AL's blogs from Dirty Cranky Epic

As mentioned in a previous blog, Al and I have joined ours so here are the blogs he has written transferred over: Enjoy!!

Fingers crossed the bikepacking events take off here like they have in the US and UK!!! I headed out to see what all the commotion was about. 6 1/2 hours through the rain to cabbage tree and back. LOVED IT!!!!!

revelate designs bags ready to rumble!!

The 8 year old in me was lovin it! All I could hear in my head was Courtz is not going to be happy with me and my dirty kit... think i`m on washing duty tonight.



Niner all set to go

                              



The 6 hours of riding felt like 10 minutes with views like this and no cars to worry about. Although after meeting some DSE employees that told me that there is some dirty big wild dogs around i was on the lookout!!!!

 

Met this storm trooper who is walking around Australia. Had a bite to eat with him in cabbage tree, what a great guy to raise money for the star light foundation. He was super motivated and obviously has super mental toughness to keep going on those hot days! Support him if you can!!

 

HOPE YOU ENJOY SOME PICTURES OF MY RECENT ADVENTURES (and misadventures!)CHEERS AL

love these old fashioned bike photos, wish I could ride back in these days before all the marketing and associated bs

love these old fashioned bike photos, wish I could ride back in these days before all the marketing and associated bs

holidaying in Mandeni was awesome fun

holidaying in Mandeni was awesome fun

Me with my buddy Seb enjoying a creamy iced chocolate. Challege:try to out eat this man, make sure you have your health insurance paid!!

latest project building a fixie for Courts

 

Blores Hill 6 Hour

Gippsland MTB Club managed to turn it on again this weekend with their 6 hour Enduro, part of the VES. The track was incredibly fun and the weather was good. Al had a cracker of a race, despite a broken chain which cost him a good 10 minutes. When he ran into transition he was missing a chain so had to backtrack to find it!

We rolled into the Caravan Park Saturday afternoon and headed out for a practice lap. Bumped into a few friendly faces and rode with them all of us saying how rad the course was, flowy, fast and lots of descending! Pumped to be racing the next day we headed to the pub for dinner with the boys doing a splendid job of finishing of their parmas which were the size of plates, massive! I on the other hand started to feel progressively worse and felt as if my head was about to explode off my shoulders.

Back to camp where Al tried for awhile to light a fire, with no luck we jumped into our sleeping bags. 2 hours later, sound asleep the tent lit up, it seemed the fire had decided to start. Al jumped up and put it out, and half an hour later it flared up again! I decided I needed to get the hell over this cold which has stopped me from doing much the last 2 weeks and hung out in the pits with Norm and Adam and Liz when they weren't out racing.

poser... been watching too much of the TDF?

I turned it into a positive and tried to be a sponge as I watched the World Champ team of Jess and Norm in action and tried to take it all in and learn as much as I could, whilst passing Al drink bottles and gels. All in all a good weekend out, a big thanks to Gippsland MTB Club and all the vounteers, Giant, PureSport Nutrition and Ay-Up lights! Having not raced this weekend, I'll be good to go for the next 6hr VES in my hometown of Castlemaine!

Also managed to take a few photos:



thanks Jess and Norm for letting us steal a patch of tent





start line getting ready to rumble




sweet singletrack

Mandy and Sharon in the pits. Well done Sharon and Tim for coming 2nd in Mixed Pairs

as usual the dirtiest competitor of the goes to- Al Gribble

Launch of Rolling Adventures

Al and I have decided to merge our blogs to create one. Rolling Adventures is our space for sharing our passion: BIKES!! with you. We are keen to share our stories and the hilarious situations we seem to find ourselves in during our rides, races, holidays and our general thoughts on life riding bikes!! Enjoy!!

We'll kick it off with some photos from our recent cycle-tour around Cambodia!!


Aviator Al ready to hit the road. Leaving Skoun for Kampong Thom.
Day One: 75k, Day Two: 91km, Day Three: 150km
 

Spent a couple of days riding around Angkor Wat Temples- this place is AMAZING!!


 

Our Cambodian mate. When we got to the airport there he was with a sign ALISTAIR GRIBBLE. Al's response, "Do you think he means me??" Turns out one of Al's students last term had an Uncle in Phnom
Penh and he was kind enough to come collect us and
then gave us a tour of the city, took us out to a lovely restuarant
and on a cruise down the Mekong.

Lots of places to rest along the way on Highway 6, chillin on the hammock rehydrating

Al is a hit with the kids where ever he goes!! The Cambodian children were so so friendly, and our overuse injury was not legs but arms got so sore from waving the whole time!! Lost our voices from saying hello! so many times the whole way! Alot of these kids have nothing, yet they are so happy and so friendly.

The Cambodian people are still recovering from the Khmer Rouge regime led by Pol Pots, who was responsible for the death of 3.5 million Cambodian people, about a third of the population, between 1975-1979 Visiting S-21 a high school that had been turned into a prison/torture chambers was  sickening. Cambodia was once a power nation, with the Singapore President visiting and claiming if one day Singapore could be as great as Cambodia. Now, Cambodia is a developing nation. We saw many people with deformities, with missing limbs due to land mines, beggers and people with absolutely nothing. The devestating things some of these people have seen and faced was truly unbelievable and very confronting, it is all still very evident. Amongst the poverty and sadness was a nation full of amazingly beautiful, friendly and caring people. They proved that money doesnt buy happiness, it doesnt even come close.