FATBOYSCC

Months of dreaming, researching, purchasing, discussing, arguing, pfaffing, practicing and more pfaffing resulted in our first Fatpacking weekend.  Our odd couple Matt and Mark used gravel bikes to carry super light camping kit; riding a 110 km route from Meadows to Deep Creek’s Tapanappa Campground.

Aspiring Fatpackers Bob and Rob escorted them part of the way before returning home to a warm beds and hot meals.  Smart.

Karen and I elected to take the heavy touring bikes and loaded up with a few luxury items, cunningly leaving from Willunga to ride only 75 km on the same route with the intention of arriving in the same camp at roughly the same time.

Matt’s route was fantastic but pretty tough, ‘specially for us on the heavy rigs.  Great dirt roads and tracks with very little bitumen.  We rode up the 22% bits but had to push the bikes up the 25% sections!  The scenery was wonderful and we hardly noticed the strong headwind that blew all day.  We had a bit of fun working out where a missing road had gone, and we all ended up riding through long grass in farmer’s paddock, lifting the rigs over fences and locked gates.  Matt was right though, the road was supposed to be there!

We arrived in camp just after the Cool Fast Fat Kids and set up our kit.  We might have suffered a little pushing the heavy rigs, but M&M started to look a bit envious as we relaxed in our chairs with backs and cooked our big meal with lots of meat and veggies.  M&M sat on the soggy ground and ate something dehydrated that might have had a chicken ‘taste’, but no chicken.  Karen cruelly cooked fresh custard to have with our fruit desert – while the Cool Fast Fat Kids stood nearby and drooled.  We’d all carried a bit of grog that warmed us up, then hit the sack early.

The morning saw M&M cooking dehydrated chicken curry ‘tasting’ cuscus, while we ate fruit and cereal with cream, washed down with fresh espresso with warm milk.  Matt will never leave the food to Mark ever, ever again!

The wind assisted us on the way home but it was a long day retracing the same route.  The weather was kind and although hard work, we enjoyed every km.

Quite a few of the Lard have shown a bit of interest in joining us on the next run; also likely to have options for distance, speed and weight.  The more the merrier!

Thanks to M&M for organising a great weekend and starting up another set of adventures.