ROUTE SCOUTING

If 2020 has shown us anything, it’s that when honey king prawns are an option, don’t eat the bat, and that when the freedom to ride when and where we want is restricted, life is not nearly as satisfying.

I have had so few genuinely long rides this year that it’s a bit depressing, so when Clive Ward messaged me to see if I was up for a four-day run, I was as keen as a bag of bees.

Clive has been the sweep rider and saviour of many a broken bike on the Ténéré Tragics rides for ten years. The idea was for the two of us, plus Clive’s mate Heath, to join up with Tragics front man Andrew ‘Clubby’ Clubb and fellow Tragics founder Lance Turnley for a four-day run to check some routes for future rides.

Me, Clive and Heath started out in the Hunter Valley area, making our way over the Watagan Mountains to St Albans (home of the most expensive yet least impressive meat pie), and then on to Bilpin to meet up with