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Murchison Off Road Pony Express
Report by Brownie
Murchison Offroad Adventures Pony Express Cheers to Tiger (the wordsmith!) for putting pressure on a bloke to deliver an interesting report OK here goes The annual Crusty MOA family weekend had been gatecrashed by a pony express event at the last minute -Yay! Roley,Peter,Colin,Steve,H,Merv,Brownie and Jason............yes Jason (the ghost who rides) were to head into the scrub for some Murchison Offroad madness. For various reasons one by one the family members had been dropping out until Just Julie remained. This changed as Colin then developed a mysterious illness and had to pull out with some lame girly excuse of all night vomiting and hysterical fevers. I guess it is a long way from anywhere if your bike breaks down LOL....... (get well soon Col). Then Peter decided against risking his foot before his big trip and pulled the pin so that left just one Baboon and 5 others. Saturday morning Roley,Steve,H and Jason arrived at Col's house in Sunset Beach around 11 where Col,Merv and Brownie were waiting.Yes it was true Jason existed and as it happens is not a bad bloke.He was probably more charged than any of us about the weekend. After a fantastic Brunch Julie had kindly prepared we waved adios to a rather disappointed Col and hit the road.After a quick top up at the 440 we arrived 1 1/2 hours later at Coolcalalaya station. Son after we were booted up and were ready for a lap of the course. Simon Harslett had laid out a pink ribbon marked track through the scrub and along the river. H led off and Roley (Champion that he is) went sweep.We soon found the layout was tricky to follow ,with only a few bikes been through previously, and in places no visible tracks as the ground was either rock hard or a moonscape of rocks.This was sorted after the site lap on Sunday left a well defined track. The course was quite technical with a real mixture of rocky sections ,rough washouts and gullies ,tight twisty scrub ,several water crossings and the only real spot where you could open the taps for a bit of a break from the twisty stuff was fast sandy river bed sections - and these were fairly chopped up by the end of the day. There was one particular muddy water crossing that Steve decided to do a bit of digging in.......only he used his DRZ as the digger ...........1/2 way to the the earths core. The mud had equivalent properties to quicksand and it took 4 blokes and a well placed tree branch to eventually pluck it loose.Jason blooded his new white boots well. Unfortunately Steve could not produce his miners rights licence and so was duly pinged SOTD. Slightly dirtier than when's we left we arrived back at camp 23km later for a well earned drink. As the afternoon wore on more riders arrived and set up camp.It was a good vibe and everyone was looking forward to the next days ride. After a suitable "where the bloody hell are ya"? outback sunset we settled back around the roaring clifftop fire with river views to tell some tales both tall and true!! We were joined by some blokes who were a good bunch from Shark Bay ,Kalbarri and geraldton. Jamie had some tales from his recent trip to the Erzberg Enduro and the loony antics that go on there, both on bikes and off. Steve imbibed in several thousand scotches it seems (probably to quell thoughts of the black lagoon) and felt a touch ordinary on Sunday morn. H ,Jason and Roley were enjoying being far from the rat race and to top things off a full moon rose over the riverbed. Things got a bit weird when at one stage I looked up to see a half moon mid bush wiz. WTF! I was sure that moon was full 2 hours ago!! How many beers have I had?..................... Ah Haaaa - a lunar eclipse, just to add to the night show . Perfect. Sunday morning arose cold and clear. The beautiful morning silence was eventually broken by arguably the even more beautiful note of a 450 4 stroke being brought to life. We all chose to sit the morning site lap out as we wanted to save as much energy as we could (being the Crusty super athletes we are!) for what promised to be a challenging day. We teamed up as Roley / Steve,Merv / jason and H / Brownie. It was decided H and Jason would go first out and Roley and Steve went together as they planned on doing 1 or 2 laps each. H rode like a demon all day and was getting faster times each lap.He clocked 5 laps and then backed it up with a 6 hour drive home. And for that he gets ROTD! Merv and Jason were both getting bigger smiles each lap and Jason even snuck in his last lap seconds before time was called. I think Merv had a small off but no damage done.Roley decided to take it easy after 1 lap and save his sore wrist for Capel and Steve did 1 and avoided the mud trap again. As for me well its a bit embarrassing really but I laid it down coming up on a sharp drop off too quick clipped a rock and managed to twist my knee and ankle. I thought - that's it you twat, you've buggered it not 500 metres in to the course. I stayed put for 5 minutes after which the pain subsided a bit and I thought I could complete a lap at least. 1/2 way through I caught my leg again and got some more shooting pain fun going on. After that I had to limp back to base and leave H to iron man it! I am sure there are a stack of stories to be told by everybody as there always are in such an event so feel free to add your own comments boys. All up a great weekend. Thanks to the Perth boys for making the trip and Merv as well. Now where's that pressure washer?  CQ salute - MOA Pony Express June 2010  Roley and Jason line up for the off. MOA Pony Express  MAO Pony Express: Saturday lunch at Col's for the 6 Crustys to hook up - Merv & Jason talking up Yamahas & strategy, Brownie adding his wisdom! LOL  Its Jason......yep he is real!!  MAO Pony Express: Steve on gate duty as we enter MOA  H enjoying the serenity. MOA pony express  MOA Pony Express: registered and ready to go!  MOA Pony Express. Site Lap  MOA Pony Express: on the Saturday afternoon pre-ride of the course Steve was the first victim of one of the four river crossings!  MOA Pony Express: on the Saturday afternoon pre-ride of the course Steve was the first victim of one of the four river crossings! It took four us to drag him out! What did he learn from this?  MOA Pony Express.  MOA Pony Express  MOA Pony Express: Saturday night tea and H & I were missing the services of the Camp Bitches, Col & Peter! LOL  MOA Pony Express: Saturday night - H & Steve sharing the campfire with all their mates! LOL Actually this was the spot later in the night with a lot of bench racing! LOL  MOA Pony Express: Some of the campers and Team Crusty to the left  MOA Pony Express: a new Memorial erected at the homestead  MOA Pony Express: the natural beauty of the Murchison River!  MOA Pony Express: the natural beauty of the Murchison River!  MOA Pony Express: H getting friendly with one of the locals with the latest in riding attire! LOL  MOA Pony Express: Riders Briefing  MOA Pony Express: The pack taking off for a sighting lap with the three Sweep quads in the foreground  MOA Pony Express: The real Jason having a rest while his partner Merv is blasting around the loop!  MOA Pony Express: H waiting for Brownie - were the hell is he?  MOA Pony Express: Finally Brownie limps in (note right leg) to tag an eager H!  MOA Pony Express: Merv with his custom fuel funnel! LOL  MOA Pony Express: Steve calling it a day making comment about how he likes soft, boggy sand! LOL  MOA Pony Express: Jason finishing yet another loop!  MOA Pony Express: Presentation time by the course Marshall (note Mal MOA lurking in the background). Also note the scooter used to make the 23 km course! |
