I wouldn't miss an Unaugural for anything – a freezing night in a tent out in a paddock in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of like-minded crazy people – what's not to like?
Oh yeah, the 6kms of gravel road at the end of the trip to get there, which seemed particularly bad this year – corrugations galore, and guess who came to grief on what will henceforth be known as “Betty's Bend”? (closer to Funkytown are Tara's Folly and Jo's Gate – I'm not the only person to have had, um, difficulty over the years!)
Ouch ouch ouch, and there goes another bloody clutch lever, gear lever and indicator.
Peter from Melbourne appears, picks up the bike for hopping Betty, and goes back to Funkytown to get help, which arrives 10 minutes later. Minx to the rescue! (dramatic music please!)
And James, bless him – I had never met him before, but he rode my broken bike to Funkytown for me. Painkillers were sourced, a custom walking stick was fashioned, and the party began.
Thank goodness Pisshead finally arrived, and let me use his crutches. Yay! I could actually get to the dunny, instead of having to crawl to the Wee Tree!
There was quite a crowd there this year – apart from our fabulous hosts, BTH & Minx, there was Bamfy & James, Nev & Jo, G-S, Peter, Marty, Zippy & Marian, Big Iain and his better half, Moike, Crazy Cam, Fred Murtz, Tim C, J5, VTR250, Pisshead Pete – even Smack came up from Tassie. Andre put in a brief appearance, as did Funkytown's next door neighbours.
There was archery, astronomy, a celebration of the Pumpkin that Ate Tuggeranong (pictured at the top of this post); a big bonfire and a BBQ, all washed down with copious amounts of BTH's home brewed ginger beer, beer and cider, and all manner of other wicked drinks. Fabulous awards were awarded, and hopping Betty actually got one this year (some people will do anything to get their hands on an Unaugural award). Here's mine.
To tell the truth, I can't remember who won the other awards, as the, er, painkillers were being extremely effective by that time of the evening, and things were a little hazy. What a night!
Once again, Pisshead forgot to actually get into his swag, and almost got hypothermia. The day dawned with a pea soup fog, and many hangovers. My real pea and ham soup supplemented BTH's bacon and egg breakfast, to warm people from the inside, and those from far away – Melbourne, Coonabarabran, Sydney – were soon on the road, while Pisshead and I sat like a pair of cripples nursing our sore heads and watching BTH, Bamfy & James do the hard work of pulling down the remaining tents and loading up the truck with all the Unaugural goodies.
The fog burned off, the day turned gorgeous, and we were out of there before midday. Was great catching up with everybody again – thanks everyone, and thanks BTH & Minx for another great Unaugural weekend.
James rode my bike back to Canberra (my Jacket and Gloves actually fitted him!), Boomerang Boy met us at my place with a new set of hired crutches and all is well with the world, except for the hopping around on crutches bit. The good news is that nothing appears to be broken, but omigosh, where did my ankle go?
9 comments:
owie Owie Owie!!! Your poor wee cankle, Betty! Cripes that must be caning...
Sounds like another great Unaurgural. I'm so gonna have to get to one, hopefully next year. Otherwise Smack will probably smack me (ooh err!).
Get better soon, luvvie, Ok?
What about buying an extra clutch lever, gear shifter and LH indicator and sticking them in your backpack? Given that you seem to have a propensity for dropping on that side. That way you'll never be stranded. Rgds. Andrew
Holy shit! I can't believe nothing's broken. Still, you got off lightly, I had to break my hip and shoulder to get an Unaugural hard luck trophy ;-) I've set the standard.
Remember on the gravel, when it doubt, wind it out! Except for the corners :-)
I reckon a pair of barkbusters to protect the handlebar levers, and BMW-style engine crash bars to protect the gear shifter.
(And some Stay Upright training courses to hopefully make those first couple of things redundant)
Lemmiwinks, the gratifying thing about being flung hard onto gravel by 200kgs of loaded motorbike (you should see the whopping bruise on my thigh!) is that none of my bones shattered! I guess my bone density must be pretty good!
I could NEVER aspire to the standard you set ;-) (thank goodness!)
All good suggestions, folks - Andrew, I have some spare bits stashed under the seat, but I haven't figured out how to attach them...
You must bounce better than me BB, I just kind of went "splat" ;-)
Oh, BTW the caveat for when in doubt, wind it out is that on gravel, in the corners, you lean the bike but keep your body upright. Takes some getting your head around when changing from tarmac to gravel but you'll corner fabulously (and conquer gravel at last!)
Betty, glad the ankles just swollen and sore and not broken. Have you thought about carrying spare bar and foot levers, and indicators?? or at least having replacements on hand at home :) Glad you are OK BooBoo.
Yogi :)
ouch Betty, I've got to teach you to fix your own bike. Miss you at the lunch time walks.
Hi George! Yeah, life would be easier if I could fix my own bike... but I wouldn't know where to begin - and I don't know if I would trust myself or my handiwork!
Post a Comment