Traverse 13 | Page 19

"THAT'S EMBARRASSING" A MOUNT BULLER MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURE T here’s a metallic taste. My mouth full of a thick, metallic fluid. Struggling to get my helmet off, my thumb re- jecting movement toward its neighbouring finger. Shit this taste is horrible. “You ok?” asked the rider behind me. Tim Scriven a veteran of the Australian Safari, a three-time class winner no doubt. Embarrassing! “Yeah,” I sighed. Oh, the indignity of it all. “I just bit my bloody tongue.” We’d ridden no further than five kilometres into the bushland around Victoria’s Mount Buller, a track, not even a challenging trail. A log, some might even suggest nothing more than a branch the size of a teenager’s arm. Laying across the track, as soon as it was too late, I realised it was too late. The front wheel of the Honda CRF250 hit it on an angle and you know the saying … the rest is history … Embarrassing! TRAVERSE 19 Mumbling something about the bike getting high, Tim helped me pick the bike up and get it started. I spat the blood from my mouth, the flow was a torrent. It was early, we had a full day ahead of us. My thumb was still rejecting its neighbour. We caught the others in the group, a flush of blood rose in my cheeks as we stopped. Embarrassing! “Everything alright?” asked David Marsicano of Mount Buller Motorcy- cle Adventures. I nodded. My stupid pride hiding the weird feeling in my throttle hand. We rode on. The terrain was spectacular, the bush lush. The air was crisp making the riding a pleasure. The track was wide and open, despite my fall I was enjoying it. The MBMA crew had tak- en a great mix of experienced riders and novices, to this sort of riding, on its last group tour of the year. I’d counted myself as a former, that log had perhaps suggested I was the lat- ter. Embarrassing!