The 4th Barkbusters BLITZ ride provided two days of adventure riding heaven, with two loops based from our accommodation at Del Rio Resort, just a ferry ride across from the river settlement of Wisemans Ferry, NSW.
Each ride in the series has had a great mix of incredible locations, scenery, riders and bikes, making these navigation rides a great experience for everyone, this one was certainly no exception.
With nearly all riders arriving on Friday afternoon, the weekend kicked off with an amazing signature T Racer BBQ and fully loaded grazing table.
What a feast ..
Day 1: 267kms + breakouts
After breakfast at Wisemans we enjoyed a very scenic twisty run along the river to our first taste of dirt through Ourimbah Forest. After the easy run up, the first dirt section took a few riders by surprise with an early start to rough and washed out trails.
The turn off here was probably one of the most overshot corners we've had on a ride, we would of ran out of wooden spoons if we'd sat and watched!
It was here that we gave out our first Team Spoon award of the series too, with Michael and Oli seeing the area a couple of times, in different directions.
Safe to say they were the only riders to do Twin Peaks bypass, both ways.
Webbs Creek Ferry, heading to breakfast at Wisemans
Wisemans Ferry Road
Nobby passing through Spencer
The two short breakouts once again proved popular, a little off the general route and providing a bit more technical riding without being over the top.
Nobby and Loaded Rider claiming the Narrow Crossing motocache.
Shaun aboard his new BMW1250, back on the dirt for the first time all year, not sure if he's got any rear tyre left!
After the forest trails and a very scenic run along Watagan Creek Road, it was time for the halfway checkpoint and lunch at the Laguna Trading Post.
The girls did a great job at Laguna, helping with checkpoint duties and taking care of a NAVIG8 token.
As if the morning wasn't spectacular enough, it was time to switch the GPS to Stage 2 for the run back to Wisemans, via Wollombi, Yango and St Albans. It's a stunning place to ride, and we experienced the best of the best adventure roads and trails.
Del Rio for dinner, drinks and the 'not so serious' awards and prizes.
The mystery raffle raised $205 for the RideToStopSuicide
Day 2: 263kms
Day 2 kicked off with T Racer preparing an insane breakfast, there was cereal, fresh fruit platters, coffee, juice, good old bacon and eggs along with crazy cups of goodness with healthy ingredients a few of us couldn't even pronounce, it tasted incredible.
Another feast....pre-load adjusters wound up for todays ride!
Geared up and ready to go for Day 2.
Today was a real mixed bag, dirt roads, sandy whooped out tracks, gates, a stretch along the Putty Rd and a scenic run through Colo and Wheelbarrow Ridge.
Most were happy cruising and taking in the sights, a couple of bikes were dropped in the sand and a group of faster riders went for a good blast.
Once again we always knew where Brett (Loaded Rider) had been, the Big KTM left it's mark everywhere, usually telling others where 'not' to go....Read as: overcooks 4 out of 5 corners and heads bush.
Looks like an Arai convention.
Trent rode the 1200 more like a BMX than a BMW.......where'd he gooooooo?
Great conditions for the 2 days, avoiding the high winds experienced just a little south of us.
Damo (D1) and Alex (D2) decided to play dominos, the KTM took some tape and zip ties to sort a broken perch and the Honda was left with a shorty clutch lever and broken hand guard.
Serge and Jeff hitting waypoints and adding to their motocache count.
Finchley lookout.
Russell's secret to taking back to back wings awards revealed, no wonder he doesn't slow down....he can't!
Lunch stop was at the Grey Gum Cafe on the Putty, some riders headed home from here with a handful completing the last section back to Wisemans.
Just as we were heading out the rain started along with the winds and chill we'd been avoiding. Fortunately it was short lived and the final run was perfect.
Perfect conditions, for most of us anyway, it was a little different for Derek heading back to Orange.
Ride with Dad they said!
Oli was all smiles and thumbs up on the return leg, despite the constant thoughts that he might just need to go solo or find a new team mate on the next one. #TeamWoodenSpoon
There could of also been a KTM that tried to throw it's rider off a bridge and a BMW with a knobby tyre pattern across it's windscreen, but we can't really say.....because that wouldn't be nice.
Richard's luck continues.
A visor, multiple punctures, a driving light mount and he can now add the highest wooden spoon count for 100 metres to his collection, at least he's smiling the whole way.....well mostly.
Results
Although not a race, there's always some great prizes and awards using our points system on the navigation rides.
Event prizes are randomly drawn, and custom Barkbusters Trophies awarded at completion of the series.
We'd like to thank all the riders, Barkbusters and supporting sponsors for another great event.
Each BLITZ Ride has limited entries and each one has sold out, subscribe to our newsletter or bookmark our event page to keep informed on future events.
If you haven't already, grab an annual NAVIG8 subscription, get discounts, free challenges and motocache downloads.
See you out there!
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