Dreaming of Dakar

I think it was around 900 or so when we left the pit area where we met up with Jane.  5 hours of riding so far and about 1/3 of the distance done.  We were a little behind schedule for when we expected to be there.  We knew that the later part of the day would be on harder terrain so we wanted to make up good time early to leave enough time for that.  Still, we were making decent time considering my earlier wipeout.

Not long after we left the pit area I noticed a few drops falling on my face shield.  So far the weather had actually been very nice.  We had high clouds which helped when riding into the sun in the early morning.  We knew this would not last from looking at the weather forecast however.  Since it was supposed to be wet and not too warm I had warn my riding jacket over my gear.  I had expected I would need to take it off before the end of the day.

The rain started to fall a bit harder and this part of the ride was still mostly on regular roads where we were moving along at a good rate of speed.  It didn't take long for the rain to soak into the deepest layers of my clothing.  Honestly all I remember about the next few hours was being very cold.  I kept thinking we would hit a trail section soon where the speeds would slow down and I would be working harder (to help keep warm) but it was just miles and miles of roads.  In retrospect it probably wasn't that long but it felt like it with the cold.

At the next gas stop we had a much longer than usual stop.  I figured it was critical to eat something since the cold was sapping my strength already.  Robb went into the gas station and got a big trash bag which he cut holes in to make a makeshift rain coat.  I wish I had done the same but sitting there I was starting to warm up (because we were not moving).  We were probably at that stop for 20 minutes or so.

Eventually the rain did let up and we started hitting more interesting terrain.  We were at about the 1/2 way mark on distance.  400km (250mi) down, another 400km to go.  That is when we got to what was probably the most amazing thing I think I have done on a motorcycle.  That is when we hit the big crossing.  Someone else posted some video of it:

We had been told ahead of time that your bike needs to be able to handle 18" of water.  There were times I am certain this one was closer to 2 feet deep.  It was a lot longer than I would have imagined, I heard it was about 1200 meters long.  With the small trees overhanging the "path" you could not see the other end.  It just felt like it would go on forever.  The trick to these is 1st gear and keep moving.  Try to create a bow wave and ride at that speed.  Of course the real tricky bit is it isn't just flat ground under the water but loose round rocks.  I would be going along just fine and bounce off one.  As long as I kept myeyes forward and stayed loose on the bike I was fine but I still kept wondering if there would be a really big rock or a deep hole that I was about to hit.

I would have never thought my DRZ would have handled water like this but it made it without as much as a sputter.  I had put dielectric grease into most of the connectors and sprayed them with silicone on the outside as part of my prep.  After hearing of others who didn't make it through this without stalling I was glad I had done the extra prep.

We had some decent but somewhat slick trails after this but then made it in to the lunch stop without much trouble.

to be continued....