Mousescapades

 The plan for Sunday had been to take two WR's up to National Park and try and hook up with a bunch of other ADVRiders but Chevvy's bike appears to have caught Covid (the only logical explanation as WR's are supposed to be bulletproof) so that plan was toast - there was a chance we wouldn't hook up with the other guys and I didn't want to tackle those routes solo.

So, I had to come up with another plan.  The mouse was fueled up and ready to rock so I decided that a gentle local meander was the order of the day.  I also new where the current tag was and it was easy to figure out a route to it that involved some gravel.  And that was the extent of my planning - what came after the tag was left until I actually found the tag...

My first bit of gravel was on Watershed Road and it had me thinking I'd forgotten how to ride on the stuff.  There was a reasonable amount of gravel on the road and it was hard underneath which made me think the front end was wandering all over the place - perhaps because it was...

Anyway, I managed to rein the little bike in a bit and we wobbled our way through to the seal of Valley Road before I continued chasing the bunnies off Zig Zag Road (ended up chasing the bunnies all day - me thinks they've been breeding like rabbits).

Finnis Road dropped me down into Pohangina and following a little bit of seal got me to the tag.

No bees were harmed in the writing of this blog

Carrying on along Pohangina Road I hit the gravel section that almost always is in magnificent condition for some enjoyable riding.  Today was no exception and I really wanted to wave my magic wand and swap to the Tenere for this bit - too bad, I couldn't but the WR gave her all...

At Utuwai I hung a left and carried on into Apiti for the below picture which ended up not being required...yes, I got beaten the tag (Owl must have just gone for a short ride as he bet me home by an hour).

Getting back on my trusty steed, I glanced at it's high-tech multi-function display and "lunchtime" was flashing on the screen.  Or perhaps the clock was saying 12ish...

Looking over at the pub I noticed a disappointment (pretty sure that's the collective noun for a bunch of hogs) of Harleys were stopped waiting for their support crew, so I decided that rather than generating a high level of Yamaha envy, I would embarrass them with a display of pure horsepower the likes of which they could only dream and skedaddled for Kimbolton...

In what seemed like mere minutes the Mouse clambered it's way up the hill to Kimbolton where I parked up next to a Ducati and a couple of 790's.

At least one quality machine in this photo

And on the other side of the road there was a line-up of some nice old cars along with a new old one.

Austin Powers in the house?

During lunch I was approached by the owners of the his and hers KTM's and we had a good chat about the riding available in the area.  They are pretty keen to get in some good training before they take on the Dusty Butt next year.  As you can imagine, we didn't have a lot to talk about...But, hopefully they'll join Colin and I on the odd ride in future.

After lunch I retraced my steps a little bit, heading North out of Kimbolton in search of more gravel.  I had Peep-O-day Road in the back of my mind and just had to find the right roads to take in order to find it.

In the end I tackled the gravel of McBeth Road, Levett Line, Beaconsfield Valley and Waituna Tapuae Roads before finally hitting the Peep-O-day Road turn-off and ignoring it to take Upper Pakihikura Road.  The riding was great and there were plenty of places for some good photo ops.  Peep-O-Day will still be there next time.

Interestingly, Upper Pakihikura Road came to an end at Lower Pakihikura Road and this pretty soon turned to a seal race track that got me out onto Vinegar Hill.

And boy, Vinegar Hill was an experience on the 250...But, nobody passed me 😉

A quick stop in Fielding to report into Dad and then some more high speed cruising had me home in time for afternoon smoko and the disappointment of missing out on the tag...At least one little WR got a beating little bit of exercise.