Boxing Day 2015 Washout

Blog Date - 28 December 2015

It's Boxing Day! That means Christmas is over and if I can just get through New Year's Eve then we're done - till next time. 

The weather has been astonishingly wet this last month or more. While it's been so incredibly wet it hasn't been cold though, temperatures have been around the 7 to 14 degrees mark which is quite unseasonable. I can ride in rain, I can't ride on snow so well and ice is just plain silly. As such there's been no reason to use the car and my waterproofing seems to be performing remarkably, all things considered. I've done well over a thousand miles this month.

So this morning I've decided contrary to the weatherman's advice to get out on the bike and poor Sharon is coming with me. It has been raining very hard indeed since Christmas day and as I prepare to set out I see dozens of posts on Facebook stating that there are floods all around my area. Maybe we won't be going far.

We stop within a mile of my house. I watch a couple of cars slowly wade through a flood on the main road. I'm up for going through but I have to consider Sharon's inexperience of such matters and the look on her face tells me she ain't going through. We detour and head up to Rivington, the local biker hang out.

Sharon seems OK splashing through the shallow streams that are flowing across our path then outside Rivington's lower barn there is a veritable river across the road. While this is disconcerting even for me to make matters worse several tons of sandy gravel has been dragged across the road too. I stop and watch a car pass through and decide the torrent is but a mere 6 or 9 inches deep so I plough through. The gravel is loose and lairy and I have to dip my feet into the waters to keep balance. Once on the other side I look back, as expected Sharon is showing no signs of attempting this foolishness.

No, Sharon's far to sensible to ride through that.

I push Sharon's bike though on foot and she follows. Further on there's a shallow stream again with a lot of light brown mud and scree spread over the tarmac. With another wobble I pass this obstacle and Sharon follows me bravely. 

Between two reservoirs is a road with stone walls. I've seen this before, a flow from the hills runs into the road and the walls stop the water escaping and creates a long and potentially quite deep flood. We stop and watch a couple of 4x4's wade through and I decide this is too long and too deep for either myself or my motorcycle. After a break to talk to fellow onlookers we head back to the lower barn for a brew. 

Too long even for stupid fools such as I.

As we pass through the shallow stream once more I delicately wobble and slither on the mud and the rounded stones. Behind me in my mirrors I can see Sharon still has her feet up and I can hear her engine screaming! What? I expect her to come flying past me like a professional Paris-Dakar rider, leaving me soaked in the wake of her awesome skills. At The Barn I query her. It seems, despite her fears and her inexperience, Sharon's answer to being scared on two wheels is "MORE POWER!" I suspect she's been watching too much Top Gear and has now developed the Jeremy Clarkson approach to any problem, "MORE POWER!" 

In fact she's probably right. Motocrossers, Enduro riders and experienced off road types are often heard stating the only way to ride on loose surfaces is to power through. Me? I'm a big chicken, feet out, feather the clutch and slither around hoping that if I'm going slowly then I can catch the bike with my legs. Sharon's not as tall or strong as me so I guess she only has the "MORE POWER!" option. Mental. The goddam woman is mental.

After a brew I push Sharon's bike back through the deeper flood for her and we depart to my mother's place for a brew and a chat. I'd like to report that my Army Surplus waterproof socks are indeed waterproof as we waded through several 9-12 inch deep floods. Sharon's Daytona Ladystar boots also left her little fluffy socks perfectly dry too. Sharon made a very interesting statement.

Her statement was something along the lines of "That was scary and I didn't enjoy it, but looking back now it seems brilliant!" This reminds me of my trip to Scotland last winter. While I was there I was cold, I was weary, I was uncomfortable, I was concerned and at times I was truly scared. And yet, today, looking back all I can think is that it was fabulous and exciting and I want to do it all again. There's something very odd about the human condition.

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