We had hoped to travel to the border and cross into Laos today but an early email from Aad (Art) let us know the weather forecast was not good for today (clearing tomorrow) and as we had sent our wet weather gear home from Chiang Mai we thought a down day would be in order. In addition, Aad had twigged to a space problem with their laptops – with Vince now providing Mike with GoPro footage every day, and then with Aad now using our spare GoPro they were accumulating video much faster then they had anticipated and it was pushing their laptop storage capacity to the limit, so they needed to make more space available.

Aad and Mike jumped on their bikes and rode down to Tesco’s to get some supplies whilst Karen and I walked down the main road, passing a brightly painted tour coach parked on some vacant land. We made our way to Cafe Lao in time for lunch, removing our shoes as requested by the sign outside and sitting at a low table on the verandah, ordering the spring rolls and Lao noodle soup. The spring rolls (not fried) were delicious, served with two small bowls – one with a dipping sauce in, the other filled with crushed nuts. The Lao noodle soup was accompanied with a bamboo pot full of basil and lettuce leaves – Karen immediately ripping the leaves and dunking them into the soup bowl, which tasted delicious. We had a slow and leisurely lunch, then caught a tuk-tuk down to Tesco’s and did some shopping for ourselves before going back to our guesthouse for an afternoon of light chores.

Towards sunset Mike joined us for another stroll into town, firstly however we walked down to the banks of the Mekong and looked across the water to Laos on the eastern side before walking back up to the small ramshackle shops, squeezing between the narrow aisles jammed with multi-packed products and looking for a few supplies for our dinner.

Dinner was almost a repeat of yesterday – a joint effort involving our MSR Dragonfly cooker and Aad’s Coleman stove whipping up a combination of baked beans, two-minute noodles, eggs, tomatoes and onions.

The rain had held off for the day – whilst the grey sky had threatened rain for a lot of the day it had been quite dry. Late in the evening however it started to bucket down – not an auspicious sign for tomorrow but we’re now a day behind and we can’t stay here in Thailand indefinitely so tomorrow we ride …. hopefully !!!!

After a two-week hiatus in Chiang Mai to allow Karen’s broken arm to heal a bit it was fantastic to get back on the bike today and clock up a ride. I’d purchased a copy of GT-Rider’s “Golden Triangle” map a few weeks ago from Book Zone in CM – I’ve already got a copy of this map at home but I hadn’t brought it on this ride as space was limited and I was already carrying a dozen maps or so – and with Aad and Mike we’d looked at a route that deviated from the 107 – the main road connecting CM to Tha Ton and instead veered north through the mountains along the roads 1178 – 1340 – 1249.

Karen and I were a bit slow in getting ready for breakfast at 7:30am today – with her injured hand I had to do a lot of the packing and carrying etc, and so breakfast was closer to 08:00am and we finally rolled down the Panda House driveway about 08:38am, with Jenny (aka Panda Lady), our hostess and her sister waving madly at us as our three bikes coughed and spluttered into life. Karen had made a gift to Jenny of the blue love heat cushion she had  been given in hospital as thanks for her concern and kindness.

Aad gave Karen a boost up onto the back of the BMW – she’s still got her injured arm bound up in a cast and will need to continue wearing that for the next four weeks. With the zip we had inserted in her jacket arm she was able to easily slide her arm into the jacket, however she discovered later that morning that with a little bit of jiggling she could slip her arm into the jacket without using the new zip – all good – at least we were ready to deal with getting the jacket over the cast if necessary.

Traffic wasn’t too bad as we made our way north out of CM, but we were all glad when we turned off the main road and picked up the country road that led towards the mountain, leaving behind the roadside businesses, houses and small industrial sites and replacing them with open fields and rolling hills.

We stopped at a servo about an hour into the ride – we’ve loaned a GoPro video camera to Aad and he wanted to check to see how it was working, and Karen needed to take some tablets for the pain, something she hasn’t needed for a week or so but the exertion of getting on and off the bike etc and adjusting to riding with a broken arm had been a bit gruelling for her.

A short while later we stopped again – Aad thought he’d spotted a roadside stall selling fresh coffee so we pulled over, but it turned out to be a very basic store that had very little to offer, so Karen and I shared some water from one of our water bottles off the back of the bike, and Aad and Mike shared a bottle of warm Coke they had found lying round in the store. Aad bought a small pack of nondescript nibblies that we shared as we chatted under the shade of the lean-to out the front of the store.

It wasn’t too long later that we stopped again, and again so Aad and Mike could check their cameras. I moved the BMW off the road and into the shade, and Karen and I bought some small and sweet bananas for morning tea that we shared with Aad and Mike – 1 baht for a banana. As we pulled out of the car park about 10 or so motorbikes rode past – we stopped at a lookout a bit up the road and had a brief chat with some of the riders – they were friends from Ireland who had come over to Thailand and Laos for a couple of weeks riding. The rider Karen and I were chatting with was on his sixth overseas ride this year, having already visited Morocco (twice), Norway and South America.

Pushing on we started to enter the mountain range proper, the road climbing very steeply. We’d seen warning signs on our “Golden Triangle” map and the road was very steep in places, but Karen and I both agreed at the end of the riding day that they weren’t the steepest roads we’ve ridden – that dubious honour would go to the Torr Road in northern Ireland where the road was that steep I was struggling to keep the front wheel of the bike down on the ground even with all of my weight over the front.

The sky was a lovely blue colour without a cloud to be seen, and the temperature a pleasant 23 degrees or so, fantastic conditions for riding. Karen and I sat behind Mike, whose bike seemed to struggle up some of the steep inclines at times – later in the day he said that his gearing was too wide to enable him to easily climb the hills and he was having to work hard to keep the bike going. The BMW meanwhile just ate up the road – hairpins were first gear jobs but otherwise we could motor along quite swiftly.

“What goes up must come down” is the saying, and eventually we crested the mountain range and started dropping down the steep descent towards the plain below. I had a sneak preview of my GoPro footage this evening and usually it’s difficult to gauge the incline or decline in video but the video I filmed on these steep descents gives us almost a helicopter view above Aad and Mike as we followed them down the steep and twisty mountain road. I was grateful that the road was dry as it would have been a challenge in wet weather.

Down on the flat Mike pulled into a servo to refuel and we all followed, quickly refuelling before parking our bikes out the front of the adjacent ‘Maple Coffee’ cafe. Parking is often a bit of an exercise for me – searching for some ground with just the right slope so that I can park the heavy BMW on enough of a lean that it won’t stand up and fall over to the right, but not too much of a lean that I can’t get it upright again. If I misjudge the slope I usually need to reposition the bike, and here I needed Mike (usually Karen’s job) to give me a bit of a push so I could reverse the bike into the parking bay and get it to lean over properly. With that said Aad was struggling as well in the same spot – he needed to use his wooden chock to lift up his Triumph.

Bikes safely parked, we joined Karen inside. I had a semi-decent coffee served in a dainty tea cup, and Karen had some insipid lemon tea served in a shot glass. Our choice of cakes were no more successful, but Karen had a cuddle with a giant teddy bear on the couch where we were sitting and that made her a bit happier.

30km down the busy road we had just joined saw us arriving in Tha Ton, our destination for the day. Mike led us to the riverside retreat we’d booked – a two-room bungalow we were all going to share (1,600 baht total, inc breakfast). The bungalow was quite basic inside – a rickety bamboo four-poster double bed on a raised platform overlooking the sitting area, whilst the second bedroom was just a little alcove off to the side, separated by some bamboo screens that didn’t extend all the way up to the ceiling.

After unpacking and sorting a few things out, Karen and I went to the resort restaurant where we struggled to place an order for two chicken curries with the nice lady looking after the resort, ending up with one chicken and one pork curry, which we ate overlooking the Kok River that flowed past the dining area. Aad and Mike fancied home cooking tonight so they fired up their Coleman stove and had noodles and hotdogs, spiced up by Mike.

After dinner and chores, Karen and I watched the end of “Pirates of the Caribbean – On Stranger Tides” – a movie that has taken us three goes to get through, and then it was time for bed. Tomorrow we head towards the border crossing into Laos with a side trip out to a village to see some local tribes, and the following day it should be entry into Laos and the start of a new phase in our adventure. Yippee !!!!!

A week or so ago we’d spotted two posters in a bike shop promoting two different bike events coming up in Chiang Mai as part of the Chiang Mai Bike Week, but attempts to find out more about Bike Week were both frustrating and less than completely successful. With that said, we eventually ascertained that there was an event being staged at the International Convention Centre on Saturday evening, 12th December, so about 5:45pm we grabbed a tuk-tuk and took the 8km ride out to the centre to see what “The True Return” was all about.

“The True Return” poster we’d seen listed a number of partners, including BMW, KTM, Triumph, Touratech, Klim and GoPro, as well as a large number of motorcycle groups including the Hells Angels, Bandidos, Immortals, Hells Devils, Mongols, etc etc so it promised to be an interesting event.

We arrived at the Convention Centre about 6:15pm, originally overshooting the entrance gate, but our tuk-tuk driver quickly sorted that out and got us back to where we needed to be. The Convention Centre was a fair bit out of town so we arranged with our driver to stay at the bike show and wait for us for 90 minutes whilst we browsed around the outdoor displays, so he could then run us back into Chiang Mai, and that was a good move as we’d still be walking home otherwise.

A large banner over the entrance to the display area welcomed all riders, and an adjacent sign indicated rules that applied – no brawling, no knuckle-dusters, no hand-guns. The show had just opened up when we arrived but already it was quite crowded with people bustling along the aisles and stopping to admire the bikes on display. By and large the show was dominated by custom chopper displays, but manufacturers like Benelli, Suzuki, Ducati, Yamaha and even Husqvarna had displays on as well.

Whether it was cruisers, sports bikes or adventure bikes on display, the common thread between most of the displays were the scantily-clad girls dancing and gyrating in front of the bikes, or sprawled across them like a seat cover. It was a bit distracting trying to check out the bikes in these conditions, and it certainly didn’t encourage a close inspection of the bikes.

The motorcycle groups also had tents set up, with their banners proudly on display, and some of them selling t-shirts and other souvenirs. One group had a colourful collection of wildlife paintings on show – somewhat incongruent but quite eye-catching. Another group was displaying jewellery items, including a ring that had won an award for best display at the show. An information card next to the ring explained the importance of Buddhism in the Thai culture, and the importance of trees in Buddhist traditions, with the ring fashioned to symbolise a tree wrapped with an orange cloth – one of the most important aspects in the life of Thai men, all of whom are entitled to become a monk if they so wish.

Quite a few riders had parked their bikes inside the display area and these impromptu displays were as interesting as the organised displays – the Vintage Bike Club had a great assortment of old BSA’s, a Matchless, Triumphs and old BMW’s, and in other places blinged-up Harley’s and old Hondas reborn as rat bikes attracted as much attention as the latest bikes for sale.

The logo for the Chiang Mai Bike Week was very cool – a big elephant’s head, and Karen and I were keen to track down the souvenir stall so we could get a t-shirt each. I couldn’t find a t-shirt that fitted me, but when we got home I was happily surprised to find a Bike Week sticker in Karen’s carry bag – so that’s now on show on our top box 🙂

Karen quite liked the funky old trucks on display as well – restored and customised, these trucks looked really cool with their big cabs and low-loader tray backs. A big black Dodge coupe with a massive supercharger sticking out of the bonnet was also good to see, but beyond these cars we didn’t stroll down the rest of the Classic Car Show section of the display as our time was a bit limited and we wanted to see all the bike stuff.

We spent a couple of minutes watching an artist hand-painting a design on a helmet for a customer, and Karen snapped a few photos of the girls dancing in front of the bikes as the blatant sexualisation of the bike displays came as a bit of a surprise to her – we couldn’t imagine BMW in Perth for example would be so overt, but we are in Thailand and different standards apply here I guess. We passed one really tall old guy – an expat – with dreadlocks that reached down almost all the way to the ground. In another part of the show a barbers shop had been set up and people were queuing up for hair cuts and beard trims.

Most of the displays had loud music and zany light shows to accompany their dancing girls, and a band was also performing for people sitting down at long tables adjacent to the food area. The ninety minutes we’d asked our tuk-tuk driver to wait passed by quickly and it didn’t seem that long before we had to join Aad and Mike back at the entrance to the show, ready for the ride back to Chiang Mai. I could quite easily have settled in for the evening and enjoyed the music and bikes, but we also wanted to go to the open-air food markets in downtown Chiang Mai (they are closed on Sunday evenings) so our tuk-tuk dropped us there and we enjoyed a steak and mashed potato (Karen) and curry from Yummy Curry (Aad, Mike and myself). Crepes for desert and a quick tuk-tuk ride home had us back at Panda House about 10:00pm. I had hoped to watch ‘The Boat That Rocks’ on the Mac but Mike couldn’t find it on his laptop, and Karen and I were both tired so we were in bed soon and trying to sleep whilst the bimbo backpackers that have invaded Panda House the past few days killed their ukulele’s.

It’s early morning now on 27th November here as I look out the window of our sixth floor room in the Bangkok Hospital, Chiang Mai (BCM), and the sun is just starting to peek out from behind the clouds. Karen is sleeping nearby in her hospital bed after a long day yesterday and six hours in surgery and recovery early this morning.

What ??

Yep – you’ve read it right – Karen has injured herself – her wrist, specifically – and she’s just had surgery on it to fix the damage.

Backing up a bit, yesterday morning we were packing up our gear after our second night of camping with Aad and Mike in the Salawin National Park, 8km out of Mae Sariang, when Karen slipped over and landed on her right wrist, breaking her forearm in the fall. She was clearly in a lot of pain, and my first look at her right wrist showed a massive deformity – normal forearms shouldn’t flop around like that. Aad grabbed our first aid kit out of our top box and I applied a simple sling using a triangular bandage after Karen refused to be splinted – she may be a good part-time ambulance officer but she makes a lousy patient at times !

A local man – possibly a park ranger – came running up and using sign language he confirmed our need to get Karen to a local hospital via a car, so he organised another man and his wife to take Karen and myself to Mae Sariang hospital, whilst Aad & Mike started to pack up the rest of our camping gear.

The lady who accompanied us to hospital was able to get medical assistance to Karen quickly – and we were fortunate that the female doctor we saw in the rudimentary but overflowing hospital could speak good English. X-ray’s proved what we had already surmised – a broken radius and ulna. A splint was applied – this caused Karen a lot of pain, and the pain relief administered did nothing to ease Karen’s discomfort.

The doctor explained that her hospital didn’t have the necessary equipment to perform the required surgery on Karen’s arm, and recommended that we go to Chiang Mai. With no ambulance available locally to transport patients, and an estimated six-hour trip for an ambulance to come from Chiang Mai to collect Karen and return her to Chiang Mai she decided to travel there on our motorbike – what a brave girl she is!

Aad had come to hospital at this stage, so we left Karen in the care of the hospital staff and returned to the campground to get our bikes, and then we were back at hospital. Mike helped Karen onto the back of the BMW, and then we were on our way. At this stage it was 11:45am, and the accident had happened at 08:30am.  Aad & Mike needed to refuel their bikes before they followed along behind us, but the big BM had enough fuel to get us the 200km to Chiang Mai without stopping.

We had a good ride to Chiang Mai along Route 108 – the southern section of the Mae Hong Son Loop. We didn’t speed – there was no sense in compounding one accident by having another one – but we didn’t have any traffic to contend with and we got into a nice rhythmic flow and ate up the miles without any distractions. Karen was as good as gold on the back – resting her arm on the softbag and her chest – she rode without a jacket as I didn’t want to try and pull it over her arm, and she didn’t complain once about the pain.

The GPS led us straight to the Bangkok Hospital and they were already expecting her as the Mae Sariang hospital had sent through her x-rays, and the orthopaedic surgeon had already decided on the required course of action – screws in both broken bones, or wire if the screw doesn’t hold.

Another round of x-rays, finally some effective pain relief (morphine), paperwork, admittance to our room (very nice – a standard room but it’s like a hotel room), and then the long wait for surgery – originally estimated to commence at 9:30pm approx, but delayed til 11:15pm as the surgical screws needed to be flown up from Bangkok.

Aad & Mike joined us at hospital, before checking in at the Panda House Guest House, where we had stayed last week. Originally I thought Karen would be discharged overnight but the surgeon has said she needs to stay in hospital for three days minimum, so Aad has canceled our room at Panda House as I can sleep here in Karen’s room. Aad had returned to hospital in the evening via tuk-tuk on the promise of riding the BMW from hospital to Panda House as I was going to accompany Karen in a taxi, but he went away empty-handed – he’ll get his chance on the bike next week I’m sure!

Beyond that I’ve been in touch with our travel insurance company – World Nomads – and I’d recommend them to anyone planning an overseas trip. Very efficient, very quick, very caring, and to get an email from them this morning confirming that our medical expenses will be covered is a welcome relief.

And that pretty much sums up yesterday and early today. Stay tuned for more instalments!!!

I had suggested a few days ago that we could lighten the burden of shifting camp every day by staying a couple of nights in one place, and so today over a breakfast of instant oats we all agreed to have a rest day here in the Salawin National Park. we had stayed just the one night at the campsite just out of MHS  – there was no shade or shelters there to protect us from the burning sun and the ponk from the toilets was quite blah so it was an easy decision yesterday to move on, but Salawin was quite nice – Mike had located a thatch-covered area that had a table and few chairs, and power to charge our electrical equipment from.

Karen did some work on her blogs and photos, I looked at some maps and around midday Mike and I rode back to Mae Sariang to get some food for lunch and dinner, returning also with some ice creams that fortunately didn’t melt in the midday heat.

In the afternoon I was bushed as I hadn’t slept well the night before, so I lifted our air mattresses out of the tent and set them up underneath a fan in the covered area, and as we snoozed Aad and Mike saw a 2m long snake slithering nearby us in the dirt just to the side of the concrete pad we were sleeping on. Karen was freaking out a little bit at this when she was told about it, and later that afternoon she saw some snakes swimming in the dam that our tent overlooks, so no wonder she dreamt of snakes later that night.

Dinner was cooked under the fluro lights of the covered area – noodles and baked beans – this time Mike was the chef, and Aad did the dishes.  Karen and I were still tired and so we were in bed early – maybe 7:30pm – but it was pitch black outside and the air again wasn’t moving, so again I pulled back the tent fly to encourage some air flow. It’s fascinating lying so close to the jungle and listening to all the animal calls at night-time – a truly beautiful experience. Give it a go sometime !!!

Footnote from Karen: Today was Loi Krathong, one of the most vibrant and stunning festivals in Thailand. On the 25th November, people all over Thailand float their Krathong (small floating boats made from banana leaves with candles to make them into lanterns) down a river to pay respect to Buddha and seek forgiveness from the goddess of water for any misdeeds against her. The Doctor I saw in Mae Sariang told me she went to it……she goes every year!

Karen has the t-shirt already and now she just needed to ride the fabled Mae Hong Son Loop to earn the right to wear it – so on Monday 23rd November we (and I include Aad & Mike in that ‘we’) left Chiang Mai headed for Mae Hong Son via Pai – i.e. via the anticlockwise approach to the loop. Our destination that first evening was a campground in a national park approx 35km out of MHS.

We stopped first at a big Tesco’s in Chiang Mai so we could stock up on essentials – Aad and I watched over the bikes and chatted whilst Karen and Mike went food shopping, returning with bags of marshmallows and other essential items. From there we headed north up the 108 before turning west and making our way towards Pai. I’d read on Trip Advisor that the road from CM to MHS via Pai was all ripped up and undergoing reconstruction – and we did have some long stretches of unsealed road to ride, but nothing too difficult. With that said – some of the unsealed inclines were very steep, and having been wet down by a water truck they were slick and slippery. By and large the new Karoo 3’s did a good job of hooking up in the thin veneer of mud over the road, but I think I’m a die-hard TKC-80 fan and anything else is less than 100% confidence-inspiring. (Karen is not a fan of the new tyres….she doesn’t like the singing noise they make!)

After one particularly long stretch of slippery mud and crap we stopped for a drink and a chance to let the idiot car drivers pass us by, before remounting and heading north to Pai. Arriving in Pai we crossed the infamous Tai-Pai bridge – not the original one built by slave local labour at the behest of Japanese occupiers during WWII as the Japanese burnt that down when they later retreated, but another one built (after a flood I think). The bridge was a bit touristic with lots of tourists walking the bridge and taking their selfies, and on the far side (western side) of the bridge there was a long line of stalls selling t-shirts and sun-glasses and other useless rubbish. On the upside there was also a small restaurant over there as well so we repositioned the bikes and then settled into a lunch of steamed rice, curried meat (chicken?), and spicy chicken mince, which only I ate as everyone else found it too spicy, all washed down with EST Cola – the local version of coke. After lunch Karen succumbed to Aad & Mike’s collective charm and let them both jump onboard the Animal (though not at the same time) to try it out for size.

The road between Pai and Mae Hong Son was a definite improvement over the morning section, with no major roadworks to contend with, and arriving in MHS we stopped at a servo so Aad could get some fuel for his Coleman stove, and to stock up on water. We then backtracked a short distance before taking the 35km diversion out to our campground – a challenging ride up a very steep and winding sealed road. At one stage Karen and I were stuck behind a small taxi truck, and when the driver finally indicated that he was pulling over and we drew alongside him to overtake the knob then aimed straight for us – what a tosser, and thank goodness for the roll-on power of the 1200.

The road up to the campground at Paangxu Ng, N19.49895° E97.90546°, Pang Tong Under Royal Forest Park 2 (Pang Ung) was a delight to ride – tight switchbacks that rose so steeply we seemed to be lining up for a near-vertical moon-shot. Eventually we crested the mountain and rode along the ridge through a dense forest before entering a rustic village that lined the road and terminated at the entrance to the national park. The road into the park followed the contours of a tree-lined lake, but there were so many tents already set up that we pushed on a bit further and ended up camping on a patch of grass opposite the Visitor Centre and near the toilets – and that was a bit of a mistake as they were noisy and smelly.

We pitched our tents as darkness fell, and cooked a simple meal of noodles and baked beans (Karen and I have been carrying those baked beans since Pakistan, and Hienz 57 Varieties they definitely were not). It was a hot night and I ended up pulling back the fly halfway to try and catch some airflow. We’d already struggled with the lack of moving air – it had taken us ages to inflate our trendy thermorest neoair mattresses without any wind to catch in the inflating bag, much to Aad’s entertainment.

The following morning – 24th November – was my birthday, and as I said to Aad, I couldn’t think of a better birthday present than to go riding with Karen and friends, so we packed up our gear – saturated with condensation so we had to lay that out in the sun first to dry off before we packed it away, had a delicious breakfast cooked by Karen – pancakes and croissants with Nutella, and instant oats, and then headed down the steep mountain bound for Mae Sariang, about 200km south.

Arriving in MHS we refuelled quickly and pushed on again, stopping an hour or so later at a small roadside stall that appeared to sell coffee – a birthday treat for me – but the only coffee available was cold coffee in a tin can that tasted like sweet crap, and the strange cola they sold didn’t taste much better.

The 108 south of MHS is a rider’s delight and the Mae Hong Son Loop deserves its place in the Road Rides Hall of Fame. With new tyres on the bike and the engine absolutely barking as it lapped up the never-ending corners, the BMW felt right at home here. Mike was determined to not fall behind too far and he’d creep up in the corners, but the big Beemer would just scream out of a curve and disappear in a warp-speed flash of light on the short straight sections.

We stopped mid-afternoon as Karen was feeling a bit nauseous – the curves were relentless and the whiplash-inducing dynamic mode I was using wasn’t helping, so we pulled over looking for a place to get a drink and have a pit-stop (Khun Yuam I think). Even Mike was feeling nauseous from the curvy roads. I confess to being that pumped with the exhilarating ride I didn’t have time to get sick. Aad guided us to a steak and coffee place where Karen ordered steak and pepper sauce and the rest of us had a chicken hamburger and fries, with cold drinks bought from the local 7-11 as the coffee place could only supply hot drinks – my first real coffee in weeks – Mmmmmm !!! Karen looked for some mince in the 7-11 but couldn’t find any so we pushed on to Mae La Noi and stopped again, again not finding any mince for dinner, and compounded as I managed to drop the bike in the rocky carpark when I lost my footing. No damage done except bruised pride – the bike is heavy and when it passes that point of no return its too heavy to fight, and the best thing to do is just let it go. Still – no photos were taken so maybe I can deny that it ever happened hey 🙂

[EDIT – I didn’t realise at the time, but Karen – who wasn’t on the bike when I lost my footing with the bike – was waiting with camera poised and managed to snap a photo – so now I can’t deny that it happened…]

Arriving in Mae Sariang we located our third 7-11 for the afternoon and pulled in there, a bit more cautiously on my part. Mince still couldn’t be found, so we got some ham and cheese and drinks, and then headed 8km west to the Salawin National Park, arriving close on dusk. We paid our 100THB/head camping fee plus 20THB/bike fee, and then the ranger jumped on his scooter and rode just a round the corner from the boom-gate to show us to our camping spot – a narrow dam wall/embankment that separated a small dam from a lake below on the lower level. The dam wall was just wide enough for our tents, but the spot was near the toilets, and the campsite was deserted – much to our liking.

Dinner was a joint effort and consisted of spaghetti and ham and a spaghetti sauce, with marshmallows for desert. The perfect end to an almost-perfect day – I haven’t dropped the bike in ages and I should know by now that carparks can catch you out – silly me for getting tired and sloppy.