Thanks felix, no need to worry about me, gnarly old sod. Being an adventurous fool, I decided to go out and get cigars ...
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- that is one of six water crossings I made in a 140 km round trip today with many diversions that would usually be 20km! Just to get a smoke and a chocolate bar lol. But I was bored, no power, no internet, no 2 stroke mix for the chainsaw to clear the fallen trees. It isn't advisable to travel most of these roads in floods as they can rise very quickly if it rains again. It is best to keep them clear for the emergency vehicles rushing around rescuing people in 4wds that think they can go anywhere and soon find out they cannot as water rises up over their windows. My excuse is that as a local I know the roads very well and with a dirtbike I can take to the bush. And I had no real idea conditions had deteriorated everywhere so badly and so quickly. We really are going to have to rethink everything with global warming.
I know exactly how deep the water is at any point for miles a round but you still have to be wary and not complacent and watch for road markers and fence heights etc. to be sure, and the flood violence can rip the road underneath into deep potholes and ruts, water pushes up through the tarmac and destroys it, it is easier on the gravel roads where you know it is f***ed anyway - as long as you stick to the crown! Just had to decide whether to stand and get feet wet or sit down and fall off!
Very, very pleased with the Kinlon r/t. No problems at all despite getting very wet and quite deep at times. I'm not a very good rider but even with the new gearing it is happy with slow riding through water (so as not to create a bow wave) and has poke when you need it. This is my own track from the house ...
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I don't know what to do about the wet weather gear, purchased as storm proof motorcycle gear. Next time I will wear my fly fishing waders. But it is all fun and what I live for really.
When the power came back on and I checked TV, I saw that while I was having my fun across the ridges and back roads, thousands of people in towns within a hundred km or so were being evacuated and my own local village road was now cut off by a fifty meter wide lake, many meters deep across the main road. And very, very soberingly, although I am being lighthearted about my trip and the floods here, 500 people in Brazil died in the same rain event, a quarter of a million are displaced in Sri Lanka and so on. Don't think I am immune to feelings about that - somehow, 'mucking around' makes it more bearable.