Imintji

14 May. Day 12. 1st day of The Gibb Challenge ride.

Imintji Community Campsite
0530/1545 230KM

Finally the big day has arrived. The 5 years or so of discussion, commitment, planning, Covid and border interventions has finally all come to fruition.

The soloists and duos started at 5 :00am and we elected to take the earlier of the two start times for teams, 5:30 vs 6:00. We sent the birthday girl, Issy, out first and then followed by Amy. We started with 40 minute rotations to take advantage of the cool of the early morning and the initial 120 km approximately bitumen. It was about 22 deg at the start and the first two days maxed out at about 32 deg.

Then at about the 45 km mark, BIG trouble!
The hand brake on Gordy’s Range Rover locked on electrically and the car would not budge. We had to make the big decision to leave him and Judy there to sort it out. We felt so gutted for them. All over for them and Gordy didn't even get to ride!

We pushed on, the guys doing their forty minutes worth and then reverted to 30 minute rotations as we left the bitumen and engaged with the gravel. Temperature was now north of 30 deg. We were now into a bit of rhythm and a routine.

At about midday Big surprise. Judy and Gordy were back with us. He rang his son who he had bought the car from, and he said, Yes he had had the same problem. YouTube it! Lift this, push that and do a manual reset. Fixed! But not till having returned to Derby and arranged a lift back with a flat top transporter at a cost of $1000-. But saved by the the RAC membership.

We were very conscious of our pace as we had a cut off at the 210km mark, 20km before the finish. But it became apparent we we on a good pace.

Arrival Imintji was at 3:45, an hour and a quarter before our closeout target. Very
chuffed. We had averaged 22kph for over 10 hours against a headwind, gravel with sand and corrugations and the temperature well into the 30’s.

It's a fully catered event: breakfast and dinner, plus lunch packs. Because the sun sets at about 5:15 here, dinner is served at 6pm and people are in bed, generally, by 8pm. And it's a very slick operation in the cookhouse.Weiterlesen