illuminate the rock faces of Mt Mulligan. It was absolutely beautiful. The starters pistol echoed through the trees at 7 o'clock that morning because it was going to be a long day and not just for the riders. The day started off well with some fantastic outback footage being shot. The sun was making Mt Mulligan and the surrounding country side look like the stuff you only see on post cards. Rafael kept going on about how beautiful the sky is in Australia and now that he pointed it out, I see what he means. While we were filming a long road section, I took the opportunity to check a few things on my quad. I had been feeling a slight vibration and wanted to find out what was causing it. To my surprise I found that one of my rear axle bearings was starting to collapse. This wasn't good as I've had bearings like this self destruct before and they tend to do it in a big way. Luckily Gordon was still with me and we set about coming up with a plan to fix the bike. We decided that we would ride the next 50k's to the river crossing at Hurrican Station. Then I would ride out to Mt Carbine and repair the bearing. This was the closest place we were going to be to civilisation until Laura. I took the sat phone with me in case something bad happened and set off down the hwy to Mt Carbine whilst Gordon continued along with the race. I stopped every 5k's or so to check the bearing as it was starting to get hot. Tim to the rescue. I made a call to Tim and explained what we needed to do and he got straight onto it. He hitched up the trailer without hesitation and drove to Mt Carbine to retrieve me and the quad. We drove back to Atherton and waited outside Extreme Motorcycles for Col Lawson to arrive. I had completely forgotten what day it was and wondered why the shop wasn't open. It had to be on a Sunday didn't it. Col came out especially to open up the workshop and sort out some bearings for me. Col had some visitors arriving for a bbq that afternoon, so the workshop keys were thrown our way and we were told to lock up once we were finished. A huge thank you goes out to Col, because without the use of the press and workshop tools we wouldn't have been able to do the job. So with the bike all fixed and fuelled and a lovely feed in our bellies, thanks Di, we set off down the road to Mt Carbine. Due to the state of the roads Tim was only able to get me to the Hurricane turn off and I set off by myself into the sunset. I had around 150k's to go in the dark till I reached the nights camp at Mt Mulgrave Station. Lucky for me I love the challenge of a good night ride and the HID lights made it easy. The reassuring green line on the gps ensured I was still on the correct route and even then I managed to over shoot some of the turns. I had a large river crossing to negotiate in the dark, which as I would later find out was a scene of much action earlier in the day. I can tell you, now that I made it across the other side, it's not a good experience to have the headlights disappear under water on a moonless night while crossing a river in North Queensland. One thing I kept saying to myself was that Gordon had ridden the crossing earlier, or as I later found out, he didn't. Anyway, I survived the croc infested water of the Mitchell only to come across some other night life further down the road. A huge brown snake blocked my path for a little while and I managed to hit 2 kangaroos between the river and the camp. I was approx 50k's from camp and I saw some red tail lights off in the distance. I quickly caught up to the vehicle and found out that it was the support vehicle for the 2 hand cyclists in the event. These guys were doing it tough. One of them was in need of a doctor due to exhaustion and fever. I left the support crew the sat phone and told them to keep trying for the doctor as I rode on ahead to try and make contact with him. I was about 10k's out of camp when I came across the doctor heading out. I was able to give them a position of the riders and we went our separate ways into the night. I finally reached camp at I don't know what time, to the surprise of Gordon. He met me at the end of the cause way as I'm sure he could hear the familiar sound of a Can Am off in the distance. My night ride had come to an end and my eyes were stinging. I don't think I blinked for 150 k's. I managed to scrape up some food from the kitchen and Gordon filled me in with all that had happened during the day. "You missed out on all the fun" he said, rolling his eyes. Gordon and Warren then proceeded to fill me in on what had happened that day. The idiots I spoke about on day two had struck again. They hydrauliced a new Navara in the river. This caused Gordon some head aches as he was volunteered to the task of extracting the vehicle from the river. I can only imagine the scene of chaos. There would have been only one person that had a clue of what to do in that situation and that was Gordon. The rest would have been throwing their hands in the air and swearing in German or some other foreign language. The vehicle was recovered and the cabin was drained of all it's water, then towed all the way to camp, where it sat on the side of the road. As it turned out we had another vehicle problem with the fridge truck that night. It had lost all it's brake fluid and wasn't going anywhere. After dinner we had a quick look at it, but decided that the truck was going to be abandoned at Mt Mulgrave and other plans were going to be made for the cold food. We didn't eat the chicken or fish for the next couple of days just in case. Gerhard, the organiser of the event, had asked if we could see about getting the Navara going, as it was going to cost him a fortune to recover the vehicle from Mt Mulgrave and he didn't have any spare room for the people in the other vehicles. So under torch light Gordon and I set about de-watering the engine. The first thing we looked at was the air filter. it looked like a soggy wet phone book that had been dropped in the dirt. The water level in the turbo suggested that the engine had consumed a large amount of water. The glow plugs were removed and the intake hoses were disconnected. The idiots had tried to start the engine whilst in the river and flattened the battery, so another vehicle was bought in to help out. Winding the engine over created a lovely water feature under the glow of the torches. I wasn't holding out much hope for this engine and thought for sure it wouldn't run again. We managed to get a nice fuel supply to the engine and screwed the glow plugs back in. "Well kick it in the guts" I said to Gordon "and see what happens". To both our amazement it ran and it seemed to run smoothly. "Well I'll be" The next problem was that the entire intercooler system was also full of water, but to empty that out was going to be a major strip down of the front of the vehicle. So we decided to let the turbo do the work. We hooked up the pipe to the turbo and revved the freckle out of the engine. The amount of water flowing down the road was comparable to a fire hose. While we were basking in our success of getting the engine to run, we noticed that the fan had lost half of it's blades and that the radiator had 2 splits in the lower tank. This was going to be a morning job. Dirty and smelling of diesel we decided to call it a night and hit the showers. Just as we were heading down to the showers, the hand cyclists that I'd come upon earlier, arrived at 10mins to midnight. Man these guys were legendary. Unfortunately that days stage was going to be their last one due to medical advise. So after cheering them through the finish gate we headed for the showers. The shower block had been set up by the river and had a generator to power the pump and flood lights. Gordon and I fired it up, breaking the silence of the night and had a shower at midnight. I can only imagine what the other campers across the river would've been saying.

_________________
Remember. We elect politicians, but we have to deal with bureaucracy.
Notice that crazy in the bureaucrats.

[Sean O]

Thanks for posting these Dino, I'm loving it.
_________________

[Dino]

D

Quote:

ay Seven Mt Mulgrave to Laura 151km. That morning at breakfast I surprised Rafael with the words "So Boss, ready for another day on the quad". he couldn't believe that I rode through the night and all was back on track again. We had some time up our sleeve that morning, so we set about doing some make shift repairs to the Navara's radiator. No one had any sort of magical radiator repair kit so we came up with a bush mechanic fix. The lower radiator had both it's mounts torn off and that left 2 one inch splits in the lower tank. We decided to scrounge up some old bicycle tubes, which we had plenty of, being that we were surrounded by mountain bikes. We cut some lengths of tube which made a sort of rubber gasket that would seal off the leak. Then we fed some cable ties through the radiator and wrapped them around the lower tank. While I was doing that Gordon was cutting up some billets of rubber vine. These would allow the cable ties to apply pressure on the rubber tube patch. The moment of truth was here. Would it hold water. "Success". With only a very occasional drip coming from the tank we started the engine and it was all good to go. With only 15mins to go till the starters gun, we'd performed a miracle. Not a bad effort if I do say so myself. It turned out that the radiator only lost 2 litres of water that day and the car made it to Laura. This days stage was a pretty uneventful one for us, but we managed to shoot some 47 mins of footage. This was to cause Rafael some head aches that evening. You see, every night he had to whittle down the days footage to only 3 mins and upload it to the globe. We made it to Laura that day in time to do another one of those rolling finishes. This one however was much less stressful. The riders had used up all their energy trying to combat the horrendous corrugations of the Laura road. I must admit, the quads suspension made those corrugations disappear pretty well. I can understand why the riders would've found it hard going though. Dinner that night was taken care of by the pub and washed down with a few cold beers. We were lucky to score a good camp spot that night under an old horse stable. This meant that there was no need for us to put up the tent. Tammy wasn't to comfortable about this idea but went along with the plan. Well at about 3am we had a small wallaby go bounding through the camp. It bounced of boxes, beds and chairs and scared the bgeesus out of most of us. Tammy was going to put her foot down from there on, "The tent is defiantly going up from now on" she hollered. Day Eight Laura to Kalpower 89km. Day eight saw us heading to Kalpower crossing in Lakefield National Park. This was one of the shortest legs in the race and as such was treated as a full on sprint. Gordon and I had to really be aware of what was happening whilst filming the lead pack. There were riders attacking from the peloton all the time, trying to get a break away group happening, only to get reeled back in minutes down the road. It was very exciting to be a part of that action. Just five k from the finish, we were filming some really close up footage of the lead rider. To my amazement, him and his bike were totally covered in blood. At first I thought that he must have crashed at some stage, but if he had crashed the chances of being at the pointy end of the field would've been slim on this days stage. It wasn't till I saw the blood constantly dripping from his nose that I realised it was from the shear exertion that he was putting himself through. These people are committed. It was sad to see him swallowed up by the lead pack only a couple of k's from the finish line, after leading for the whole day. He retired from the race that day. I can't think why. We made it into camp around midday and set up camp in the lovely camp ground. Once that was done we found ourselves wanting to do something fun. I suggested "How about we do some quad water skiing across the causeway". Gordon and Warren both looked at me and said "Yeah, lets do it". We tried finding a suitable item for a toboggan in the camp but couldn't find anything that wouldn't be missed. The plastic tables would've been perfect, but I think come dinner time some questions would've been asked. Gordon and Warren had discovered and old rubbish dump across the river so we rode across the other side to check it out. As we were setting off to the other side, we notice a large grass fire approaching the river. What next. We'd already had a flood and the freezer truck break down had delivered the famine, now we had the fire to complete the set. We decided to retreat to the safety of the river until the fire had burnt itself out. Once the fire had died down we went back up to the dump and recovered an old fridge door. With a bit of ingenuity we had fashioned up the perfect toboggan. So it was back to the river for some testing. The causeway at Kalpower is a curve so we had to play around with the rope length till we got it right. It felt a little uncomfortable being out in the deep water where the crocs live. We took it in turns riding the waves and being on croc watch. I ran back to the camp and fetched Regina and Rafael. They thought we were all quite insane, but we assured them that if it was dangerous, there would've been a sign saying "No tobogganing on causeway". We all had a great time until we wore out the fridge door. After dinner the whole group sat down to watch a rough cut of the footage that we had shot so far from the back of the quads. Gordon and I had been getting some abuse from some of the riders about the dust we were creating earlier in the day. Funny how certain riders complained about the quads, but come time to see themselves on the big screen, they all sat there quietly. We mentioned to Gerhard how some riders were whining about the quads and he asked. "Where abouts were they in the pack" We replied, "At the rear generally". He then said "That's why they were whining. They're good enough to be in the pack, but it's everyone's fault that they're not at the front of the pack". After that comment it was water off a ducks back from then on. The day ended by a walk along the river looking for some croc eyes. A couple were spotted but they were to far away to make out their size.

_________________
Remember. We elect politicians, but we have to deal with bureaucracy.
Notice that crazy in the bureaucrats.

Last edited by Dino on Mon May 06, 2013 3:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

[Dino]

Quote:

Day Nine Kalpower to Starke 148km. This was definitely the hardest day for all concerned. Once we left the graded road it was sand and bulldust all the way to Starke. The riders were hard to catch in this section and could generally travel much faster than we could. I must admit, that they probably had something to complain about on this day. I lost sight of riders on numerous accounts due to the dust we were kicking up. Luckily the wind would clear it away, but the sheer amount was pretty amazing. At one point we stopped for some footage and I got a strong smell of fuel. Oh great, what now I thought. At some point I'd collected what I think must've been a tree and it had punctured my fuel pack on the back of the bike. We'd travel around 120k's since leaving the start, so I figured it was better to have the extra fuel in the tank than have it leak onto the ground or possibly cause a fire. Once we'd dealt with the fuel it was all things back to normal. Arriving into camp that night was a very welcome sight. Our arms and shoulders were aching and we weren't riding push bikes. The river had no water in it so a water truck was brought in to the camp to allow for showering etc. The Europeans have no concept of saving water. As night fell we were accompanied by a typical outback sky. Day Ten Starke to Cooktown 124km. This was the last day of racing. An 8 o'clock start for the race alloyed for the slower riders to get a head start on the main pack. That way the whole group would hopefully be able to get into Hope Vale at a decent hour. The Hope Vale council swimming pool was the site of the official race ending for this years Trophy. It was a bit of an anticlimax really. I was expecting all the school kids to be greeting us and all the towns people jumping up and down. But no. All we got were some council workers and a few stray dogs. The local council put on a really good sausage sizzle at the pool which was really well received and the pool was made full use of. Once all the riders had rested, it was onto Cooktown and a parade down the main street. It's only 40 odd k's from Hope Vale to Cooktown, but the head wind that we all had to endure was criminal. Once we regrouped on the out skirts of town, both Gordon and I led the pack of riders down the main street and up to the top of Grassy Hill, where we were greeted by the Mayor of Cooktown. The lookout at the top of Grassy Hill was the perfect back drop for the official awards ceremony and photo session. All the sponsors banners lined the railings of the lookout and the inflatable finish line arch took pride of place at the top. It really was a great place to finish this gruelling race. Gordon and I thought we'd push our luck just one more time and ask if we could ride our quads to the top of the lookout for a photo. I approached the mayor and pleaded our case. His reply was. "What a great idea. Go right ahead". So we cleared the steps of any stray bikes and rode our quads to the top. Now that alone made it all worth while. Once all the festivities on top of the hill were over, it was time for us to check into our hotel. Gordon and I rode our quads down the main street and parked outside the hotel. We were really getting used to this road riding I can tell you. But the fun had come to an end and our police permit that allowed us to do the road riding had come to a close, but we made the most of it whilst we could. Our rooms were instantly turned into what looked like a Chinese laundry. We had 10 days of dirty clothes and a days worth of dirt to scrub off. Not long after we were all cleaned up Narelle and Tiarni turned up with the quad trailer. The bikes were loaded up and put to bed behind the hotel. They'd done a fantastic job over the course of the event and it was good to see that we suffered no real damage to speak of. We covered a total distance of 1440km's and had a total of 34hours and 31minutes of seat time for the race. The last thing to do was the gala dinner and presentation ceremony to be held at the town community hall. This was one very flash venue and was very nicely set out with tables and decorations. We sat through the usual speeches and then came the presentations to the riders. It was great to finally see everyone that completed the race getting there trophies. We had some guest speakers, one of which was Patrick. He was one of the hand cyclists from America. Unfortunately Carlos, the other rider, was still recovering in hospital.

_________________
Remember. We elect politicians, but we have to deal with bureaucracy.
Notice that crazy in the bureaucrats.

[Dino]

Quote:

The following Sunday Gordon, Narelle, Veronica and I where personally invited out to dinner by Gerhard as a sign of appreciation for all the work we had put in during the event. Some of the feed back we received was pretty amazing. SBS in Belgium reported that "We shot some of the best footage ever seen from a race of this type". I'm pretty sure we are well and truly on the list for next year. Gerhard has already been asking for suggestions of next years route and he's on the hunt for lots of trust worthy volunteers. So who's keen? I hope you enjoyed reading about our adventure as much as we did making it. Until next year. Colin Thomas.

_________________
Remember. We elect politicians, but we have to deal with bureaucracy.
Notice that crazy in the bureaucrats.