Chaos ensues.
Anyone who's ridden a fully laden GS in sand will fully appreciate the situation, mix that with being in the heat of the Gobi and you'll also appreciate how easy it is to get outside of your own personal 'comfort zone'.
I can't write all the expletives used....this is f*****ng stupid, too dangerous, the wrong bike to be here, what if one of us breaks a leg, bike's too heavy, legs too short, it'll burn the clutch out, why have we come here?
All perfectly understandable concerns and there's nothing like a good situation to raise stress levels and dummies to be spat.
Of course much of this outburst is aimed at me, like it's my fault there's sand in the Gobi desert, why did you bring us here etc.
Perhaps too sharply I reply, if I wanted comfort I'd ride to the Ace Cafe, and if I knew exactly what was ahead I'd go somewhere else.
I was loving it, why weren't they?
Possibly the fall that broke the camels back.
Jarvo was hating every moment in Mongolia and it was clearly not for him. Now this is not a criticism at all, anyone planning such trips should ask that deep question of themselves, is this really for you, do you have that passion to revel in all moments no matter how hard they are at the time.
I'm sure it's the question we did all ask ourselves at times over the three months, Jarvo's answer was different to ours and he left for home once out of Mongolia.
I just hope he does eventually have some great memories of his considerable achievment.
If looks could kill, I'd be a dead man
Pete who's a very good rider also hated the sand but soon came to grips with it
Looks like trouble back there
And eventually the sand caught me out
Pete has borrowed Rick's bike for this trip, I think it was at this point Pete who's generally the perfectly mannered Englishman exploded because the bike was too tall for his legs.
There's only one way to ride in sand and that's stood up, weight back and fairly fast, as time went on in the trip we again encountered sand in the west and most of us had mastered this teqhnique.... in fact I'd go as far as saying, Pete and Baz were really enjoying it