Only a few highlights. The real highlight is spending time with like minded people that are all so very different. A few faces that were familiar and some that I've met for the first time this weekend. We made our acquaintances around the fire and after a few glasses of wine we were chatting like old friends.
Saturday morning at dawn we started grouping into the various rides for the day. I opted for a mini-enduro challenge with a few of my good friends whereby we stitched together sandy start, the first forest, dark forest, redbull descent, getting steep, pipeline and Shapiro's drop.
Each stretch of trail required a different approach and each tested some unique skill-set in a unique sequence. It was reminiscent of a musician playing a complicated piece by Mozart. I was in much more esteemed company than what I would rate myself and soon forgot about the enduro and simply focussed on execution of my own instrument in the symphony we were creating.
As the day went on, the music got louder and the tempo got faster. We all brushed over the small mistakes expertly and I was playing pieces I've never tried before. The trails opened up before me like sheet music and I felt much more capable than ever before.
The crescendo was the pipeline track and as an encore we did Shapiro's drop at a more leisurely pace.
Pieter lost his sunglasses in the first forest earlier in the day and at the junction back to the forest the rest of the group went with him to try and find it. I decided to take an easy ride back to the huts to digest the day's riding when it happened: Just before the water crossing after the junction I went OTB. An unspectacular fall out of nowhere left me with bruised ribs and another story to tell. Its a good thing that I managed to record the incident as I had to watch it to see how senseless and silly it really was.
A night ride and a short ride on Sunday topped off a near perfect weekend. I will have a few scratches and bruises for a week or two, but fortunately the good memories and new friendships will last much longer.
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