TET: Great Western Trail: Day 2. Mini Epic!

 We woke to a soggy morning. The woodland canopy above was still dripping its big blobs of rain drops onto the tents and bikes. The cloud was still at our feet and everything was damp and soggy.

We packed up fairly quickly. No reason to hang about after all. After the initial puddle strewn trails, we traversed a few minor tarmac roads, through sleepy villages and across deep brown rivers. Lots of horse riders around this morning. It is Sunday after all, but so many were in their finest riding kit, so clearly plenty of events going on today. 

Our first ford of the day, we bypassed as it was flowing very fast on a concrete base. There was a perfectly god bridge, so it got used. Then came some great little single track trails winding through arches of Willow branches. At our second ford, we stopped to debate it as it looked deep, with dirty brown water flowing fairly fast again. Three local bikes turned up and headed straight through, so after we'd seen the depth and the bikes get through with only a little sideways action, we set off. I got through with a good bit of sideways slide on the rear end, the water catching my panniers and the slippy ford floor doing the rest. 

I looked back to see if I could take a picture of Gareth coming through the ford, only to see him off his bike and the bike being lifted back out of the water! 

By the time I'd gotten off my bike and headed back to him, the bike had been down a second time. This time Gareth's feet had been washed out from under him and the bike drowned more thoroughly this time as the engine was revving higher at the time. 

We pulled the bike out of the river and leaned it up against the bank. Once we'd both caught our breathe, we chatted through the drowned bike procedure for these kind of bikes and then set to it. 

1. Lift the bike onto its back wheel, drain the exhaust. Not much came out
2. Take off the saddle, side panel, coil pack and remove spark plug.
3. Rock the bike back and forth in gear to expel the water
4. Dry the spark plugs, refit the coil pack, see if she'll start

No luck with the starting at all. The bike seemed dead. So we hooked up my bike with a set of mini jumper leads to try to jump start the battery, no joy, the bike stayed dead. After a lot of faffing, some disagreements and quick ride out by myself to see how hard it was to exit this lane to tarmac, it was decided to take the longer but easier exit along the lane. I'll tow Gareth to the village, where we either got recovery or he phoned his partner to come get him. 

After a couple of false starts though, my bike decided to spit its dummy and wouldn't start. Something had drained the battery too low. So now we had two dead bikes and a long way to tarmac. Hey ho. A passing bikers on his brand new BMW 900 stopped for a gossip, we then had an audience of a couple of youngsters walking their dogs as we began pushing these dead weights towards the village. In the meantime, Gareth had called his partner and she was on her way with a jumper pack. 

The day ended, with my bike running again after a jump start. Gareth's bike in the back of the van and all of us back at Gareth's place for the night. We'd pushed the bikes some 1200 metres from drowning to tarmac, which had three hills in it and a lot of mud. There is no way either one of us could have done that without the other with these bikes, they are just too heavy!

So, a trip to KTM the next day saw the 690 heading into the workshop, possibly with bent valves or maybe something more serious, and me heading home.

Yet another biking adventure for the pub!