appendix: … and even one of them ignored the queue on the buffet and tried to be the first, in front of me. He asked me to give him a plate, but i took all the plates and placed them out of his reach, at the end of the queue.
(2015/02/28) … the weather forecast predicted about 40-45 degree celsius for today. In addition to that, to make the ride more difficult, the path to Coward Springs leads about 220km over gravel and dirt. The days before, driving in a group changed a bit to the better and some of them really cared about the person behind. As soon as we reached the gravel road, the dust and the sun leaded to, that they totally shutdown their brains and went to motorbike riding zombie idiots. On a sealed road where almost less could happen they stayed in a group, but here in the outback on gravel with hidden holes, soft sand or dry creeks to cross where an accident early could happened, they just went to idiots. Hints from the guid to keep distance to each other but take care about the buddy behind where totally ignored. Driving close to each other on gravel/dirt roads is dangerous, if someone crash the others have no chance to react and will also crash. The fact the the air filter will be blocked by dust is just a small but also annoying side effect. Even the reason that some of us have their camelback on the bike or don’t use them and drink instead the water out of bottles, let slow down the the slowest. De-hydration? They have no clue what that means. Monkeys on a motorbike, i thought as two others drove beside me. The road was about 15 meters width, but you have to know that also trucks and road trains are using this unsealed road. They passed me an headed on without caring about the people behind. Usually the speed you have to drive there is about 80-100 km/h to make the distance in a good time and not to arrive too late at the camp. It didn’t took long as i drove over some higher gravel and the bike started dancing under me and my heart got stuck for a second.
Checking my mirror on the bike, i saw that the rider behind me had the same problem. I stopped and we came to the same conclusion about the idiots in front of us. While having a short break one of the slowest was arriving. We tried to take care about him but totally failed, because he drove with about 40-60 km/h and we decided to head on, the service car was directly behind him. For driving on the gravel roads you have to have some speed so that the bike has its own stability and can not be easy influenced by holes, gravel, ditches and sand. It wasn’t easy for me to drive with that speed on the gravel/dirt because i’m used to ride a Suzuki GSX-R. After some time i got used to drive on the gravel and i was also remembering Gogo’s hints on both Enduro Bike trainings which helped a lot. I don’t know why, but one the always slowest was speeding up to 120 and passed all bikes on the road and headed on. He is riding a bike like this when he droves through the forests at home, so he knows how to drive fast on that roads. Coward Springs Camping Ground is directly on this road, the Odnadatta Track, and cannot be missed, already some riders and millions of flies where waiting there.
Without the flies it would be a very nice campground in the middle of nowhere, in the outback. Oh, and they have a SPA. I’m not kidding. A spring with some bubbles, it size about 1,5x1x5 meters, i really welcomed refreshing pool after the sweating ride. After a while we noticed that one of our rides was missing, of course it was the one of the two who are always the slowest. In this case it was the one who passed all of us and it seems that he missed the big sign pointing to the campground. They parked a motorbike on the road, that he will find us easier when it’s getting dark. Again, as the dinner was ready, he showed up, ignoring that we are a bit upset, making fun out of it that he didn’t followed the briefing exactly and so had noted a wrong point for camping. He was also back with an flat rear tire, so that Tobi our mechanic had to change the tube in the tire in the night. It wasn’t the first time, he didn’t followed or take the briefing really seriously. Some of our group are really nice and you have chance to work with them as a team, but in total the impression of a stereotypical german holiday tourist is in all of them. Why should i care about others, why should care about the bike, why should i help to setup or pack the trailer, i have paid for the trip. One reason, i hate to travel in (german) groups. In the distance we could saw some rain coming down, but only a few drops hit us. The sunset rewarded me and after the always good dinner made by Hardy it went happy to bed…