TRAVEL FEATURE - ITALY
WILL BRIX ( W ) ALESSIO CORRADINI / RALLY COOL ( P )
RIDING WITH THE BEST PEOPLE
I
often find the people on the Gibraltar Race the most interesting aspect of it . This race , or rally , or competitive trip , or whatever you want to call it , brings all walks of life to it , and becomes a rich melting pot of internationalism and adventure , gravitating around a love of offroading .
Language is fascinating in this undertaking , as Italian , English , Dutch , French , and German are all used fluidly . I often hear two people working out which language they both know , and then going on into a chat in it . It ’ s charming and terribly international to hear a Dutchman and Englishman converse in French . But overall , it ’ s the characters themselves that interest me the most . Getting to know them feels like the real payoff .
Take my roommate Ray ; an ‘ exploration geologist ’, who lives on Sark Island in the English Channel , and whose father discovered a gold mine in Western Australia . He searched for a gold mine of his own in Ecuador for over a decade and has more crazy stories about cocaine in South America than anyone I ’ ve ever met . He constantly has a roll up cigarette glued to his bottom lip as he lovingly tends to his classic GS ( which needs a lot of love ) and provides me with detailed information on my XT suspension settings .
He ’ s sixty-two , and despite taking a couple of days to actually find the tracks , when he does , he ’ s one hell of an off-road rider . It ’ s impressive to watch him glide over the relentless rocks here in Italy . Our conversations regularly verge from bike maintenance into the philosophy of physics , biological evolution , and global politics . He has a bad habit of not flushing the loo after taking a shit , nor washing any of his gear over the two weeks , but undoubtedly , he has a heart of
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