With a full moon out, and starting out while it was still light, we made good time to the riverbank, and two of the gates were open, so things were looking up. We turned left and started towards the west. I decided we'd take the top path on the stopbank, and within a short time was regretting that decision. On a tandem, cornering in gravel is hard, cornering in deep gravel is a nightmare, cornering in deep gravel because if you don't you're going to go off the stopbank and into the river and your front wheel is skidding sideways and Logan is still peddling like a machine behind you and ahead for kilometer after kilometer is a rock garden of death cookies (gasp) is one of the few things in this world that make you realise just how much you value life. I experienced that about a dozen times before we dropped down to the lower, and thankfully easier, bottom path.
After a bit of a search, and a little double-back, we found ourselves on the stopbank to the middle of McLeans Island. It was a lot easier on the mind, although as we're riding rigid, it's not a lot easier on the hands or butt. We did however find the mountain bike track in McLeans Island, and it's a nice wee ride. It is however dark now, so it's lights on and a 180 degree turn (yes, I woosed out on doing the single track just yet, however I had just ridden over 10km of stress inducing, sphincter tightening, waist deep gravel remember, and we had to ride back again!)
Because previous rides had seen my light go from 50watts of brightly lit landscape to near nothing at the end, I had swapped my narrow-beam 50w for the old wide-beam 20w. Yes, it lasted for the entire ride, however, I want my 50w back now. I prefer being able to see the potholes and branches even if it does mean shorter life & rides. I'll have to get a narrow beam 20w and see if that's any better.
As we couldn't see the potholes until we were almost in them, we hit a few, and as luck would have it, finally bit hard into one and had a decent rim strike. A short time later we pulled over and sure enough, a puncture. But we were prepared, we had a spare.
So, taking up the mantle of lazy bastard, I removed the front wheel off the bike using the quick-release, and handed it to Logan, who removed the tyre, yanked the inner tube out, replaced with the spare, replaced the tyre, pumped it up and handed it back in just a few minutes. I was busy faffing about with the dead tube, an important job, but did put the wheel back on as Logan put the tools away again. Teamwork you see. I did the heavy lifting, he did the technical stuff. Perfect. I even managed to stuff the old tube in his pack to carry home, so I was happy as Larry.
Back onto the shortcut (we were only 100m away from it when we stopped) and we zipped home with plenty of light still. The ride was about 15-20km each way so a nice short distance, however, many chunks of it was riddled with terror. I have some techniques which seem to be working to keep us in a straight line, and if I managed to relax a bit, it may even work!
Right, where to tomorrow night?
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