Friday 15th August
After some breakfast dad and I said our goodbyes which was unusually emotional for us, it had been a fun few days and we were both sad that it was ending.
In the spirit of distraction I jumped on the bike and rode to the beach at Mal Pais, the surf was pumping and getting on double over head on the sets. Paddling away from the main crowd I found a super consistent and long right hander which I shared with one other guy for a couple of hours. I had the best surf in ages and was loving the board!
Back at the Blue Jay Lodge I collected my stuff and loaded up the bike, I was keen to move on, keep the momentum up and not dwell on being on my own again. I had decided to ride up to Playa Avellana which was supposedly made famous by the cult classic surf film, Endless Summer II. Whilst packing up David one of the staff at the lodge started chatting about my trip and the bike and said that in Costa Rica the bike would cost $6,000-$7,000 and that I should give him a call when I get to San Francisco and he would give me the $2,500 I paid for it! I have no idea if he wanted me to ride it back down to him or not but it was interesting to know. He also advised that I needed to ride North back to Paqueres and then West to get to Avellana... My sat nav said to go a more direct route through the middle of the Nicoya Pennisula and naturally I trusted it rather than the human with local knowledge....
It transpired that the reason for going North is that the roads are all tarmac and easy, the route I took was quite the opposite! I didn't mind the dirt roads soo much, they were actually quite good fun and I was getting more confident with the bike so enjoyed the more challenging climbs and descents where the roads seem to turn into a gnarled up river beds with big ruts, channels and holes! After 40mins or so of relatively slow progress I dropped down a long descent and rounded a corner to be greeted by a 20m wide river....!
I have never ridden a bike through a river before and wasn't sure what would happen to the bike if I did... where was the air intake? How deep could the bike manage? What would I do if I flooded the engine? How do I start the bike if the electrics blow, there's no kickstart?!! Where is everybody and how do I get help if I get stuck?!!! Many questions raced through my head and I considered riding back the way I had come but it was 40mins and would have sucked.
Suddenly a small 4x4 rolled round the corner and pulled up next to me... man was I glad! A Spanish guy and his Argentine woman jumped out and agreed that this was a little unexpected! The guy had flip flops on and waded into the middle of the river to check the depth... it never made it passed the top of his calf and we concluded it would be fine... off he went and then waited for me to cross.
As I rode into the water a decent bow wave formed and despite trying to keep my feet as high as possible the water flooded into my boots and was well up over the footpegs. Things were going well until a third of the way across the bike started spluttering and cut out! Both feet went down and I stood in the river holding the bike up whilst steam rose all around me... I thought that was the bike done and tried pushing it out but wasn't having much luck on the slippery rocks (the bike fully loaded is proper heavy and hard enough to push on dry land!). I tried the key and to my surprise the nuetral light came on so I tried the starter... with a bit of a splutter she fired up and I powered hard out of the water!!
I was so chuffed... I crossed a river!! I crossed a river!! In my head that's 10 adventure points!! I was however soaking wet, my boots and trousers were dripping and I had several more hours of riding to go and I didn't know if I'd got water in the engine or not... oh well I figured I probably wasn't far from civilisation and tarmac roads????
I was far, really far... after another 15mins I hit river number two! Not as wide as the first but the run up was deep, wet mud and the water murky so I couldn't tell the depth. I reasoned that the 4x4 had obviously made it so I'd just give it a go... 3/4 of the way across the same thing happened and I ground to a halt. I got straight back on the starter and powered out both relieved and elated.
Feeling good about myself I rode on happily weaving throught the dirt lanes thinking I was some sort of hero and that even a river couldn't stop me! Another tricky descent led to a corner where a track forked off the main track and seemed to disappear into the bushes, I wondered what was coming and rounded another bend to be confronted by an actually very big river... shit. It was probably 30m across, fast flowing with a section of rapids and it looked deep. All that confidence vanished and I had a horrible feeling that I was going to have to turn back and undo all the good work of the previous hour and a half of heroism. But... to my complete amazement the Spanish guy from river #1 was stood in knee deep water on the other side of the river and waving at me. He shouted saying that they had pulled up and almost turned back when a couple of local guys had turned up on motorbikes and ridden through. There was a special route that avoided the really deep parts but required some careful navigation but he was confident I could make it!! After lots of funny gesticulating and instructions I headed back up the track to the diversion through the trees and pulled up by the side of the river. I shouted across and asked him to film it as there was a good chance of me floating off down river then powered into the water... I rode across the river along the top of a section of rapids and then 3/4 of the way across just passed a clump of green stuff I made a right hand turn and powered up stream... it seemed to get deeper and deeper and despite the bike lasting longer than before she cut out just 5m from the river bank. I was stood in knee deep water and sure the bike was spent... incredibly it fired first time and I spluttered out of the river and up the muddy bank! Such a good feeling!!!!
I was super grateful that the guys had waited for me, they probably had to wait for 10-15mins and without them I would not have crossed that river. I'm hoping they will email me the video but I haven't seen it yet... the photos don't do it justice.
Fortunately there was only one other small river to cross that day and the next hour was spent buzzing along dirt roads and feeling awesome!
Eventually I found some tarmac roads and managed to get some gas which was running low. It was now 4:30pm and I still had another hour or so to go and was running out of light. The rest of the ride was easy going and I made it to Playa Avellana just in time for a beautiful sunset! Epic day!
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