Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud!

We had some problems on day 5.

First my GPS / Sat Nav stopped working. Many weeks of planning and entering the details into the sat nav system were wasted in an instant. Luckily, Paul has an identical Sat Nav, so this morning we transferred in route info to his device and he was able to lead me on my chosen path. Thanks Paul. I have contact Garmin to see how they intend to deal with this problem.

Second, England lost in the football World Cup to Germany. Let’s not say any more about this! We crossed the border into Canada and back again very easily to find a bar called Dooleys to watch the game. Here are pictures of Paul waiting to cross into Canada, me outside Doolwys and then the USA border....

























































Third, I lost a set of keys for my bike. This is not a problem as I have a spare set with me, but it was very annoying. I will ask my local dealer, Warr’s to mail me a new set.

Fourth, had an off road adventure on some dirt tracks and then a very rough and wet and muddy dirt track!! Let me explain....

We left Calais in Maine and headed east and then south. Not far into the journey, near a place called Pembroke is a place called Reversing Falls. This is a tidal phenomenon where the incoming tide gets pushed between islands and forces a river to flow the wrong way – uphill. The tide then turns and the flow reverses in dramatic fashion with lots of water flowing quickly through the space between the islands. To get to see this you have to ride 3.5 miles on a dirt road. This was no problem because we took it slow and there wasn’t too much loose stuff and it was only rough in a couple of spots.

We went and saw the reversing falls, took photos, admired the view etc

As we rode back to the main road the GPS Sat Nav system directed us back via a different dirt road which we started down. This road soon turned into a track which very soon went from bad to worse with steep sections, overgrown parts and dips that were filled with puddles. Not too bad, but then it got worse – much worse. The track was so narrow we couldn’t turn the bikes around so we carried on. This was getting serious – this was track that many would think twice about taking a dirt bike down and we were on full cruisers loaded with all of our gear! Paul led and got through relatively unscathed. I didn’t. Nearing the end of the track, there was a huge puddle about a foot deep. Paul had got through OK, so I went for it, but I hit an underwater hole and the front wheel dug in, so down went my feet. Trouble was, my feet went down in about 12-15 inches of the softest mud I have ever seen. The bike was stuck. The exhaust pipes were underwater but I managed to keep the engine running and managed to get out with a lot of revs, to find Paul around the corner laughing like there was no tomorrow!

I was soaked and the bike was covered in mud. My boots were full of sticky mud and after riding a short way hoping it would all dry out, it was obvious I had to stop and get changed.

Here are some photos to show you what it was like......

Paul on the first dirt road. Easy......




























Me after riding through the mud....























Emptying my boots....






















My poor bike....


























































Me washing my clothes in a lake to get rid of the mud....