Before the Storm into the Mountains...

What had happened? I have absolutely no idea 🤷‍♂️

Up to this junction my satnav was still working, only to then spectacularly give up... right in the middle of the way down into the valley.

The path in the 3 pictures was still somehow OK, we'd already managed more extreme stuff and I went down about 500m in flip-flops to have a look. It'll be fine! I thought to myself!

So off I went in 2nd gear at idle speed, knowing full well that I wouldn't be able to get back out of here in reverse. 😅

And BAM, 2 kilometres later I'm standing at a fork in the road, at the bottom of the valley, where 3 "paths" branch off. No satnav! No radio signal! Nothing! NADA! 🥳

So in flip-flops I walked down all 3 paths, only to discover that all 3 are really shit! 🙄 The sky above me, black and threatening, oh yes, severe weather warning! 🤪 The path on the right supposedly led out of the valley, in a direction I didn't want to go. The middle path turned into a trail that became too narrow even for a quad and had gradients that required four-wheel drive!

So I thought to myself, go left, and drove on with Frankie for another 2 km, now already in 1st gear. 🤓

It won't get any worse, was my inner attitude! 🙏

But I was way off! "God has a sense of humour and one hell of a left hook!" immediately came to mind when I found myself in a dry riverbed and it started to rain. There was only one way and it led back up into the mountains. 🙄

Turn around? On this terrain? Absolutely not, because the path I've driven down to get here, I won't be able to get back up with Frankie! So after 5 attempts, with skidding, brake failure, engine cutting out (it really couldn't manage it) and wing mirrors folded in, back to the riverbed in reverse. Got out the folding shovel, put on proper footwear and gloves and spent an hour and a half preparing the path so that Frankie and I managed it on the 6th attempt.

But that was only the beginning! 🫣

To the left, the sheer drop of the mountain massif with an approximately 25m high cliff face, and to the right the gorge where the riverbed I had just crossed lay, only barely 40m lower. Width of the "road": 2.40m!!! Full of rubble and huge boulders (the lightest weighed a few kilos more than me) and washed-out tracks sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right. Oh yeah...and rain! 🤮 Took me three and a half hours for barely 2 km, as every 250m I had to clear away either a boulder or rubble or both. "Building up" the track was constantly necessary anyway. I was so totally wiped out, knackered, exhausted, done for, finished, ...take your pick...🤣

The night around Frankie and me was then also pretty intense, even though we were standing in the "shadow" of the mountain massif.

Did it rain, lightning, thunder, storm,...and the morning training ground gives you an idea of what the weather situation is like here...

So I thought to myself, why don't you just go have a look at the reservoir...and forget the "bristly" nature of yesterday's tour...
Footwear was still "crappy" anyway 🤣

And I was rewarded 🙏...and I mean really rewarded 😍...but see for yourselves ❤️...maybe there'll be another little voice message about yesterday's excursion to connect some of the pictures with my impressions...

And yes, I was happy when I was back with Frankie, because the storm here has gusts of 80-90km/h and that's exhausting when you're stuck on an ascent.

Did I actually mention that it kept raining on and off in between? 🤣👍🙄