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Tonight I was awoken once by heavy rainfall. I lay in the comfort of the bed (we were still in the room) and hoped that all precipitation would fall now instead of later. I missed my alarm but woke up naturally around 8 and determining the time we made for the breakfast table. Today as well as yesterday breakfast was not luxurious but pretty good. We crammed all our stuff back into the duffels packed the motorcycles, I vacuumed the room while Benni close the windows (we did not have the proper key but yesterday botched it with the vice of the Leatherman to get some fresh air into our gear cave, whereas closing proved to be a little bit more tricky and needed the help of a cable tie and some other trickery. Benni paid for the room and off we went. To resolve the cooker pump issue and get the mattress we drove to the outdoor store once more. The therm-a-rest representative was indeed able to find a leak and had it marked on the mattress. I had brought the puncture repair kit so we should be able to fix it later. Regarding the pump one of the sales guys resorted to just give us his personal pump, what a nice fellow. So while we waited for him to fetch it from home we talked to the other guy about available cooking fuels (he recommended to use T-röd in a pinch) and I found a nicely fitting T-shirt, which should replace my other one that unfortunately developed a hole. After this we cooked a coffee next to the store to check the function of the cooker (all well) and had a snack.
I checked my tire pressure while Benni figured out a way to pack all his new belongings. We finally got going and made some fast progress along major gravel and tarmac roads. Things got a little bit smaller and suddenly we were confronted with a bridge that was entirely missing. To the left of the shoulder of the old bridge connection we could see some tire tracks of our predecessors which apparently just crossed the river instead. I waded across noticed some bigger stones and the general depth of the river ( about 40cm) and got my feet entirely wet in the process ( so long for the theory of the water tight socks, water repellent might be a better description. After the water a muddy climb through the forest needed to be done. Things did not look to promising but I decided to have a go at it as the water was neither deep nor fast. Getting down into the water was alright, but as I was paddling with both feet out and kept stalling the engine whenever I crossed a bigger stone I was pretty excited. I got out of the water and followed the rut up the mud and promptly got stuck at a steeper part in front of a tree root. Together we simply lifted rear and front out of the rut and I made it up the hill and onto the street where a locking up of the front brake made me drop the bike. Bummer. I picked it up again and just parked it there and went back to spot Benni when a car drove by and a young swede asked me if I needed any help. I declined and he seemed to want to tell me something more but then decided not to and drove away. Together we got Benni across pretty well and he got up the muddy section further than me but then dropped his bike nonetheless. After picking it up he got up all the way and we continued on our way.
We got into the next town drove a loop seemingly just to cross the river on a pretty beaten bridge and left the town thereafter. On the next 2km we spotted a nice swimming spot at a lake with some grass and picknick tables and had a good break there. We tried to dry our socks and boots and could already see the next rain coming on. So we put on our rain gear fully and continued the ride. We rode fast and rain was on and off. The trail got tighter and tighter. And we bounced in and out of puddles some deeper some shallow. In one of those my front tire suddenly lost all grip and before I realised I was falling I felt my foot being caught and twisted between motorcycle and the rocky side of the puddle. Next moment I lay in 25 cm deep water, thoroughly wet and slightly shocked as well as doubtful if I had just broken my ankle. Benni stopped in front of the puddle and I still could not feel any major pain from my foot. So I got up. Together we lifted the bike out of the water into an upright position (luckily not too deep to get water into the engine). My foot felt fine and I calmed down a bit. We realised that my additional high beam broke loose so I packed it into the tankbag and after some more time spent relaxing a bit we got going again. Reconsidering now I think the wet clay soil just did not have enough friction to hold my front wheel when it deflected of a rock which I could not see in the puddle. Lesson learned drive more slowly in those conditions. We drove some more along the still challenging but now drier and more sandy trail. We started looking for a spot to camp and during the exploration of a tiny trail we both dropped our bikes while turning back. Concentration and morale were pretty low. We got to a spot at a riverbank and decided to make camp. After I put up the tent and we ate some spaghetti it started raining again. We put the tarp to its first use and tried so relax a bit underneath it. The mosquitoes made it hard to relax a bit and we soon got into the tent. During the night I thought about the implications of my crash which could have ended a lot worse if my boots had not taken the brute of the impact.
