We continued along the ridge , where it was still pretty rocky and rutted in places . The difficulty however was fairly moderate , so it was mostly fun . Then we started to descend and we arrived at the infamous difficult section . I waited with the camera as Alberto started to take his bike down the steep rocky section . He didn ' t get too far before he lost control and both him and the bike were laying on their side . The big fat F800GS just wanted to go straight down and for the most part that is what happened ( having a crappy rear brake didn ’ t help matters ). We clumsily crashed , rode , and threw our bikes down this steep rocky hill . That was the trickiest 400m of the entire route for us . At the bottom we re-fueled with water and snacks .
Once we got going again we were rewarded with more downhill rocky sections . Not nearly as steep as the steep section but steep enough to keep us working hard . We continued to crash our way down the mountain . It was exhausting . When we linked up the next section of dirt with a paved road we thought we were in the clear . Things started off pretty nice , we were heading back into a forest and the scenery was changing a little bit . But of course the loose jagged rocks came back with a vengeance . At first it was fairly easy . We were tackling them in an uphill direction which is always easier but a combination of being exhausted from our earlier adventures and my heavy bike was conspiring against me and I was dropping my bike too much . The day was getting to the point where we were no longer taking pictures of falls and enjoying the humour of the situation . We just wanted to be done with it .
I was focusing all my energy on keeping my bike upright . It was rough though , even standing up the bike was bouncing around like crazy and it was all I could do to just hang on , let along try and keep proper form . After what seemed like way too long we reached the top and drove along the ridge for a while on smooth regular gravel roads . Ahhhh a moment of tranquility . We were both very tired and the lack of skill in our riding from the exhaustion was showing . Alberto told me that this next part was going to be tricky . I composed myself and then proceed to tackle it . Bad move . Within no time my bike was skidding , and before I knew it I was heading over the edge of the road so I bailed . I flew forward over the handlebars and came crashing down on my left shoulder . Big ouch ! I then proceeded to roll down the bank screaming in pain . I ended up coming to a stop because I hit a tree . When Alberto arrived at the scene all he saw was my bike . He peered over the bank and there I was sitting in a heap . By this time I was able to move my arm a little bit and wiggle my fingers , so overall things were okay . My whole arm was sore and painful though . I was able to climb back up the bank onto the road and sit down . While I was sitting there feeling sorry for myself Alberto was sorting out my bike . He noticed that my right case , which had taken a severe beating all day , was missing . Was it down the bank , no ? He walked up the road , but there was no case to be found . Crap . He was going to have to go back to the rocky sections and get it .
View from Hotel Cotton : Not Bad !